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Wind Power News: Vermont
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Campbell is wrong
To the Editor: Rep. Scott Campbell misses the point in his response to criticism of the Legislature’s climate policies [“Climate Costs”, June 20, 2024]. Yes, public policy at the federal level has been heavily influenced by the fossil fuel industry (and the same can be said for Big Pharma, weapons manufacturers, Wall Street, and other powerful corporate and financial interests). These industries have a limited presence in Vermont and therefore exert less influence here. But what Vermont does have today . . . Complete story »
House committees ignore billion-dollar cost of Renewable Energy Standard – what is going on?
An open letter to Chairs Amy Sheldon and Emelie Kornheiser and members of the House Environment and Energy and House Ways and Means Committees – I write with a heavy heart and honestly in a state of shock because of the lack of due diligence and scrutiny happening around the cost impacts to Vermonters with the current version of H.289, the Renewable Energy Standard (RES). As you know, this bill requires 100% of electricity sold by Vermont utilities to be . . . Complete story »
Pro–wind energy lawyer decries NIMBYs, backs Senate bill; Ridgeline wind opponent Annette Smith says bill threatens fundamental rights
Vermont’s renewable power industry is promoting a Senate bill, now under committee review, that would weaken local communities’ say during the state approval process for renewable power projects. S.236 would “limit adjoining landowner participation in 30 V.S.A. § 248 [Public Utilities Commission energy project licensing] cases to public health and safety and traffic and to remove the aesthetics criteria.” The PUC is the state’s ‘energy court,’ resolving all questions dealing with energy projects, including licensing. State law currently requires that . . . Complete story »
Energy industry bill disenfranchises Vermonters
A new bill, S.236, is under consideration by the Senate Finance committee. This bill will make it more difficult for the public – including adjoining landowners – to object to new industrial-scale renewable energy projects. As a lifelong environmental advocate, I oppose this legislation on many grounds, not least of which is the fact that it disenfranchises ordinary Vermonters trying to protect the environment from industrial development. It is the very definition of tyrannical, top-down government limiting the rights of . . . Complete story »
Town rebuffs wind turbine developer
Residents of the Bennington County town of Stamford fought back against an aggressive, well funded-wind tower proposal and won on December 7, when the developer announced it had dropped the project. “Today, Norwich Solar, manager of the Stamford Main Renewables wind turbine proposal, announced the application to the Vermont Public Utility Commission will not move forward,” a statement said. It’s rarely possible to know the ultimate reason why a company drops a project. What’s clear is that the Town of . . . Complete story »
Wind power developers abandon proposed Stamford project
A developer has withdrawn plans to build the first utility-scale wind project in Vermont since 2017. Norwich Solar announced last week that its plan for a single 500-foot-high wind turbine in Stamford will not move forward. The renewable energy company was preparing to ask the Public Utility Commission for permission to build the 2.2-megawatt turbine on a hillside along Route 8. The turbine would have generated enough power for about 925 homes and would have been the tallest structure of . . . Complete story »
Developer decides not to submit application for Stamford wind project
A developer considering a 2.2-megawatt wind power project in Stamford has announced it won’t continue in the permitting process before the Vermont Public Utility Commission. Norwich Technologies, manager of the Stamford Main Renewables wind turbine proposal, said in a media release, “To date, the project has had to delay its [permit application] filing multiple times due to the project being fed by a line from outside of Vermont with a utility that is not under Vermont rules. These delays have . . . Complete story »
Green Mountain Club seeks wind project viewshed study for proposed Stamford site
The Green Mountain Club is requesting a study of visual impacts a proposed 500-foot wind generating turbine on a site in Stamford would have from the Long Trail/Appalachian Trail corridor. In a letter sent to the state Public Utility Commission about the proposed 2.2-megawatt facility planned by Norwich Solar Technologies, the club, which maintains the Long Trail, requested “a viewshed assessment of the proposed turbine from the trail treadway … so that the visual impact of this proposal can be . . . Complete story »
Green energy movement hijacked by the ‘eco-industrial complex’
“We must take control of our environmental movement and our future from billionaires and their permanent war on Planet Earth. They are not our friends.” —Jeff Gibbs, filmmaker, Planet of the Humans Jeff Gibbs drove all the way from his home in Michigan to share his documentary – Planet of the Humans – at the Essex Cinemas in Vermont last week. What began as a quest to save the planet and shed light on the widespread environmental damage happening at . . . Complete story »
Pay attention to corporate climate profiteering
Up to now criticism of the Clean Heat Standard bill (S.5) has focused on its intended result of driving up prices of heating oil, propane, kerosene and natural gas somewhere from seventy cents to four dollars a gallon, in order to finance $2 billion worth of subsidies to people to quit using those fuels and install “cold climate heat pumps”, “advanced wood heat”, and home weatherization. The bill is built upon a complex “credit” system managed by the unaccountable Public . . . Complete story »
