Plan for Vt. Windmills Causes International Furor

[cali]

By WILSON RING Associated Press
STANSTEAD, Quebec May 17, 2012 (AP)

The winds blowing through Canada's broad St. Lawrence Valley and across Vermont's hilltops are stirring up an international tempest over which country's laws should govern how those breezes are harnessed for electricity.

Some residents of the Quebec town of Stanstead are upset about plans in Vermont to erect just south of the border two industrial-size wind turbines — one of which would be about 1,000 feet from a few Canadian and Vermont homes.

Quebec requires wind turbines to be at least 1,640 feet from homes, and the Canadian homeowners are demanding those rules be followed. But in Vermont, the allowable distance is determined by the sound of the spinning blades, and the project's developer says the turbines would meet those requirements.

The plan has yet to win approval from Vermont regulators. But the dispute has gotten so rancorous that the mayor of Stanstead threatened to cut off water to some homes on the American side. The issue has even come up on the floor of Canada's Parliament.

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http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/plan-vt-windmills-international-furor-16365578#.T7TYWFJ9Z_Y

[ejpoeta]

1. can't they move the turbines 2000 feet away from the homes?

I mean, I don't blame the people who live there. It's good that vermont wants to put them up, but I think they should try to accomodate the people on the other side of the border.

[cali]

2. It sucks that anyone is trying to put them up there. I know that place intimately

I used to live there.