Could Industrial Wind Ruin Vermont? [View all]

[cali]

Maybe not, but it sure is wreaking havoc on the Kingdom. That's the Northeast Kingdom, an area so beautiful it's hard for me to describe. The first time I came here I felt I was entering another world. Every vista seemed.... magical. It was nothing like the Southern Vermont ski towns I was familiar with. I moved here 30 years ago, about 5 years after I first laid eyes on the place. It's draw was so powerful it was almost tidal.

So yes, I harbor a passion for place.

Here's a bit about the Kingdom:

The Northeast Kingdom has been listed in the North American and international editions of "1,000 Places to See Before You Die", the New York Times best-selling book by Patricia Schultz. In 2006, the National Geographic Society named the Northeast Kingdom as the most desirable place to visit in the country and the ninth most desirable place to visit in the world.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Kingdom


It's historically a poor place. And most of the Kingdom doesn't fit the Vermont stereotype of a beautifully manicured town green surrounded by gracious old houses and white church steeples- though we have our share of those. It's often a ramshackle place. A place of dairy farms and a hotbed of sustainable forward looking agriculture. There is tourism here- more and more over the last couple of decades, and it's a good kind of tourism. Lots of geotourism. What some say is the best mountain biking trail network in North America is here:

http://www.kingdomtrails.com/

"Kingdom Trails (East Burke, VT)
Simply put, heaven. By acclaim the best place for mountain bikers of every stripe: Half of the system’s 100-plus miles are wide, easy double-track (including VAST and River Run), and all trails are marked for difficulty. kingdomtrails.org

http://blogs.yankeemagazine.com/best-of-new-england/best-mountain-bike-trails/

And now industrial wind has come and is destroying the ridges. In a tiny little village called Lowell, on Lowell Mountain, they're putting up 21 400 foot tall turbines. And they're destroying the ridge line and portions of the mountain itself.

http://www.facebook.com/Savethelowellmountainsnow

It's not just Lowell. It's already happened in Sheffield, another little Kingdom town where First Wind out of MA installed these huge turbines. They're pushing like hell in other tiny villages. Although they're meeting with a lot of resistance, industrial wind is winning. Our Congressman, who in most ways is damned good has sided with industrial wind. So has our guv. And Bernie hasn't been great about it either:

http://lowellmountainsnews.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/mountain-supporters-meet-shumlin-and-sanders-2/

Here are some ariel photos taken a few days ago by Steve Wright, a longtime environmental educator:

http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2012/05/wind-opponent-gets-birds-eye-view-of-lowell-development.html

Here's an opinion piece written by a republican state senator from the Kingdom:

Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Sen. Joe Benning, a Republican from Lyndonville.

Recently I hiked up to the top of Lowell Ridge to see where 21 400-foot wind towers will be placed. As I crested the mountain, I came face to face with an energy policy that is at war with itself. The environmental destruction taking place there pits those seeking to reverse climate change against those who wish to preserve Vermont’s pristine natural resources. While that battle rages, the economic cost to Vermont has been pushed aside as irrelevant.

Our new energy policy calls for a 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. Targeting our entire energy spectrum (including transportation), it relies on instate renewables to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. At the same time we’re eliminating Hydro-Quebec, nuclear power, fracked natural gas and less efficient biomass electricity as acceptable “renewables.” Industrial wind, currently the darling of the present administration, has become the power that now drives our legislative policy.

What price are we willing to pay for this new policy? Vermont currently does a better job than most states at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, so self-imposed mandates are not even necessary. And to those who believe Vermont will “lead the way” in reversing climate change, any hope that Vermont alone can cause a worldwide domino effect to achieve this lofty goal should be carefully balanced against the very real environmental destruction taking place right now in the cherished natural solitude of the Northeast Kingdom.

And more wind farms are coming as corporate investors, motivated by tax incentives and artificially inflated electric rates, seduce small towns with infusions of cash. Since wind is intermittent and has no storage capacity, our policy alone will require more wind farms and many miles of transmission lines to achieve our energy goal. If regulatory authorities fall short insisting on decommissioning plans, our ridge lines will end up littered with 30-story rusting hulks when this technology becomes obsolete. These new wind farms are encroaching on our wildlife corridors, destroying pristine mountain environments and radically changing the aesthetics of our state. They pit citizens of towns against each other, and towns against towns in a given region.

<snip>

http://vtdigger.org/2012/04/26/benning-a-change-in-the-wind/

If it was just one of these industrial wind farms, I could live with it, but it's not.
http://www.aweo.org/windprojects.php

It just makes me feel ill- and so sad.


Just because I've posted this long thing, I want to add that one of the reasons I love this place so much is it's so quirky. Some of my favorite Kingdom places:
The Dog Chapel- Welcome all Creeds, all Breeds. No Dogma allowed
http://www.dogmt.com/local-area/dog-chapel.html
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+dog+chapel&hl=en&prmd=imvns&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1280&bih=547&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=WCKnT7ymM8fXgQfkxuHRBg

Bread and Puppet Museum

Tucked away inside a decrepit old barn in the tiny hamlet of Glover, Vermont is a little-known, but none-the-less astonishing attraction. It's called the Bread & Puppet Museum, and there is nothing on the outside of this weathered edifice to prepare visitors for what they will see inside: perhaps the largest collection of some of the biggest puppets in the world.

Founded in 1975, the massive contents of the museum are the result of 40 years of creativity and hard work inspired by essentially one man - sculptor and choreographer Peter Schumann, who began the Bread & Puppet Theater in New York City's Lower East Side in the 1960's. Until recently, the theater had performed tightly composed theater pieces presented by members of the company, as well as massive outdoor spectacles with hundreds of volunteer participants, all over the world. Production themes started out with small puppets enacting standard NYC concerns about such things as rats, police and problems with the neighborhood. But over time, they started to address broad social, political and environmental issues, and the puppets began getting bigger and bigger. Inspiration sprang from the poverty of the poor, the arrogance of war mongers, and the despair of the victims.

<snip>

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Bread--Puppet-Museum-by-Bill-Cain-101229-572.html

A major Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Center
http://www.karmecholing.org/index.php


The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum
http://www.stjathenaeum.org/VLB-hudson-river/hudson-river.htm