Climate bill foists unpopular decisions onto council
There is one other way in which the global warming debate in Vermont is peculiar, and this is a residue of the years of bitter battles over wind power. Those battles created a rift among...
View ArticleAt first debate, Zuckerman and Scott clash on climate, social issues
Scott, a longtime opponent of industrial wind projects, attempted to put Zuckerman on the defensive, asking whether he supported "the destruction of our ridgelines." Arguing that round silos were once...
View ArticleUSDA awards $131,250 to Vermont wind energy group
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded $131,250 in grant funding to Green Power Farms under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). The investment will be used to purchase...
View ArticleOpinion: Renewable power carbon tax looms in guvs’ decarbonization request
Yesterday, five of six New England governors – including Gov. Phil Scott – called for a “decarbonized grid” for New England electricity transmission. Ratepayers will soon know if they want a regional...
View ArticleMills joins push for region’s electric grid operations to reflect state...
Gov. Janet Mills has joined four other New England governors to press the operator of the region’s electric grid to do more to accommodate a future in which most people will be encouraged to heat their...
View ArticleLook ahead, Vermont: Global Warming Solutions Act takes first steps as...
A dairy farmer from Whitingham and a municipal planner from Newfane are among the Vermonters being asked to formulate climate change and climate resilience policy for the state. Abbie Corse, a...
View ArticleTransmission grid bottlenecks in Northeast Kingdom stall solar development
State officials are working to address a problem involving the physics of electricity, the surge in solar development and a local transmission grid that is seriously strained. Audio for this story will...
View ArticleLegislator admits GWSA will have no impact on climate change
Responding to an email inquiry from a concerned citizen about the real impact – and cost – of the Global Warming Solutions Act, passed last spring over the veto of Governor Phil Scott (R),...
View ArticleSubsidies a bone of contention as renewable energy producers seek federal ruling
Supporters of expanding renewable energy are headed for a showdown with New England’s energy market operator at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over an arcane rule that could have major...
View ArticleAs wind industry goes big, this New England startup looks to shrink turbines
Skyscraper-high blades are increasingly standard on wind farms, but Pecos Wind Power thinks its small, distributed turbines will be a better fit in Vermont. Vermont has had a contentious relationship...
View ArticleConservationists angle for 2nd look at Lowell wind project, using the permit...
Conservation groups want to clamp more restrictions on the state’s largest commercial wind farm and think that could happen through a state permit review. Green Mountain Power wants to re-up the...
View ArticleHearing sought on Lowell wind draft stormwater permit
LOWELL – Two conservation groups want an independent inspector to oversee stormwater discharge controls for the Lowell Wind Project. The 21 Kingdom Community Wind turbines went up in late 2012, to...
View ArticleDanville School to remove wind turbine, purchase solar
Danville School’s 90-foot-tall wind turbine, noticeable for miles around for the past 20 years, will soon be removed. Dave Schilling, Danville Middle and High School principal, said in an email that he...
View ArticleBright green lies
When I was a child, I fell in love with Nature. I explored and knew intimately the wild lands near my home – places full of enchantment, wonder, and a multitude of living beings. So it was with an...
View ArticleQuestions on permit violations raised at Lowell wind project hearing
Environmental groups have questioned whether the state’s largest commercial wind farm is skirting permit rules. The issue came up during a hearing this month and led to calls for independent monitoring...
View ArticleNew England solar developer’s legal wrangling draws praise, criticism
Thomas Melone is president of a Connecticut solar company. He is also a lawyer. And between the two, observers say, he is something of an enigma. As head of Allco Renewable Energy, Melone says his...
View ArticleCommunity raises concerns about proposed wind power project in Castleton
A new wind turbine proposed for Grandpa’s Knob in Castleton is giving some people deja vu. In 2012, Castleton and surrounding towns dealt with a proposal for 20 turbines along the ridgeline there. Back...
View ArticleSingle turbine proposed for Grandpa’s Knob
CASTLETON – A wind developer wants to put a single turbine atop Grandpa’s Knob and share the profits with surrounding towns that might be affected. Sam Carlson, speaking on behalf of David...
View ArticlePublic tells off wind developer at meeting
PITTSFORD – A proposal to build a single wind turbine atop Grandpa’s Knob to honor a historical figure in the wind industry was met with strong opposition by people in the community at a Select Board...
View ArticlePittsford wrangles over wind project
PITTSFORD – A proposal to place a single wind turbine on Grandpa’s Knob, a prominent 1,600-foot summit in the Taconic Range in West Rutland, was met with 90 minutes of public outcry at Pittsford’s...
View ArticleGrandpa’s Knob wind developers say project is worth exemption to town plans
PROCTOR – The developers behind the Grandpa’s Knob Community Wind project believe their proposal is special enough to warrant an exemption to the five town plans, and regional plan, that go against it....
View ArticleProctor gives cool shoulder to turbine on Grandpa’s Knob
PROCTOR – A half dozen Proctor residents spoke out against a renewable energy project slated for Grandpa’s Knob that would seek to place a single 450-foot-tall wind turbine on the ridgeline there. Sam...
View ArticleGrandpa’s Knob wind project visible from Rutland Town, developer to talk with...
RUTLAND TOWN – A small portion of a controversial wind project proposed for Grandpa’s Knob in Castleton will be visible from part of Rutland Town, according to the developer’s latest simulations. The...
View ArticleProctor opposes wind project
PROCTOR – While it’s not clear how much, if at all, the project would be visible from town, the Select Board decided to formally oppose the Grandpa’s Knob Community Wind project. The single-turbine...
View ArticlePittsford tables decision on Grandpa’s Knob project
PITTSFORD – While no one on the Select Board appears to be in favor of the wind project proposed for Grandpa’s Knob in Castleton, the board is split over when it should express its disapproval. At the...
View ArticleWind developer questioned by Rutland Town planners
Rutland Town Planning Commissioners want to know what the Grandpa’s Knob Community Wind Project will look like at night, how it will sound and what its true visual impacts will be. Sam Carlson, a...
View ArticleUpgrades to Lowell substation, two transmission lines, costs increase $5...
MONTPELIER – Upgrades to the Lowell Substation and some 18.1 miles of the B20 transmission line from Johnson to Lowell, as well as upgrades to 1.5 miles of the B22 line in the towns of Eden, Johnson,...
View ArticleWind developers invite boards to visit Grandpa’s Knob site
CASTLETON – Town officials have been invited to tour the site of a proposed single-turbine wind project to be built on Grandpa’s Knob. The Grandpa’s Knob Community Wind Project first came into the...
View ArticleForked tongue
Sam Carlson, representative for David Blittersdorf’s proposed large industrial turbine on Grandpa’s Knob, says in Wednesday’s Herald that the mountain site for this machine is environmentally extremely...
View ArticleFederal regulators uphold controversial grid proposal that could slow clean...
Despite months of protests by clean energy activists and official pleas from public figures including Elizabeth Warren, federal regulators approved a plan by the region’s energy grid operator that...
View ArticleBlittersdorf focus
So, I see David Blittersdorf wants to erect a monument to Palmer Putnam for having raised a wind turbine here in Vermont sometime in the 1940s.These things might have been a good idea back when Palmer...
View ArticleElectricity grid operator expecting more demand and renewables in New England
New England’s electricity grid is in for major changes, according to a yearly report from ISO New England, the organization that manages the region’s grid. The report says decarbonization will become...
View ArticleResponsibly-sited wind projects?
Renewable Energy Vermont (REV) is promoting more wind energy to be built in Vermont. They are calling for “responsibly-sited wind projects.” What does that mean? When residents of Morgan learned that...
View ArticleReserve margin may need to rise to 300% by 2040 as more renewables added to...
“This scenario would require such a large amount of wind and solar that it may present significant challenges [to] the transmission system and require an outsized amount of land or offshore areas to be...
View ArticleGrandpa’s Knob wind project not moving forward
Castleton – A controversial wind project will not go forward, according to an email from the developer to the Select Board, sent Monday. “After careful consideration we will not be moving forward with...
View ArticleFirm considering wind generating project in Stamford
An alternative energy developer is considering a 2.2 megawatt wind turbine project in Stamford. Norwich Solar Technologies would construct the facility if the firm’s yet-to-be submitted permit...
View ArticleWhen wind turbines caused sleep deprivation, key lawmakers sided with Big Wind
Editor’s note: This is Part Two of a critique of Vermont’s government-renewable power industry complex written by Monique Thurston, a retired Addison County physician. She has been on the ground floor...
View ArticleWhat I learned at REV
Much of the conversation focused on loosening the noise rules, with the participants citing them as the biggest issue to wind development in Vermont.
View ArticleDeerfield black bear wind turbine study ongoing
Vermont wildlife officials are sifting through a decade’s worth of data to learn more about the impacts of wind turbine development on black bears. The state commissioned a study on black bears and the...
View ArticleUpgrades planned to major Franklin County power line
The company that operates Vermont’s electric transmission system plans to replace a key power line in Franklin County over the next several years, saying the project will increase the state’s capacity...
View ArticleClimate is less an energy problem than an ecological problem
As an environmental journalist, I am watching the Shaftsbury Solar discussion with great interest. One concern is that the discussion is often framed as people who care about climate change (those...
View ArticlePay 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...
View ArticleGreen 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...
View ArticleGreen 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...
View ArticleDeveloper 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,...
View ArticleWind 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...
View ArticleTown 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....
View ArticleEnergy 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...
View ArticlePro–wind energy lawyer decries NIMBYs, backs Senate bill; Ridgeline wind...
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...
View ArticleHouse committees ignore billion-dollar cost of Renewable Energy Standard –...
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...
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