Published on February 18, 2004

LYNDON CENTER — If East Haven Windfarm succeeds in putting four of its wind towers on East Mountain, it won’t be because nobody cared.

More than 100 people showed up last Thursday at a hearing on siting wind towers on private land.

The hearing was conducted by the House Natural Resources Committee, which is currently holding a bill that would put all proposed wind projects with towers taller that 200 feet before an Act 250 review.

The bill also would require developers to make arrangements to return the site to its native state if the towers did not work out, or failed.

The bill is being sponsored by several representatives from Caledonia and Orleans counties.

Much of the interest in the hearing centered on the East Mountain project now before the Public Service Board (PSB).

“A lot of people on my committee have not been exposed to the debate we’ve been having in the Northeast Kingdom,” noted Natural Resources Chairman Bill Johnson of Canaan in his introductory remarks.

So far, the debate on the East Mountain project has been heavily weighted against it for a wide range of reasons.

Usually, the most passionate critics have voiced the fear that the towers will mar the beauty and corrupt the character of a region known for its vast and rugged landscape.

“These Green Mountains help to define who we are as a people,” argued Will Staats, a wildlife biologist from Victory.

“The landscape is the reason why so many of us love this place,” said Tom DeCarlo of Kirby. “It’s why we built our homes here.”

Like many speakers throughout the evening, he urged lawmakers to come out with a bill that would slow down wind development on the state’s ridge lines.

“The sky is not falling; there is time,” he said.

Next month, the PSB is scheduled to start taking testimony on the project, proposed by East Haven Windfarm, a Montpelier company.

The company’s vice president, David Rapaport, said Tuesday that the regulatory process before the three-member board is similar to a trial, with both sides putting on evidence and conducting cross-examinations. Tentatively, the hearings are scheduled to start in the week of March 29.

Like the hearing last month in the East Haven town hall and the one Thursday in the cafeteria of Lyndon Institute, the PSB hearing is expected to be a crowded affair. Ten parties have gained intervening status, which means they will be able to furnish evidence and participate in cross-examination.

PSB Clerk Sue Hudson said Tuesday that the intervening parties include groups like Renewable Energy of Vermont, the Nature Conservancy, Fair Wind of Vermont, and the Kingdom Commons Group. The rest are individuals, she said.

It was individuals who did most of the speaking last Thursday night, February 12.

Some, like Charles Woods of Morgan, a biologist, argued that the studies financed by the developer to study the impact on wildlife are inadequate.

For example, he said there is a lack of studies on how wind turbines on ridge lines will interact with migratory birds.

The Bicknell thrush, he noted, is very site-specific about where it nests and where it winters. No one, he said, knows how they will fare if wind development comes to their ridge lines.

Others, like the well-known conservative from Kirby, John McClaughry, argued that the wind power in Vermont is a poor investment, existing mainly on government subsidies.

And some like Joan Harlowe of East Burke argued that industrial wind farms are over the top and out of scale with the state’s working landscape.

“Vermont has never sold out to the idea that bigger is better,” she said.

On the night of the hearing, developers put a blinking light on one of the former radar base structures that still stands on East Mountain. Although the building is only 120 feet tall, Mr. Rapaport said the idea was to demonstrate how visible the light will be when it is attached to a turbine as a warning light for aircraft.

Because of cloud cover, only people who looked for the light before the hearing actually saw it. Mr. Rapaport said they would try it again before testimony gets underway in front of the PSB.

There was more support for the project at last week’s hearing than surfaced at the one in East Haven.

Much of the backing was anchored in the belief that more reliance must be placed on alternative energy.

April Hudson told lawmakers that wind towers are much more attractive and far less dangerous than nuclear generating facilities.

A retired engineer from Kirby came close to scolding opponents of the project when he said they had to look beyond their self-interest.

“It’s selfish resistance to change that Vermont cannot afford to indulge in,” said Alan Robertson.

Attempts to change the rules of the game by inserting Act 250 into the regulatory process would only put wind developers at an unfair disadvantage, he said.

East Haven Selectman Ray Richard reminded the crowd that beauty can be something that evolves with time. After all, he recalled, he didn’t like looking at the lights and the ski trials that went in years ago on Burke Mountain. But now, he added, they have become familiar and acceptable “as I ride down the road in the morning.”

The House Natural Resources Committee will hold its second and final public hearing on siting wind farms on Wednesday, February 18, in Rutland.