Published on March 19, 2003

MONTPELIER — A plan to build a wind farm on the ridges of Essex County is generating confusion and second thoughts among legislators and state officials.

Promoted by alternative energy entrepreneur Matthew Rubin, the plan would place 50 wind towers on East Mountain, the site of the former radar base in East Haven, and on the adjacent ridges above 2,700 feet that belong to the newly formed Essex Timber Company.

It’s a big project. One that amounts to $100-million in capital investment and one that would significantly increase the tax base of some of the smallest towns in the Northeast Kingdom. Each generator would be capable of producing 1.5 megawatts of power, yielding a total of 75 megawatts. That would make it the biggest wind farm in New England, generating roughly four times the power produced by the wood chip plant in Ryegate.

When up and running, it would produce between 3.5 and 4 percent of Vermont’s electric power. Renewable, pollution-free, cheap power.

“It would be the least expensive source of electric power in New England,” says Mr. Rubin.

So, where’s the rub?

Remember the great Champion lands deal, whose easements among state agencies and private, nonprofit environmental organizations so bewildered and infuriated sportsmen and other traditional users of the land? Now it’s the businessman’s turn.

Essex Timber Company, whose headquarters is in Ipswich, Massachusetts, is the owner of 84,000 acres of the former Champion lands that remained in private hands. The company acquired the land for about half its fair market value because of two easements imposed on the entire tract. One is a recreational easement held jointly by the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) and the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. The other, a working forest easement, is again held jointly, by VHCB and the Vermont Land Trust.

The problem for Mr. Rubin is that no language in the easements speaks to erecting wind towers on the land. Presently, there is a resolution floating around the Legislature that would embrace the project.

“Not a bill, just a resolution,” says Mr. Rubin, who owns three hydroelectric plants that produce about 1 percent of the state’s power.

He believes building a wind farm on the property constitutes a change of use that needs to be included in the easement. To that end, he wants approval from the Legislature.

But lawmakers, along with Essex Timber’s partners, appear to be gun-shy.

“Everyone’s hoping that someone else will go first,” says Paul Hannan, who serves as director of conservation for VHCB.

VHCB may be the key player in the deal. Not only does it hold a share in each easement on the land, but it is also a public agency that is funded by the Legislature.

“We feel the Legislature ought to consider it,” says Mr. Rubin, in light of VHCB’s public status. Besides, he adds, building a wind farm on Essex Timber’s ridges would enhance public access and recreation — uses protected by the easement held by VHCB.

Canaan Representative Bill Johnson is firmly behind the plan.

“I totally support the placing of wind towers on private land, which Essex Timber is,” he says.

In fact, the three-term Republican doesn’t see any need for the Legislature to get involved. “That’s an issue between Essex Timber and its partners,” he says.

No one believes the deal can escape the ghost of Champion. Representative Johnson says the Champion deal has people looking over their shoulders.

“The Champion deal has been put under a microscope,” he says. “Under any other conditions, this question would never have been raised.”

Champion, he says, is a lightning rod. If the turbines were going on to a piece of land encumbered with a public access easement somewhere else, there would be no issue, he says.

On the other hand, Mr. Rubin thinks he can make the conflicting opinions over Champion work in the plan’s favor.

“The memory of Champion is fresh, so there is an opportunity to provide benefits for anyone concerned,” he says.

The most important benefit is money. The East Haven Windfarm project would pay out an annual lease payment of $1-million. The money would be welcome revenue for Essex Timber, which is bound by the terms of a sustainable forest easement to wait 40 years before beginning the logging phase of its management plan.

The other stakeholders would also benefit. Their share from a leasing arrangement, says Mr. Rubin, could be used to maintain roads and trails and increase public access. If the plan goes through, the Montpelier entrepreneur says, he would open up the 450 acres of land he owns around East Mountain for public use.

But enhanced public access might not be a strong enough selling point. Presently, the Agency of Natural Resources is wrestling with the question of whether wind towers should be allowed on public lands. It’s a time-consuming process that, when finished, will set policy for the state.

Although Representative Johnson makes a distinction between public and private land uses, it is still unclear where the line should be drawn in cases where a public agency holds an easement on private land. VHCB is waiting.

“We want to be deliberative, too,” says Mr. Hannan. “What does it mean for other lands where we hold easements?”

Politically, for a lawmaker like Senator Jim Greenwood of Orleans, there is also the backyard issue that inflamed much of the Champion debate: the perception that people outside the Northeast Kingdom want to use it for their own ends.

He says one of the questions he asked about the plan when he met Mr. Rubin was: “Why wouldn’t he build them on Lake Champlain where they would get the wind?”

The senator believes Mr. Rubin is “looking up here because there isn’t anybody opposing it.”

Mr. Greenwood knows about the resolution, but so far hasn’t read it.

Like Mr. Hannan, Senator Greenwood says he likes the idea of producing electricity with wind turbines. But he thinks there can be too much of a good thing.

“How many do we want?” he says. “Do we want our ridge lines dotted with towers?”

And then there’s the question of whether the turbines would produce what he calls "market price power."

Reluctantly, he says he wouldn’t oppose a resolution if East Haven says its wants the wind farm.

The plan’s projections call for construction to begin as early as 2005. The turbines could be up and running by 2007.

“Two years ago it became clear to me that wind turbines had come of age,” says Mr. Rubin. “They’re the fastest growing energy producing source in the world.”