The state of Vermont this week handed out about $1.3 million for various renewable energy projects. That money is coming mostly from Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, which promised to fund some renewable energy initiatives in exchange for getting permission to store its nuclear waste in concrete "dry casks."
About $500,000 is going for small-scale solar installations for homes and farms. Another $485,000 is going toward upgrading power lines so that more methane digesters on dairy farms can be hooked up to the power grid. The rest is paying for energy efficiency projects.
Conspicuously absent from the list of funded projects was wind energy. While the Douglas administration doesn't mind wind turbines as long as they are small and not on a mountain top, it is actively discouraging the development of wind power on a commercial scale.
The Public Service Board on Monday rejected a proposed six-megawatt wind project in East Haven, in the Northeast Kingdom. By all appearances, this project should have been
approved. It was proposed for an abandoned Air Force radar base, so the land was already developed. The four 329-foot turbines would have been in a isolated site and would have had little impact on the recreational use of the surrounding land.
In other words, this was a perfect spot to put the turbines. But the Public Service Board thought otherwise, fearing the big spinning blades would harm birds and bats.
The developers of the East Haven project are still reviewing the decision and haven't decided it they will appeal it to the Vermont Supreme Court. But it is clear to others contemplating wind projects in Vermont that if you can't build turbines on an isolated, previously developed ridgeline site in the middle of nowhere, there is no place in Vermont where you can build them.
The day after the Public Service Board ruling, a group of residents from Sheffield and Sutton took a tour of the Searsburg wind farm. Granted, the Searsburg turbines are half the size of what's being proposed in Sheffield and Sutton. But the residents came away from their visit wondering what all the fuss is about.
We share their view. Wind has the potential to provide a significant portion of Vermont's energy needs. Combined with other renewable energy sources such as solar, hydro and biomass, plus aggressive energy efficiency initiatives, Vermont can make up most if not all of the energy that Vermont Yankee currently generates.
We think the PSB's worries about birds and bats are misplaced. As global warming and climate change becomes more and more of a problem, every species on this planet -- not just the winged varieties -- will be affected.
What is more of a danger? A spinning turbine blade, or nuclear waste by the Connecticut River? What is more damaging to Vermont? A wind farm on a ridgeline, or the trees on that ridgeline dying off from acid rain and pollution generated by coal-fired power plants?
These are some of the questions that need to be considered in the wind energy debate. Unfortunately, they are questions that are not being taken seriously by the Douglas administration.
Vermont Yankee is committed to providing a secure energy future for VT. In association with the state VY gives significant funding to the Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund.
VY produces zero greenhouse gases or fossil fuel pollution. The facility helps ensure that the region's beautiful forests, rivers and lakes are not damaged by acid rain because Vermont Yankee reduces the need to build other pollution-causing power plants. A coal, gas or oil plant of comparable size would send millions of tons of fossil pollution into Vermont's air.
