Oh, we have a few pro-wind people in the state and even a wind farm in Searsburg. The WPV (Wind Power of Vermont) even sponcered bus trips to Searsburg. Just about the only folks that would go were pro-winders. And then we have the political naysayers namely 'Save the Vermont Ridges' that put up this big clamer that wind farms will ruin our scenic landscapes and they do a very good job of it. I got one of ther fliers in the mail one time. They make thier point very convincing with all the fancy buzzz words and if you don't know anything about wind or wind power they make the whole thing sound absolutely diabolical. However anyone knowing even something about wind and it's energy can planly see their flyer has absolutly no data in it and is nothing but a bunch of BS. BUT IT SOUNDS GOOD!!!!
The guy in East Haven has been through court hearing after court hearing and has completed study after study and it's only for a small wind farm of four turbines, he was quoted in the paper as saying 'those four turbine would kill as many birds as four cats' and according to him a small project is excempt from a 'bird and bat study' that seems to include some very expencive radar study. He at one point even offered to turn the whole mountain (except the top where the old radar base is) into a public recreational area FREE, he has just decided to give up and frankly I don't blame him at all. I can't imagine how much money he has spent so-far and he will not say, but it has to have been somewhere in the seven figure range. His biggest problem is that the next mountain over is Burke Mountain Ski Area and guess what, they don't want their skiers to have to look at a 'unsightly' wind farm, that's the PROBLEM, and the folks that own that have very, very biggggg pockets. There was a rumor going around for awhile that they even offered to buy East Haven Mountain from him, he refused and now the 'bird and bat study' comes up. Doesn't take to much imagination to figure out who got that going, now does it?
Same thing applies at the Sheffield/Sutton site, a very high priced boarding school (that used to be a magnificent 3500+ acre dairy farm and maple surup producer mind you) claims that it would have to close because the visual, and audible impact of the turbines would have a detramental scicological effect on it's students, what a bunch of horse &^%&, but it worked if I remember correctly, of the folks that showed up for the meeting the vote was something like 230 something to 27 against the project. And pretty much everyone there new I have a wind turbine in my back yard(it's a very small town). Well here is just an example of how rediculus this is. It took over a year of permits and planning to get permission to erect two 'antenna' towers (I'm not sure of the height) say less than 100 feet with wind measuring devices on them. You have to strain your eyes just to see them. Now just to be fair to some, the project preposers come along (and shoot themselves in the foot) with a plan to install 18 turbines close to 500 feet high with 200 and something foot blades (I don't remember the exact dimentions right now, but even in my imagination they were huge) I do think it was a bit of overkill and they managed to scare the hell out of everybody. The turbines in Searsburg are half that size.
Well this sub-rant has gone on long enough I just hope I can put together a tower and get my 3HP Baldor conversion up before they won't let me do it. I don't even think I could get it to turn with a 1 meter. :-)
Wildbill
