Lawyers submitted the application for a certificate of public good, a package of expert testimony and proof they’d paid a $100,000 filing fee to the state Public Service Board on behalf of Travis and Ashley Belisle, a local couple seeking to build the turbines on their property.
As part of the application, the couple made a new offer designed to appease critics. They said they would give a post-construction buyout option for neighbors within 3,000 feet of the turbines who are unhappy with the project.
“Swanton Wind is confident that if a neighbor wants to sell, Swanton Wind will be able to resell quickly any property purchased under the program,” the couple said in a news release.
The Belisles estimate that the project, if approved, would supply enough power to serve about 7,350 Vermont homes.
The Belisles are offering to contribute $150,000 a year to the town of Swanton in return for hosting the project, which they noted was enough to cover the town’s police or library budget.
The application comes after months of preparation and controversy within the community. This step launches what is typically a lengthy and contested Public Service Board process to determine if the project is in the state’s overall public good.
The Belisles’ application provides expert testimony contending the project will not have any adverse impact on public health, safety, wildlife or the environment. Other testimony makes the case that no new electric transmission facilities would be needed to absorb power from the turbines onto the grid.
Neighbors are strenuously opposing the project, arguing that its construction will cause environmental damage and that the turbines pose a risk of causing noise and shadow-flicker disturbances. A year ago, the Swanton Selectboard penned a letter asking the Public Service Board to reject the project.
“We don’t see how this project fits in,” Mary Powell, Green Mountain Power’s CEO, told Seven Days last October. Swanton Wind is asking the Public Service Board to require utilities to buy the power under a rarely invoked federal law.
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Thirty pieces of silver to leave your home?
Anthony, you had better look into your heart; you’ve joined the dark side.
It will cost more than $100,000 for the public to participate in the PSB process. It will consume the lives of many people for more than a year. All of these costs are borne by the community, which has already been put through a year of anxiety and stress. This is all thanks to Governor Shumlin’s insane energy policies, supported by Shap Smith, Tony Klein, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations by David Blittersdorf and other special interests. Not one big wind turbine in Vermont is producing renewable energy for Vermont that will help meet the state’s energy goals. Did I mention this is insane?
The Town doesn’t want it, the neighbors don’t want it, Green Mountain Power doesn’t want it, Vermont Electric Cooperative doesn’t want it, and Burlington Electric doesn’t want it.
The applicant is stating false information on how much power it will produce, the negative environmental consequences, and the infrastructure required. And they even admit that they will need to provide a “buy-out” option to nearby residents who’s homes will become unlivable.
And with all this, it is proceeding forward. This is why the State’s energy policy towards Big Wind is so incredibly broken. As Annette said, it is insane. Many would add in the word “corrupt”.
Ahhh, more green-washing of humankind’s continuing exploitation of the natural environment that sustains us and the wildlife that surrounds us. Reading this story, all I can hear in my brain is the old Ojays song, For the Love of Money… There is nothing people won’t do for money it seems, always arriving at their own justifications for their greed and indifference to the concerns of their community members or the destructive impacts to wildlife communities. Arrowwood Environmental, consultant to this and near every other industrial wind project, is owned by people who I used to hold in the highest regard, but they apparently are hooked on the heroin known as the almighty dollar and will defend environmental destruction anywhere and everywhere. This is destruction, don’t be mislead, it is just destruction according to politically arrived at “standards”. Where projects don’t meet the standards, such as impacting regulated wetlands, well then these wonderful biologists at Arrowwood secure the exemptions from standards (aka a Conditional Use Determination or CUD). There was once a time when VT ANR rarely gave out CUDs for wetland distruction, but they are cranking them out now on a daily basis, again, allowing for environmental destruction outside of any standards. The words “NO” and request “DENIED” no longer are part of the ANR regulatory vocabulary. Ironically, this weakening of ANR did not happen under a Republican administration as many of us lefties used to believe would be the case, but under the Democratic Administration of Peter Shumlin. As a former ANR environmental regulator, I saw this same behavior under the Dean Administration, but the environmental community pushed back. Now it goes on unopposed by what were once our leading environmental organizations. So, so sad. The downward spiral continues. Time to listen to the Ojay’s …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXE_n2q08Y…
Thank you John Brabant for one of the most cogent analyses I have read yet. I would encourage you to write a letter to the editor to the Burlington Free Press.
It is indeed ironic that it is the Democrats who have led the assault on and destruction of Act 250. The assault on and destruction of zoning for natural resources protection and wildlife corridors. A 40 year bipartisan commitment to protect the ridge lines gone. Land that was zoned to remain permanent open space now covered with thousands of solar panels. Total exemptions for industrial energy.
Even the Legislature’s window-dressing siting reform was too much for Democrat Peter Shumlin, requiring his veto. Leaving an even more diluted “reform” that ensures Big Wind and Industrial Solar can continue to skirt the law and never face review under Act 250. Solely so campaign donors like Blittersdorf and Duane Peterson can continue to rape the land & profit from tax-subsidized crony capitalism. Shumlin, Shap Smith, Tony Klein, et. al, all Democrats, who would make Tom DeLay blush. It unfortunately appears Sue Mintner wants more of the same.
The so-called “environmental community” of VPIRG, VNRC, CLF, etc. all went along with this nonsense and showed their true colors. The last environmental organization in Vermont with any integrity is Vermont Land Trust.
Chris S., Vermonters for a Clean Environment is an environmental organization that has integrity. We have not sold out to anyone. Unfortunately VLT has sold out, they engaged in reprehensible activities regarding the GMP Lowell wind project (around that time Mary Powell was on the board, perhaps chair, though she might have gotten off by the time they filed). Chris Braithwaite documents the whole sorry story in his excellent book “Stand Against the Wind” and included is how the Nelsons were treated as neighbors where VLT’s role is detailed. I understand VLT is now engaged in rewriting easements that are at least in part to enable renewable energy. Here you go, the VLT/GMP/Nelson story http://vtdigger.org/2010/10/02/vermont-lan…
John and Chris, you both have it exactly right.
At the approval level, whether through ANR, the PSB, or even local review boards (which I have served on), the mindset is to approve everything and say “yes”. Rarely do the proper questions get asked, and virtually no projects are turned down. There is no verification of the applicant’s testimony, and no consequences when lies are presented under oath…which is nearly all the time. There’s almost a complete abdication of a board or panel’s responsibility.
And applicants know this. They go in to these meetings knowing they can present false information with impunity, and label those who ask questions or present true facts as simply “obstructionists” or “NIMBYs”. They often present wildly over-the-top projects, and then try and show they’ve “compromised” by doing inconsequential changes.
This works pretty much every time. Whether it’s ACT 250, State permits, or even local zoning, there is little to zero enforcement of the rules anymore.
(continued on next posting…)
In regards to the so-called environmental organizations, many have become self-perpetuating bureaucracies who cater to the development community, because they are dependent upon them for $$$$. VPIRG now acts as an arm of Big Wind. They call anyone who opposes anything a NIMBY, even if they live no where near a project. VNRC actively lobbied for the three 14-story towers as part of the Burlington Town Center project, which is way out of scale with the City. Why would VNRC even want to be involved with this?
Many would even be surprised about VLT. As of 2013, it had 49 employees, several earning over $100,000 annually. In 2014 it proposed and lobbied in favor of S119, which rescinded conservation easements so that building on permanently conserved properties could occur if an “established panel” voted to allow it. Even Howard Dean railed against this. It would be a slippery slope as these “panels” could become politicized and have no accountability, in a similar way the PSB functions today.
VLT also donated more than 1 million recently to develop the former Burlington College property, saying it would be preserving the bluffs and Lakeshore. But those areas could not be developed anyway due to both local zoning and the Shoreland Protection Act. Instead, it was more of a developer-bailout, and the applicant is building the densest project in the City (700+ units), on land that is highly erodible and many think should be a park instead. It also is not considered walkable to the downtown, and has no amenities nearby. Why would VLT support…and use its member funds…for this project?