By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau

MONTPELIER — In 1941, Vermont was at the forefront of the wind energy movement.

That's when the U.S. Department of Energy built a 1.25-megawatt turbine on Grandpa's Knob in Rutland County. The electricity generating facility, meant to secure local power in case Germans attacked the country's infrastructure, was the largest in the country.

But now, Vermont has only a single wind project considered to be of moderate size by U.S. standards — the 11 Searsburg turbines, built in 1996 and generating about 6 megawatts of electricity.

"Vermont is five years behind the rest of the country," said Jeff Wennberg, the public relations manager for Vermont Community Wind Farm, which has proposed building an 80-megawatt project on Mount Herrick in Rutland County. "Our largest wind facility was built 13 years ago."

Vermont's original large-scale turbine, the one on Grandpa's Knob, was plagued with problems that included a failed bearing and a broken blade. It was shut down four years later.

But generating electricity from the wind — one of the world's greatest renewable resources — is now the fastest-growing green energy trend in the country. In 2009, wind generation in the United States increased by 39 percent to just more than 35,000 megawatts of capacity, although it was still less than 2 percent of the country's total energy portfolio.

In Vermont, the debate over medium- to large-scale wind projects has broken open a culture clash among residents, business and government leaders, and environmentalists. And with last week's town meeting votes — where one town eagerly approved a wind project while another one seemed to scuttle attempts to build another — show that the debate, and the division, are not likely to end anytime soon.



Tale of two votes

Voters in Lowell – where Green Mountain Power has proposed building 20 to 24 wind turbines to generate between 40 and 60 megawatts of electricity – supported the project in a town meeting vote last week by a 3-1 margin. The project could generate enough electricity to power 20,000 homes – a community about the size of Burlington – and bring more than $500,000 a year in property taxes to Lowell, just about enough to cover the entire town budget.

"We told the residents of Lowell that if they don't want us to build there, we won't," said Dorothy Schnure, the spokeswoman for Green Mountain Power. "They said they would have a vote and we promised to stand by the result of that vote."

With wind power being such an emotional issue for many Vermonters, Schnure said, the utility decided to simply present the facts about the project – including all pros and cons – to residents for them to make a decision.

"All electricity generation has pros and cons — just look at Vermont Yankee," Schnure said. "Solar projects actually take up a lot of land, and fossil fuel burning contributes to climate change."

At one point, the utility bused two groups of Lowell residents over to a similarly sized wind project in New Hampshire so they could see what the new project may look like and talk to neighbors who live in the shadow of the turbines. She said they spoke with a farmer who lives less than 2,000 feet from the turbines and reported that while he hears some noise from the equipment, it's sometimes less than just the wind rustling leaves.

"We thought it was best to show them what it may look like," Schnure said. "Are turbines obnoxiously loud or are they quiet? Are they ugly or majestic?"

But while Lowell residents embraced wind power, voters in Ira seemed to express some confusion or even objection to such projects. Vermont Community Wind proposes building 34 turbines on Mount Herrick in Ira and Poultney.

When residents were asked to vote last week on a resolution supporting the project, opponents succeeded in adding language stating that the project could go forward only if it conforms with the town plan, which specifically bans ridgeline development. The final result has left some people scratching their heads.

"A majority of people in Ira said on Town Meeting Day that this project was not in their best interest," said John Liccardi, a Rutland attorney who is also the president of the board of directors of Energize Vermont, an organization that formed late last year to oppose large-scale wind projects in the state. "It's a project that clearly is in conflict with the town plan."



They want 'harmony'

Energize Vermont's mission is to promote renewable energy projects that are in "harmony" with Vermont's environment, Liccardi said. That's a distinction that excludes wind development, especially on ridgelines and mountains.

"We are not against all wind energy development," Liccardi said. "But I don't think any of us want to see a single project developed on a Vermont ridgeline."

Liccardi and wind opponents say GMP did a great job at making its case this year in Lowell. A sudden influx of property tax revenue makes an appealing case for wind and one that is difficult to defeat.

He said he believes that Vermont's regulatory process is too easy on wind projects, citing a lack of specific standards.

The Vermont Public Service Board – a three-member, quasi-judicial panel – is charged with deciding whether these projects are in the public good. Republican Gov. James Douglas is opposed to these large wind projects, but over his eight years in office, the board has approved several wind farms.

Steve Wark, the deputy commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service, the arm of state government representing ratepayers in these cases, said Douglas' objection has no bearing on decisions made by the board or the regulatory process.

"The law is the law," Wark said. "Each project is evaluated on a case-by-case basis. We look at many aspects of the proposals, including its cost, environmental impact and the effect on wildlife. It's a robust process."



Changing the rules?

Sometimes too robust, charge critics.

Wennberg, the Vermont Community Wind executive, said the company hopes to have its project up and running by the end of 2012 – but he concedes that could be an optimistic time line. After scaling back from the original proposal, the group has not applied to the Public Service Board for approval.

Instead, Wennberg said the company is first focused on working with the local communities to explain the project. It also hopes to have a power purchase agreement in hand with Vermont's utilities before applying to the board. There are also lots of studies to do, including the effect of the wind farm on local birds and bats and noise pollution for neighbors.

Several bills proposed in the Legislature this year would change the approval process. Rep. David Potter, D-Ira, has introduced a bill that would effectively kill all major new wind proposals in the state by requiring all projects to either lower or stabilize state energy costs.

"Suddenly you're thrusting an industrial complex into what's really a rural residential neighborhood," Potter told the Yale Daily News last year. "In my opinion, (the wind turbines) don't fit."

Meanwhile, Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, the chairman of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee, has introduced a bill streamlining the regulatory process for renewable-energy projects, including wind. This would partly be accomplished by switching authority over the appeals process from the local Environmental Court back to the Public Service Board.

But what happened in Ira last week? Wennberg said the company had nothing to do with the town meeting question supporting the project. He's also unsure of the effect of the final wording – requiring any projects to conform with the town plan – noting that the plan, while adopted, has not been approved by residents.

"A lot of people in Ira voted to support the project, to give the Selectboard the cover to start meeting with us about it," he said. "But there also was a lot of confusion on the floor about what exactly the language said."



Daniel.Barlow@timesargus.com