Press Republican Opinion: Wind projects often divisive

Reposted from Press Republican.

It seems improbable that a group of Vermont environmentalists are challenging the construction of a wind farm, but that just points out the sensitivity of the whole wind-power issue.

A project in the Green Mount National Forest in southern Vermont calls for the construction of 15 windmills. They would be 410 feet high — tall enough to require blinking lights on top to tip off aircraft pilots of their presence.

Opponents warn that those lights will be clearly visible from the 5,000-acre George D. Aiken Wilderness several miles away.

A wilderness is supposed to be pristine — or as close to it as possible. Seeing blinking lights kind of defeats the mood, as well as the definition, of a wilderness experience.

But what about the power generated by those turbines? That would be enough power to heat and light 30,000 homes.

That would be 30,000 homes not requiring the burning of coal, oil and gas. Surely, that should be an ideal for environmentalists.

Burning oil, gas and coal not only is anathema to anyone with an ecological conscience, it flies in the face of an America trying to become independent of outside sources of energy. How long has our foreign policy been shaped by our reliance on engines and electricity fed by somebody else’s fuel? How long has our stated national policy been to extricate ourselves from that reliance?

Wind turbines represent an immediate source of some relief. Yet they come with the liability that they stick out amid their surroundings.

Few people want to look out their front windows and see a 410-foot-high windmill churning. Though many people view them as stately-looking structures, the majority of those people probably are passers-by. Take a ride along Route 190 between Plattsburgh and Malone and witness the battalion of turbines standing at attention across the countryside, and you’re sure to have some passionate reaction to it.

We recall vividly the negative response to plans to erect wind turbines in the towns of Beekmantown, Altona and Ellenburg in recent years. Opponents couldn’t abide the idea of having those structures within their “view shed.”

Yet even the most vitriolic opponents to the construction of the wind towers would have to admit that, built in sufficient numbers, they could significantly release us from the environmental, political and financial stranglehold coal, oil and gas have imposed on us.

In Vermont, especially — reputedly one of America’s most ecologically conscientious states — the debate within the environmental movement regarding windmills is poignant. It illustrates the depth of the issue.

People want clean energy, but they don’t want to see it manufactured in their backyard.

It is a divisive issue, and all sides should have a chance to air their arguments. Then communities must make the decisions that work best for them.