Two speakers said wind towers need to be a safe distance from homes and another said they do not need to be in Vermont during a forum Thursday. Vermonters for a Clean Environment organized the meeting at West Rutland Town Hall in light of the proposal of Vermont Community Wind Farm to build an 80-megawatt development in and around Ira. VCE executive director Annette Smith moderated the meeting.

The neighbors gathered in Dan and Tina FitzGerald's kitchen had a list of grievances about five wind turbines proposed for the mountain in his backyard. The list began with this: A fear their voices will not be listened to. "We feel there is a tremendous amount of money stacked up against us," said Darlene Ross, who would have a view of the turbines from her home on Arrowhead Lake.

Blades have begun to turn on 121 wind turbines here and in neighboring Ellenburg, a 35-minute drive northwest of Plattsburgh. Saturday, they turned with a soft whush, whush, whush. "Whush, whush, whush, all day long, all night long - I moved here because it was so peaceful and quiet," groused Allen Barcombe as he pointed to the nearest tower, jutting up 400 feet into the sky behind his house. ...The New York turbines, in two projects developed by Noble Environmental Power, are the first of nearly 400 expected to go up in five towns on a windy plateau just south of the Canadian border. When completed, the development about 90 minutes from Burlington will represent the largest concentration of wind turbines in the eastern United States.

The idea of windmills brings to mind bucolic Renaissance paintings of Dutch landscapes and tulip beds. But that's hardly the experience of some who have to live next to the 400-foot electricity-generating giants being built across America's breezy plains.

Where can the project be seen from? Will it be in the viewer's foreground or background? Will the viewer likely to be stationary or moving? Will the project offend the sensibilities of the average person? When viewed as a whole, is the project offensive or shocking, because it is out of character with its surroundings, or will it significantly diminish the scenic qualities of the area? These will be addressed by the Public Service Board.

I was asked to review the prefiled testimony and exhibits of Matthew Rubin for the East Haven Windfarm and to provide an independent opinion regarding the claimed environmental benefits, estimated benefit values, project footprint and noise impacts and general wind project economic issues.

This is far from the simple story that proponents of wind power might have you believe. I do not wish to knock the hope of wind power. But equally I do wish people to be fully informed and understand the serious shortfall of its promise, the choices they make, and their potentially harsh consequences.

Mr. Nye's paean to the electric companies aside, these huge industrial generators are not silent, they are not intelligent, and they are most certainly not friends to the environment.

Please count me among those that vehemently oppose the expansion of this crazed idea of environmentally 'friendly' energy production. Windmills are NOT environmentally friendly when implemented whis way. Please feel free to use my as an example of someone who is DIRECTLY adversely effected by these noisy, UGLY industrial generators.

Editor's Note: This email was sent to Vermont State Representative Rick Hube by Tom Shea, a Searsburg property owner.

Windmills can create many vibrations and sounds at different frequencies depending on their size, the wind speed, whether the windmills are operating synchronously (in tandem or not); and whether the noise “beats” or throbs. The noise does not have to be loud to be disturbing. Pulsating low frequency noise can be very disturbing, especially at night when you are trying to sleep.

Editor's Note: Don Bly cautions readers that while he has done his homework "I should not be quoted as being a sound or noise expert".

Proponents of the Little Equinox Mountain wind facility say it will create jobs, create tax dollars, and enhance tourism. Your readers in Manchester, Vt. might be interested to know how that argument played out when FPL Energy similarly invaded our community in 2004

I have endured the industrial droning for close to ten years, with the added arrhythmic clunk of the gears from the turning mechanisms. This is described as a “barely noticeable” sound. I beg to differ. Due to this industrial noise pollution, I can no longer bring pets to the property, because the droning disorients them in the woods. The impact to the wildlife must be even more severe, despite the claims of the power company’s ‘consultants’. Regardless, my family’s enjoyment of the quiet of the woods is severely diminished.