Barbara Ashbee-Lormand traveled from central Ontario to central Vermont in late October to a discussion of an industrial wind turbine development proposed for the town of Ira, organized by Vermonters for a Clean Environment. She's a rare figure in the debate over the effects big wind towers have on people. She's one of only two homeowners that a major wind company, Canadian Hydro Developers, has conceded it bought out because of their complaints that the huge gadgets proved to be impossible to live with.

A portion of the wind energy generated from newly installed wind turbines located in PEI was wheeled through PEI and New Brunswick and sold to the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL) via the international interconnection node in Keswick, N.B. The renewable energy certificates (RECs) that were generated from this transmission were sold separately to independent buyers located in the NEPOOL.

Vermont's energy future has become a hand-wringing issue, tangled up in the uncertainty of power sources and worries about climate change. Quebec Premier Jean Charest offered another opinion Friday, a more optimistic view. Just north of the border in his province, billions of dollars are being invested in renewable energy -- hydro-electric and wind -- and Quebec wants to increase its power exports. Vermont, which relies on Hydro-Quebec for a third of its electricity, has been a longtime, valued customer and Quebec would expect to continue that relationship, Charest told an audience at Champlain College in Burlington. "We will be there in times of need for each other," he said, referring to shared energy and environmental concerns. Such words, albeit with no specific price tag or contract attached, send an encouraging message to Vermont.

COLCHESTER, VT., June 22 /CNW/ - Green Mountain Power Corporation ("Green Mountain Power" or the "Company") (NYSE:GMP) announced today that Green Mountain Power and Vermont-based Northern New England Energy Corporation ("NNEEC") have entered into a definitive agreement whereby NNEEC will acquire Green Mountain Power. Shareholders of Green Mountain Power will receive $35.00 per share in cash or approximately $187 million in the aggregate.

Lee also warned that renewable energy sources, though desirable, were not a "silver bullet" solution. "It does leave an environmental footprint," Lee said, noting that wind energy and solar energy take up large areas of land, making it difficult to find a place to put them, especially in densely populated parts of the world.

Perhaps it is a commentary on the standards of contemporary journalism that it was difficult to distinguish between Keller's article (How useful are wind-energy plants? 8/4/06) and a wind developer's marketing brochure. The short answer is not very. Comparing wind power to conventional hydro power is specious. Hydro power is available when it isn't raining. That's what dams are for. Wind energy isn't controllable. More to the point: wind energy's achilles' heel-its intermittency- limits its capacity value and its impact on emissions.