Last month, they [Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus] continued that tradition with a highly personal and dishonest attack on me for opposing Cape Wind -- a massive offshore wind farm that -- as a result of careless siting -- will ruin the livelihoods of hundreds of Cape Cod's treasured commercial fishing families by evicting them from their primary fishing grounds. That boondoggle, which requires a quarter billion dollars in government subsidies and effectively privatizes 24 square miles of public trust lands used annually by 3 million boaters and tourists, will cause a host of other injuries, including serious ecological damage and a billion dollars in economic loss to surrounding communities and will pose a dangerous navigational hazard to air and marine traffic.

The Adirondack Park has served as a model for parks and protected areas across the globe. Its economic prospects rest on whether its natural wonders and wild character are assured.

Wind power does not respond to demand. It may or may not be there when needed.... We will therefore need as much other electricity sources with wind as we would without.... It is not just unnecessary but offensive to entertain industrial-scale development of the ridgelines, with strobe lights and noise and ecological degradation that far surpasses anything now on the mountains, for such obvious nonsense.

I am asking all the residents in Lyman who do not wish to see massive mechanical structures ruin Lyman's natural beauty to please get on board and reject these industrial monsters.

My viewpoint was, and still is, that the huge towers (260 feet high), gigantic blades (add another 150 feet), blinking strobe lights, permanent removal of wind-hindering vegetation, and highly visible road and transmission infrastructures are totally inappropriate for wild, undeveloped, scenic and highly visible settings. And I said I thought that opponents should focus on those issues, as well as the small return in electricity for the massive public price paid, aesthetically and otherwise, and should perhaps stay away from the issue of bird mortality caused by the rapidly spinning blades. The jury is still out on that, I said, and conventional wisdom is that vastly more birds are killed by high-rise windows and free-running cats......Well, so much for conventional wisdom.

Editor's Note This opinion piece was written in response to a letter received from Lisa Linowes that is available via the link below.

Xcel says wind power will mostly supply intermittent and peak power - energy demands that fluctuate day to day or even hour to hour. Unfortunately, that means it still must rely on coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, supplemented by natural gas, the most expensive fossil fuel, for its base load (the kind of electricity that's always on).

His [Dr. Charles Warren] study has little relevance to the debate on wind farms, and it is unhelpful for him to offer up what appears to be disingenuous research.

This battle has been fought for decades, first with the billboard campaign, again with the "ridgeline" highway campaign, and now with enormous industrial turbines. In our hearts we believe the Legislature and the governor will protect our state's beauty and our heritage as our forefathers, legislators and governors before us.

A Research Into the Achilles' Heel of the Wind Industry. With a wealth of examples and references, Dr. Etherington enlightens us on the principal weakness of windfarms: their erratic, unpredictable production of electricity. A modern economy cannot afford blackouts, so wind power production must be backed up 24h a day by conventional power, which substantially reduces the C02 savings

In this season of hope and reflection, a time to give thanks for our treasures and consider helping those less fortunate - I would urge us all to pause a moment, look around and appreciate the beauty of this community and consider protecting and preserving the natural green space we have left. Resist the temptation for that 'greedier shade of green'!

Throwing large amounts of money at unreliable sources of energy when others with much greater reliable potential are simply starved of investment is poor economics and appalling practice and will not be followed by any other country governed with good sense. Wind farm policy is simply gesture politics at its worst.

THE recent four-page supplement from npower concerning its proposed development at Kiln Pit Hill can only be described as an example of pro-windfarm propaganda. There was no mention of the problems associated with wind power.

Dr Chas Warren's study collaborator linked to renewables industry.

..it was the Sheffield people who voted "no" who have done their homework. The yes votes came from people who would sell out their town and the NEK in hopes that UPC's corporate welfare would trickle down to them and pay their taxes.

Good winds coincide with neither the heating nor air-conditioning season. Wind is a willy-nilly source of electricity, and as such is not very useful.

Those of us who live here are given lip service at these "informational meetings" when in point of fact we really have no true representation.

Gov. Jim Douglas, legislators, a regional planning agency, town planners and redidents are asking the same question: Is industrial wind power right for Vermont? Increasingly, the answer is becoming: No.

All of us need periodically to experience wilderness to renew our spirits and reconnect ourselves to the common history of our nation, humanity and to God. The worst trap that environmentalists can fall into is the conviction that the only wilderness worth preserving is in the Rocky Mountains or Alaska. To the contrary, our most important wildernesses are those that are closest to our densest population centers, like Nantucket Sound.

There are 727 people here including children. Half of our people have not voted, and non-voting residents and property owners were not allowed to express their opinion in the polls. Just over 200 people voted. Nearly 100 said no. This multimillion-dollar corporation had to hire the services of a public relations firm from Burlington to force a message through that they failed to do on their own merits.

After years of feeling unheard and overlooked, the county majority opposed to the project are soon to get an objective, meaningful review of their position. It’s a shame it took a lawsuit to get here, but that’s where we are.