In a time when political and geological uncertainties can make the cost of fossil fuels fluctuate wildly, wind power could offer a steady and predictable alternative source of electricity. At least this is the argument made by the developers of a proposed wind turbine project in the towns of Readsboro and Searsburg. Depending on the number and type of turbines built, this could amount to a 45-megawatt electric generation facility.

This is a story about two men who forged a friendship at a nuclear power plant protest and then went on to collaborate on several sustainable energy projects, including three of the best known modern hydro projects in Vermont, over a 30-year period. Recently, the two separately embarked on wind projects in New York and Vermont. The fate of these projects couldn’t be more different: The New York wind turbines will be built this summer, while the East Haven Wind Farm in the Northeast Kingdom is effectively dead.

Public Service Board (PSB) - Rescheduled Prehearing Conference - RE: Docket #7250, Petition of Deerfield Wind, LLC, for a certificate of public good authorizing it to construct and operate up to a 45 MW wind generation facility, and associated transmission and interconnection facilities, comprised of between 15 and 24 wind turbines on approximately 80 acres in the Green Mountain National Forest, located in Searsburg and Readsboro, with turbines to be placed both on the east side of Route. 8 on the sa.m.e ridgeline as the existing GMP Searsburg wind facility (Eastern Project Area), and along the ridgeline to the west of Route 8 in a northwesterly orientation (Western Project Area) PSB, Hearing room, 3rd floor, Chittenden Bank Building, 112 State St., Montpelier.

On his way back from a meeting of Canadian and New England officials in Quebec City, Gov. James Douglas said by telephone Monday the group agreed to pursue increased use of renewable, more-efficient energy and cleaner transportation. But Douglas also said that Vermont should move cautiously on several of the proposals outlined in the group’s recommendations. For instance, although the New England governors and Eastern Canadian premiers recommended unifying renewable portfolio standards laws across the region, Douglas said it may be premature for Vermont to enact such a law itself. Vermont passed a law in the last Legislative session pushing utilities to meet increases in power use through new renewable power projects. However, unlike a renewable portfolio standard, Vermont’s statute does not require the purchase of “green credits” from such renewable projects unless those goals are not met. Several other states, including Connecticut and Massachusetts, have laws setting up markets for selling green credits, and some lawmakers would like Vermont to follow suit. “We have done well and will continue to do well to develop our renewable portfolio without a specific Legislative mandate,” Douglas said. “I think it may be premature,” to pass such a law in Vermont, he added............Douglas said that he remains opposed personally to the development of most large-scale wind projects along the state’s ridgelines. But regulators will enforce the criteria and statutes that exist independently of his feelings about the projects, Douglas said. “I don’t believe the pain is worth the gain in many of these proposed projects,” he said. “I respect that process, regardless of my personal view.” “I think it would make a dramatic difference in our pristine ridgelines,” Douglas added. “I am not persuaded it should be a large-scale strategy for our energy future.”

Up here in sparsely settled Northeast Kingdom, Sheffield Wind has touched off a bitter debate engulfing residents and town governments in half a dozen communities that will share unequally in the wind farm’s costs and benefits. What Sheffield selectmen see as a boon to their tiny community, other towns see as a threat to their scenic beauty, tourism, economy and property values.

Questions of whether noise measurements have anything to do with real life, and if people can warm to the appearance of towering wind towers animated two days of testimony here before the Public Service Board (PSB). Aesthetic arguments against wind farms have made little headway before the board in the previous two cases presently on record — Searsburg and East Haven Wind Farm. Yet past results have not diminished the polarizing role they are playing in a bid by a Massachusetts’s company, UPC, to put up a wind farm on the ridge lines in Sheffield.

Will wind generation towers adversely impact one of Vermont’s iconic views, the long shimmering expanse of deep Lake Willoughby in the Northeast Kingdom? That is a question that officials in the town of Westmore have raised. They say they are concerned the sight of the proposed Sheffield Wind Farm on mountains located from two to five miles from Lake Willoughby, which is in Westmore, could affect the town’s prestigious National Natural Landmark status.

CASTLETON — A company thinking about putting a wind farm on Grandpa’s Knob introduced itself to the Select Board on Tuesday. Representatives of Noble Environmental Power met with the Castleton board late Tuesday afternoon to answer questions on just what they were proposing to do. It was the company’s first meeting with the town. The Connecticut-headquartered company has said it is looking at the ridgeline near the Castleton-West Rutland border as a possible site for a 25- to 30-turbine farm generating as much as 65 megawatts of electricity. That would make it the largest wind farm in Vermont. Development manager Duane Enger and development consultant Rob Howland — both based in Vermont — stressed the preliminary nature of Noble’s efforts. “Grandpa’s Knob is probably the closest thing we have to an actual project (in Vermont),” Enger said. “We’ve done preliminary studies and the majority of those studies indicate this would be a good site selection.”

In a political climate charged with heightened anxiety over global warming, hearings got under way Monday on the project to erect wind turbines on the ridge lines of Sheffield. Massachusetts company UPC Wind Partners is seeking through its Vermont subsidiary a certificate of public good from the Public Service Board (PSB) to build what would be the first industrial wind farm in the Northeast Kingdom. The plan calls for 16 turbines to be mounted on towers, which will reach a height of 420 feet when the blade is in a vertical position, according to testimony from a panel of three company vice presidents. Wind towers on Vermont ridge lines have mushroomed into a long-standing controversy, and opponents may have received a boost in a ruling handed down by the board Monday, prior to the opening of testimony.

A Connecticut firm is considering building what would be Vermont’s largest wind farm on Grandpa’s Knob, a rocky outcrop about eight miles northwest of Rutland. If the company goes ahead, the site could support 30 to 35 turbines generating up to 50 megawatts, a company official said. A spokeswoman for Noble Environmental Power said Thursday the project was still very much in a preliminary phase — so preliminary that Castleton officials said the first they heard of it was when they were contacted by a reporter Wednesday.

BRATTLEBORO — After two tense public hearings, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) told area residents that an initial analysis finds there would be minimal environmental impact if Vermont Yankee were allowed to operate for an additional 20 years. About 50 people showed up Wednesday night in Brattleboro to comment on the draft report. Entergy Vermont Yankee’s (ENVY) operating license expires in 2012 and has filed an application to renew its license. An initial step in that process is the completion of an environmental impact statement (EIS), where Vermont Yankee is inspected thoroughly for any possible damages in might incur on the environment.

Noble Environmental Power of Essex, Conn., has begun talks with landowners along a ridge in Rutland County, the first step in what could become a 25-tower, 50-megawatt wind energy project that would be the largest wind farm proposed in Vermont. “We are certainly interested in Grandpas Knob, but it is very preliminary,” Brian Kelly, the company’s Northeast development director, confirmed Wednesday. He said the company might apply soon for permits to put up wind-measuring towers. Grandpas Knob is a 2,000-foot bump northwest of Rutland City, on the border between Castleton and West Rutland. Fifty-six years ago, engineers put up the nation’s first big wind turbine there. The experiment ran off and on from 1941 to 1945, when one of the turbine’s 75-foot blades snapped off.

Shumlin suggested replacing Vermont Yankee, which supplies about one-third of the state's energy supply, with enJon Day of Newark was adamantly opposed to Shumlin's views. "What I disagree with and don't support is scare tactics to further a political agenda," Day said. "I'm not saying I think climate change is a hoax. I'm saying it is being used to promote things that are not solutions." He is vehemently opposed to the proposed wind turbine projects in the Northeast Kingdom. "I strongly support Sutton as well as the many Sheffield residents who are like-minded, and the NEK, against venture capitalists masquerading as environmentalists," Day said. "There is only one reason these projects are planned in Vermont and that is financial gain. I might add at our pain." ergy from wind turbines, solar power and hydro power. .....

Is there an interested buyer for the East Haven wind project? The answer is no, according to Mathew Rubin, project manager for EMDC, parent company of East Haven Windfarm. “There is no potential buy,” Rubin said Wednesday. “Our project is in a holding pattern waiting to see what happens in Sheffield.” This belies an e-mail message sent to Ken Mason, manager of the Lyndonville Electric Department, from William Piper, attorney for LED. “Earlier this week I got a voice mail from Matt Rubin informing me that there is a party who may be interested in acquiring his East Haven wind farm project at the old radar site on East Mountain,” Piper wrote. “Presumably, if that were to happen, this new developer would want LED to reopen its [Section] 248 proceeding to building the power line to connect the project.”

Technical hearings before the Public Service Board began Monday to determine if UPC Vermont Wind should receive a certificate of public good to erect 16 420-foot-high wind turbines in Sheffield. The hearings are scheduled to continue for two weeks. Key witnesses Monday were UPC representatives Dave Cowen, Steve Vavrik and Scott Rowland. They fielded questions from a bank of lawyers representing the Department of Public Service; the Agency of Natural Resources; the Ridge Protectors, a group of citizens opposed to the project; and the King George School, a private high school also opposed to the turbines.

South Farm, a six-home development on the edge of Hinesburg village, is one of the first -- if not the first -- Vermont subdivision to aim for "net-zero" status, meaning over the course of a year it will generate more electricity from clean, renewable sources than it draws from utility power lines. Succeeding also means close to zero emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

Voters overwhelmingly opposed the wind tower proposal slated for neighboring Sheffield and Sutton on Tuesday evening. The unanimous opposition provided the town selectmen with precisely the overwhelming sense of direction they lacked last fall. “I think it was clear,” Selectman Robert Croteau said. “It’s not like we only had 25 or 30 people or even 60 or 70.” An estimated 120 voters turned out to make their position, and that of their town, unmistakably clear. That clarity, however, may have little effect on the Public Service Board (PSB), which must decide whether to issue a certificate of public good for the 16 towers UPC Vermont Wind wants to build.

On the theory that you go where you’re welcome, a wind power developer announced Tuesday it is dropping its bid to build two of 16 planned wind turbines in Sutton, moving them instead to Sheffield. But at the same time it tried to ease objections in one town, it got slammed by a special town vote in the town of Barton. About 150 residents there unanimously voted Tuesday to advise selectmen to oppose the neighboring Sheffield Wind Farm Tuesday night because it would burden town infrastructure and hurt tourism. “I’m blown away,” said Selectman Dan McMasters after the vote. “We’re going to challenge it (the wind farm) the best we can and we’re upset we couldn’t jump in. I wish we could go back in time,” he added referring to how Barton officials missed a Public Service Board deadline to intervene early in the process.

MONTPELIER, Vt. --On the theory that you go where you're welcome, a wind power developer announced Tuesday it is dropping its bid to build two of 16 planned wind turbines in Sutton, moving them instead to Sheffield. UPC Vermont Wind filed papers with the Public Service Board asking for the change, saying its request followed a suggestion by the Department of Public Service and would put the entire $75 million project in the much more welcoming of the two Northeast Kingdom communities.

BRATTLEBORO -- There is no place for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Sen. Bernard Sanders' plan to combat greenhouse gas emissions. Monday, Sanders announced he was reintroducing an ambitious bill to reduce pollution associated with global warming. The bill was first introduced by his predecessor, Jim Jeffords. Sanders is co-sponsoring the bill with fellow Vermonter, Sen. Patrick Leahy. When asked how nuclear power fits into the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, Sanders replied, "it doesn't." "Our bill focuses on energy efficiency and it focuses on sustainability. It doesn't deal with nuclear power," said Sanders, in a telephone interview Monday night. Sanders said there was one major reason why nuclear power doesn't belong in the act. "We are dealing with highly toxic radioactive substances and we don't know of a way to dispose of them safely," he said.