Opinions
Wind act will eliminate local review authority
This Act explicitly authorizes this single state agency to approve wind projects regardless of local decisions and regardless of recommendations from other state agencies with expertise related to such projects. It also replaces environmental laws with weaker "standards" that can be waived solely at the discretion of that agency and eliminates rights of appeal by municipal officers, municipalities, and most by other parties.
October 18, 2010
by Barry C. Cosgrove
in South Coast Today
The wind turbine industry, along with Gov. Deval Patrick, is pushing the state senate to adopt the Wind Energy Siting Reform Act in informal session. The Act is now known as H.4955 and the Senate version is S.2260.
The purpose of the Act is to achieve the governor's goal of shoehorning massive industrial wind turbines into our once quiet and rural neighborhoods through a careless set of special wind industry benefits that include overriding local control, replacing environmental laws with "standards," and eliminating traditional rights of participation and appeal by the public.
This legislation is a radical and unprecedented assault on... [continue via Web link]
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Massachusetts
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