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".

In a recent article by Jeanne Miles and Gail Montany, "Industrial Wind Tops News from NEK in 2005," reference is made to Shay Totten's piece in the Vermont Guardian, wherein he names David Rapaport and Mathew Rubin (the "R & R team") "Vermonters of the Year."

Intermittent and unreliable, wind is not an answer for Vermont's energy needs.

Ridgeline development has the potential to alter the face of Vermont permanently almost overnight. The importance of getting it right requires policy developed specifically for this purpose.

It is indisputable that this project would dramatically change Londonderry’s character, our environment, the quality of our lives and pose a threat to our tourist and second-home owner based economy. It makes no sense to sacrifice these first class assets for a second class energy source [industrial wind energy] that will have a negligible impact on emissions.

Editor's Note: Hugh Kemper is a Director of NWW.

The "system" needs a major overhaul if small towns with tiny budgets or private citizens wish to have "a seat at the table" when it comes to potential wind development projects.

It is common sense, not the governor alone, that is trying shut the door on such fruitless industrialization of our ridgelines.

We cannot rationally use such nebulous reporting, which, due to insufficient information leads the reader, but does not inform truthfully.

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

Combining windmills with the ridges of Vermont, our glorious and unequaled landscape, is an irresponsible idea.

Common sense says: Calm down. Let's work on securing the 90 percent of the roof over our heads - that is, let's nail down the 90 percent reliable, low-cost energy we need for the future and figure out energy conservation strategies and ways of meeting our 10 percent renewables energy target other than by destroying Vermont's world-renowned ridge lines.

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.

Maybe you also found it a tad incongruous that Gov. Douglas, who has bravely gone on the record as being against the development of wind farms on Vermont's mountain ridges, should appear at a photo op with a top official of one of the cellular phone companies and enthusiastically tout (essentially) removing all regulations for the emplacement of cell phone towers because said officials are whining about a six-month regulatory process.

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.

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.

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'!

Symbolism aside, Mt. Equinox may not be as impressive as Yosemite's El Capitan or the Grand Tetons, but something very real would be sacrificed on the questionable altar of renewable-energy-for-profit. Mt. Equinox and all of our mountains are not just a "back yard." They are a heritage and a legacy. And they are as good a place as any to make a stand. The issue at stake is preservation, and the face of environmentalism should be one of traditional conservation, not a heedlessly applied new orthodoxy. As a nation we need cleaner energy sources, but despoiling the scenic ridgelines in Vermont's premier recreational destination for minimal public benefit is misguided and irresponsible.

If we allow these wind turbines to come it is very possible that the economic health of Vermont as we know it today will be irreversibly damaged. Vermont will no longer be known as the last bastion of rugged beauty in the United States.

..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.

She told me the windmills are 15 minutes out of Palm Springs and not visible from the city. When I asked her if there were any homes in the area, she answered, "Oh, no," in a tone suggesting that my question was quite ridiculous.