..modern commercial wind projects present their own set of environmental problems due to the massive scale and numbers of the turbines, the high wind-energy potential of our ecologically sensitive mountain ridges and coastal waters, and the absence of any reliable pre-development assessment process.

For many, wind energy here translates into the long, continuing battle over a 130-turbine wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound. But more turbines are planned on land and potentially for additional offshore sites. And for Cape Codders who are not yet aware of this - or of the ramifications for families, homeowners and communities - the assembly's action is a welcome second chance to get up to speed and have a voice in whether turbines will continue to sprout up all over the Cape.

The rejection of the proposed Redington wind power project will undoubtedly bring loud howls of pain from the project’s advocates. This is because the symbolism of wind turbines churning out electricity with no pollution and CO2 emissions is a powerful vision to us all. However, the issue that Maine Mountain Power and its supporters did not take into account is that there are some places in Maine where such mammoth facilities just do not belong.

On the other side of that tape there is no quarter for Mother Nature. She's in the way, and so being reformed to suit the needs of the trucks that will climb the mountain with the bits of the machines that will be put together to, in their turn, put together the 21 turbines.

Like most really thoughtful environmentally concerned scientists, I'd rather a tiny amount (in metric tonnes or cubic metres, after decades of use) of stored radioactive waste than the unmitigated disaster of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. And renewables are not realistically and politically going to fill the gap any time soon.

"Wind cannot be relied upon to provide firm generation at full capacity coincident with peak demand." warns Hertzmark. "Wind might be capable of contributing to the peak demand requirements at some times. However, this will rarely happen - and when it does, it will be for brief periods. For significant periods of time, no households will be served by the wind farms." Nor have either of the worlds "wind leaders" - Denmark and Germany - decommissioned any fossil fuel plants.

A citizen, Lisa Linowes, from New Hampshire testifies for the House Science and Technology Committee on NH Bill 1568 Here are excerpts from that testimony.

Editor's Note: Lisa Linowes is a Director of National Wind Watch.

937 is an unnecessary government mandate that is going to increase your utility bill. So vote no on I-937. I say this upfront because not everybody reads articles completely. No matter what else you read about I-937, remember this: If I-937 passes, we all will pay for it.

Let's assume, for a moment, that the federal government approves Cape Wind's plan to build an industrial-sized wind farm in the middle of Nantucket Sound. After all, the U.S. Minerals Management Service, which is reviewing the project, is expected to issue its draft Environmental Impact Statement late this summer. After reviewing thousands of comments on the draft, the MMS may issue a final EIS sometime in 2008. If it does, no one will be surprised when someone or some group files a lawsuit to block construction of the wind farm.

The planet deserves the benefit of the doubt. Climate change is serious and must be a political priority. But the arguments must be subject to free and rigorous debate and the facts separated from fanciful predictions - the environment is too important to be bequeathed to the hysterical.

Could it be that the confused senator's judgment is clouded by his personal relationship with certain landowners in Lowell who stand to make huge profits at our expense?

The CO2 hysteria is absurd, considering the minute contribution made by human beings. Of course the climate is changing - it always has done, hence the thriving vineyards of Northumberland in the 12th century and the Thames frozen three feet deep in the 19th - but human activity is largely irrelevant. The world's climate is controlled by solar activity, by variations in the earth's rotation and orbit, by external factors in space and, terrestrially, by clouds and volcanic activity. If the Canutes of the IPCC imagine they can control those elements, they are even more infatuated than they appear.

The development of wind power locally raises many questions and issues that are being addressed and others that are becoming more evident. Yet as the projects are discussed, debated and considered, it becomes apparent that each one does not affect just one town or village alone. The considerations are broader in every case and call for substantially broader oversight and planning. Plans for 77 wind turbines on Galloo Island, for instance involve more than the specific site of the towers. ...In Clayton, the wind developer has offered the town $300,000 before any final determination has been made. These cash promises to agents of government who are then expected to independently determine the appropriateness of a project can be construed as a public form of bribery.

One would not think it difficult to reconcile support of renewable energy with the love of the environment, yet this summer we found ourselves in exactly this situation. After years of living with conservation as a mantra, we could never imagine being opposed to a "green" energy project, but ironically that's what has happened. ...After months of research, we've learned that wind power is just not the "green" energy source we've all been told it is. If applied on a small residential scale, it can be very effective; however on an industrial level, there are enormous problems.

In a cynical manipulation of the well-meaning public, which is desperate for progress with renewable energy, gov. Peter Shumlin and GMP are justifying the destruction of the Lowell Mountains as "green" and "local." Shumlin argues that he is diversifying Vermont's energy portfolio, and that this mountain range must be sacrificed because Vermont Yankee is closing. He is giving Vermonters a false choice.

Even if federal ridge lines were forever protected, and that is a very dangerous assumption, there is sufficient privately-owned mountain terrain here with attractive enough wind scales for developers to significantly downgrade the scenic values that are the backbone of Bath’s economy and the promise of its future. The stakes for Bath could be every bit as high as they are now for Highland.

And now we don’t have to go to Disneyland. Because, child, Disneyland is the whole state covered with wind towers.

The machines will totally dominate the landscape for four or five miles around, will be visible up to twenty miles away and will seriously affect the ambience and spirituality of St. Peter’s on the Wall which is the oldest church of its type in the world

The recent vote in Sheffield in favor of wind towers proves the point. While the majority of opinion across the NEK opposes the denigration of our ridge lines, individual towns, sensing a rescue from rising taxes, can be inveigled to accept wind farms that industrialize our ridge lines to the detriment of surrounding towns and citizens. It is highly unlikely, though, that the general population, given a chance to vote yes or no on dozens of the monster towers and fans, would approve of them.

Wind power projects of the magnitude proposed on our ridge lines would drastically affect the character of our state and do little or nothing to alleviate the problems of acid rain and greenhouse warming. Maybe Vince should listen to his colleagues. Some of them might know as much or more than he does.