No consensus on value of wind project

Both sides on the wind turbine weighed in Monday night to voice concerns or to support the proposal advanced by Endless Energy Corp. of Yarmouth, Maine to erect five 390-foot wind towers. The private company has a contract to sell its electrical output to the Burlington Electric Department.

But many in the audience of approximately 40 people see Burlington's gain coming at Manchester's expense, and remain frustrated by a lack of firm statistics on the local costs and benefits.

"We're being asked to put our economy at risk," said Bill Drunsic, a member of the Manchester Planning Commission that is sponsoring the series of public forums along with the Orton Foundation. "All the benefit goes north and we take all the risk."

The Burlington Electric Department has a 20 year contract to purchase the energy produced by the wind turbines atop Equinox at a rate of about 6 cents per kilowatt hour, rising to 8 cents per kilowatt hour by the end of the contract. When this was originally negotiated in 2002, those prices were above the going market price, but now look cheap compared with prices for electricity currently produced from oil or natural gas-fired plants.

The average statewide rate for electricity is about 13 cents per kilowatt-hour. Burlington made a long term bet on the future costs of electricity that now looks farsighted, said Michael Dworkin, a professor at the Vermont Law School and a former chairman of the state's Public Service Board.

Dworkin was one of four experts brought in by the Manchester –Orton partnership to help explain the relationship between wind energy and economics, the focus of Monday's forum.

"Burlington was smarter than CVPS, (one of the state's largest electric utilities,)" Dworkin said. "They made a choice five years ago to bet on renewables like wind energy – that's why Burlington gets a better price."

Both Dworkin and David Lamont, a state official with the Department of Public Service, outlined the broader regional, national and international factors that are likely to drive the costs of electricity still higher in years to come.

Vermont faces a difficult set of choices beginning in 2012, when a long term contract with Hydro Quebec comes up for renegotiation at the same time Vermont Yankee, the state's only nuclear power plant may be phased out, they said.

But that still didn't add up for several in the audience to a compelling reason to place large wind towers along a scenic ridgeline that is one of the most prominent features of the local landscape and a draw for tourists.

"A lot of people who live here and work here could lose their jobs because of the impact of this project," said Art Scutro, a member of the Manchester Village Planning Commission.

Scutro also weighed in against the miniscule economic benefit that would accrue to Manchester's public coffers through the additional property taxes the project might generate locally.

If built as currently proposed, Manchester looks set to pull in somewhere between $20-24,000 in additional local property tax revenue, although a much larger total - estimated at approximately $220,000 by Manchester's Town Manager Peter Webster – would flow to Montpelier in educational taxes under Act 68.

The relatively small sum that would be retained by Manchester, along with the likelihood the project would create only a handful of permanent jobs, seemed a bad trade off if the ridgeline would be scarred by the turbine towers, Scutro said.

Todd Comen, an Associate Professor in Hospitality and Tourism Management at Johnson State College took issue with those contending the towers would harm tourism in the region.

While the amount of research on wind towers and tourism is still thin, that which is available strongly suggests that so far that wind towers discourage tourists, he said Monday night at the forum.

"There's no indication it will deter people from visiting," he said. "People come for the general ambience of Vermont – it's about what they do when they get here. Many visitors don't notice (the wind turbines) or care."

The next public forum is scheduled for Jan. 9 at Manchester's Town Hall, and will feature a computerized simulation of what the wind towers will look like. The meeting will start at 7:30 p.m.