Debate continues to swirl around how well wind project developers monitor the sound their turbines produce. One pending investigation into possible noise violations focuses on towers atop a ridge in Sheffield.  

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VCE (Vermonters for a Clean Environment) asked the U.S. District Court to block the permit granted by the Forest Service or send it back for further environmental study. At a hearing in Brattleboro in July, VCE attorney Stephen Saltonstall argued that the Forest Service was ignoring the National Environmental Policy Act and the potential harm to the view, the bats that live in the area and the nearby George D. Aiken Wilderness.

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Vermont citizens filed this petition with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate deceptive trade practices of Green Mountain Power (GMP), a Vermont utility. The complaint focuses on GMP marketing of renewable energy to Vermont consumers. The petition was filed by the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic at Vermont Law School.

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Lawyers for Vermonters for a Clean Environment said many issues were neglected or improperly addressed in the Forest Service’s final Environmental Impact Statement. They claimed the Forest Service didn’t thoroughly examine alternatives to the specific project proposed by Deerfield Wind LLC.

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The nation’s second-largest wind power operator seeks to be the first to develop a utility-scale wind project on national forest land in the Green Mountain State.

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But VCE believes that the process by which the project achieved approval is flawed, along with the project’s location. Constructing industrial power on national forest land is something that VCE executive director Annette Smith says is a dangerous slope. “If these are allowed to be built on US forest land, it opens wind turbines to be built all over the country’s forest lands,” said Smith.

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A Lowell couple has agreed to no longer publicly criticize Green Mountain Power’s wind farm in the Northeast Kingdom as part of a settlement they reached this year with the utility over a property line dispute.

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Don and Shirley Nelson of Lowell today released a copy of the Settlement Stipulation entered into between the Nelsons and Green Mountain Power Corporation in April. The agreement resolves the GMP-Nelson litigation, which includes two payments, one of $50,000 and one of $1.25 million.

Impact on People Legal Vermont

Opponents of a Northeast Kingdom wind project have asked the Vermont Supreme Court to overturn a permit to install test towers on Seneca Mountain. Their arguments center around balloons and aesthetics. In their annual session at the Vermont Law School, justices heard arguments involving a Public Service Board decision to allow a wind developer to erect four test towers.

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Paul Brouha, resident of Sutton, Vermont, today filed suit in Caledonia Superior Court against Vermont Wind, Northeast Wind Partners II, and First Wind Holdings over the Sheffield Wind Project. The filing states that the noise from and the visual impact of the project are out of character with the surrounding area, continue for extended periods, and constitute a nuisance. The Complaint can be accessed at this link.

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Paul Brouha, a resident of Sutton, Vermont, filed suit in Caledonia Superior Court against Vermont Wind, Northeast Wind Partners II, and First Wind Holdings over the Sheffield Wind Project, a 40 megawatt (16 turbine) facility. The filing states that the noise from and the visual impact of the project are out of character with the surrounding area, continue for extended periods, and constitute a nuisance. The complaint document can be accessed by clicking the link on this page.

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The town's select board has officially joined an appeal of the Vermont Public Service Board's recent approval for a Certificate of Public Good to allow four meteorological towers to be raised in Newark, Brighton and Ferdinand. The official appeal agreement was signed by the board after a vote last week.

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Six protesters arrested last December for blocking a road used to construct the Kingdom Community Wind project have fines converted to 25 hours of community service

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