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I was appalled by the Feb. 2 letter from David Simkins of Colchester, Vt., who attacked the executive director of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks for his group's opposition to the Barton Wind Project, near North Creek.
Simkins repeatedly -- and incorrectly -- accuses the association's director of having ulterior motives for opposing the 420-foot-tall, 10-turbine wind power project. He implies that the director is a rich, second-homeowning "NIMBY." "Clearly hypocritical," Simkins asserts.
He is wrong. Association director Dave Gibson is a decent, hard-working environmental advocate who makes far less money than he deserves, and who represents the views of far more people than Simkins seems to know. When Gibson …
I was appalled by the Feb. 2 letter from David Simkins of Colchester, Vt., who attacked the executive director of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks for his group's opposition to the Barton Wind Project, near North Creek.
Simkins repeatedly -- and incorrectly -- accuses the association's director of having ulterior motives for opposing the 420-foot-tall, 10-turbine wind power project. He implies that the director is a rich, second-homeowning "NIMBY." "Clearly hypocritical," Simkins asserts.
He is wrong. Association director Dave Gibson is a decent, hard-working environmental advocate who makes far less money than he deserves, and who represents the views of far more people than Simkins seems to know. When Gibson states that the 2,900-foot summit of Pete Gay Mountain is no place for a power plant, he has valid reasons and more than a century of tradition behind him.
Yet Vermont's Simkins, in all of his moral outrage, neglects to mention that he has strong personal interests of his own for wanting to open the mountaintops of Adirondacks to wind power development. Simkins is a long-time employee and salesman for NRG Systems Inc., a major player in wind power development in the U.S. The Wind Farmers Network Web site, https://windfarmersnetwork.org, describes his role as "facilitating sales for NRG Systems' fast growing U.S. market -- a market that grew 20 percent in 2004."
Apparently, 20 percent annual growth is not enough.
Like Vermont and the Adirondacks, Gibson and Simkins have differing visions of the future. I happen to agree with Gibson's assessment. The tiny amount of power generated by the 10 proposed turbines isn't worth the destruction of Pete Gay's wildlife habitat. It isn't worth diminishing the unspoiled view from a half-dozen nearby wilderness areas.
Turbines in that location would fundamentally -- and forever -- alter natural beauty of the 114-year-old Adirondack Park.
Eleven decades of vigilance would be undone for less than half the power needed to run one paper mill in Ticonderoga. If one project is approved, more would follow.
We have a great deal to gain from wind power, but we have even more to lose if we build turbines in the wrong places.