Winds of Change in Stiles Brook Forest
By Nicole Pidala
November 10th, 2016
Come November 8th, the southern Vermont towns of Windham and Grafton will not only be voting for a new president and governor. Windham and Grafton will also hold a vote on a controversial commercial wind project that has garnered international attention.
As wind energy development increases across the United States, renewable energy developers have sought to install wind turbines in New England, generally on high elevation ridges. Iberdrola Renewables, a Spanish-based energy developer, wants to build Vermont’s largest wind project on a tract of ridgeline that spans Windham and Grafton. The turbines would be erected in a 700-acre corridor of the Stiles Brook Forest, a 5,000-acre tract of land owned by Meadowsend Timberlands, which Iberdrola entered into a wind-energy lease agreement with in 2012.
Over the past four years, representatives from Iberdrola have been meeting with the residents of Windham and Grafton regarding the proposed development. The original plan consisted of twenty-eight turbines: twenty in Windham and eight in Grafton. However, in an attempt to address community concerns, Iberdrola recently reduced its number of contracted turbines to 24 instead of 28.
For some residents of Windham and Grafton, this amount of turbines is still far too much. Community groups, such as Grafton Woodlands Group and Friends of Windham, have been leading the discussion against the proposed wind project. They claim that the ridgeline ecosystem would be adversely impacted if the turbines were erected, and the turbines and their associated infrastructure would scar the landscape similarly to mountaintop mining in West Virginia. Noise, lower property values, health effects, and aesthetic values are among other issues raised by residents of Windham and Grafton.
Proponents of the plan highlight the proposed economic benefits to the towns. Under this proposal, Windham will receive $1 million and Grafton $500,000 each year in total payments. Additional payments will be made to the state annually into the education fund, based on the amount of energy produced. Most recently, Iberdrola presented a greater financial incentive for the two communities by offering individual payments, totaling at $565,000 a year, to the 815 registered voters in both towns.
In a state that is actively promoting clean-energy development, proponents also cite anthropogenic climate change as a reason the proposed commercial wind project should move forward. The current Shumlin Administration has supported the notion that climate change is vital issues that every citizen has a responsibility to address. Following this, at the state-level, the administration is one of the state’s chief proponents of renewable energy development and is active in pushing Vermont towards its goal of deriving 90 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2050. The turbines proposed for Windham and Grafton would generate 82.8 megawatts of power, helping Vermont become one step closer to achieving their clean energy goals if the energy is used within the state’s borders.
The vote held in Windham and Grafton will determine if there is enough support for the project among residents of the towns before Iberdrola requests a certificate of public good from the state. However, local approval is not needed for the development to move forward. Ultimately, the state’s Public Service Board determines if the wind project is approved or not and the company can still request a permit regardless of the outcome of the two local votes. Despite this, Iberdrola has committed to respect the local decision and will not move ahead with the project if voters reject the proposal on Election Day.
Regardless of which way the wind blows on November 8th, the discussion that has developed from the Stiles Brook project will have a lasting impact on Vermont. For most of the United States, granting a town the capacity to influence where to site an energy project is uncommon and controversial. Generally, such decisions are made at the state level and by private-property owners. The Stiles Brook project discussion enabled two Vermont towns to have some control over the siting of commercial wind projects within their borders, influencing both the state’s race for governor and the future of wind energy in Vermont.
