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Commentary
Despathy: A win for the people
It has always been up to the people to move the world in the right direction, stand strong against abuses and hold steady for the future of humanity and planet Earth. It is beyond beautiful what humans are capable of when they come together and commit to a cause and work for what they know is right and just.
This is exactly the case for the town of Stamford, which, despite an unwelcome, aggressive, well-funded wind-tower proposal, took action for the welfare of their town and residents. After months of grueling work by the town, including the Select Board, Planning Commission and many residents, all of whom opposed the siting of a 500-foot, 2.2 MW wind turbine by Norwich Solar, on Dec. 7, the project was dropped.
The company issued a press release stating, “Today, Norwich Solar, manager of the Stamford Main Renewables wind-turbine proposal, announced the application to the Vermont Public Utility Commission will not move forward.”
You never quite know the ultimate reason for the termination of a project proposal. Regardless, Stamford had certainly done its research and covered all possible bases to understand the legal process, the violations and what their citizens desired. During this process, Act 250 violations on the land for the access road for the proposed wind tower were identified and are now under enforcement. The proposed site had been excessively cleared to make way for a wind monitoring device. The construction of a 1-mile road through a high-priority forest into the site possibly requiring the construction of a bridge, was a major expense. On top of all this, the wind industry is experiencing declines in their return on investments due to increased capital costs, inflation and supply-chain issues.
This is a win for the people of Stamford and also for all Vermonters who care about the environment, their shires and homes, and their right to hold an active and engaged role in the future of their communities. A Vermont version of David and Goliath, Stamford worked hard for its win.
Annette Smith, executive director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, has helped many communities around the state understand their rights and the process involved in successfully opposing projects of this scale that do not align with the town’s goals and values. VCE engages to raise the voices of Vermonters, bringing environmental justice and corporate accountability to Vermont communities since 1999.
Smith was integral in helping the community of Stamford understand the regulatory process and how to participate effectively. This project did not meet the stated goals of the town’s enhanced energy plan or that of the Bennington regional plan. Specifically, it did not meet the mandatory setback requirement of 1 kilometer, which would have placed the turbine in dangerously close proximity to many residential homes. It also was not sited in the area specified for preferred wind tower placement as determined by the town.
In an interview with Annette Smith, I requested a summary of what Stamford just experienced:
“Norwich Solar is giving Vermonters the perfect example of how to turn people against renewable energy.
1. Find a site two years ago in a town whose village has views of a ridgeline full of Massachusetts wind turbines, in which the Vermont town had no say. Don’t tell anyone.
2. Get a standard offer contract a year ago. Don’t tell anyone.
3. Clear-cut forest and install a wind measurement device and gather data for a year, don’t tell anyone.
4. Meet with regional planners and choose to ignore town and regional plans that mandate a setback of 1 kilometer from year-round residential buildings.
5. Make it clear the project will proceed giving the finger to town and regional plans that will receive substantial deference from the Public Utility Commission.
6. File an advance notice giving the community only 45 days before filing the petition, file (twice) for extensions of the standard-offer contract deadline for filing the petition, file another 45-day advance notice for a wind measurement tower.
7. Create a confusing mess in the regulatory process with four different Public Utility Commission cases.
8. Attend town board meetings but don’t answer questions.
9. Disrupt sales and construction plans in the nearby development during a housing crisis.
10. Give the town the challenge of raising $100,000+ to participate at the PUC, consuming the lives of the community for more than a year.”
It is important for other Vermont towns to understand what Stamford experienced so they can be prepared if a similar project situation presents in their community. Ensuring projects of this scale and impact will include the town in the conversation and decision, is paramount.
Those who have been involved in proposals for industrial wind projects in Vermont know Martha Staskus, of Norwich Solar. Staskus was involved in the Holland, Swanton, Irasburg, Pittsford Ridge Vermont wind project proposals, all of which became highly contentious and eventually failed. Staskus was also project manager for the Georgia Mountain Wind Project, working for David Blittersdorf, owner of AllEarth Renewables, who sued the neighbors to keep them off their own property, and then threw dangerous flyrock during blasting. The Department of Public Safety inspected the site and found large amounts of flyrock on the neighboring property large enough to cause harm. The project was fined three times for running the turbines under icing conditions in violation of its winter operating protocol.
It is helpful for Vermonters to understand these players and their tactics. Awareness around what we are contending with when it comes to industries, will allow Vermonters to work together and ensure our communities are not taken advantage of when it comes to large scale, impactful decisions.
Alison Despathy lives in Danville.
Commentary
Lyall: Economic justice
The Fair Share for Vermont campaign is calling for Vermont’s wealthiest residents to pay their fair share in taxes so we can build a better state for all of us.
As part of this campaign, the ACLU of Vermont and our partners are urging state legislators to ensure those who can most afford it — the wealthiest 2% of Vermont residents — pay more in taxes to better support and address the needs of our communities.
There are many reasons why we are proud to support this campaign, but they boil down to this: As an organization that works to remedy deeply entrenched sources of inequality, and to advance the rights and liberties of all people, economic justice is central to our vision for a more just and equitable state, and a healthy, vibrant democracy.
Today, because of extreme and growing wealth inequality, more and more of our neighbors are denied access to opportunity and to basic necessities. As a result, many are prevented from exercising their civil rights and civil liberties to the fullest extent, participating in our democracy, and experiencing true freedom and equality in our society.
As we have long recognized, wealth inequality also reinforces the many forms of systemic racism we are working to dismantle each and every day.
When our state invests in people in the here and now, it makes the state more sustainable and affordable for everyone in both the short- and long-term. When we prioritize real solutions like affordable housing, health care and education — all things that impact our civil liberties, directly and indirectly, every day — the benefits to our state, and to Vermont workers and families, are transformative.
State legislators have started to make investments for healthier, more resilient communities — in housing, child care, harm-reduction strategies and climate solutions. We applaud those efforts. At the same time, we know we must do far more to create a state budget that better addresses the needs of everyone who calls Vermont home.
With more revenue from the state’s wealthiest residents, we can build a Vermont with affordable housing; where no child goes hungry; where everyone gets the health care they need; and where our environment and infrastructure can sustain a vibrant economy and a strong democracy.
That’s why we look forward to working with legislators to advance this proposal in the coming year. We recognize there are other paths forward to raise revenue from those who can most afford it, and we hope policymakers will explore all available options to prioritize Vermont workers, families and communities.
When they do that, it’s important for our state legislators to know they will have the support of ACLU of Vermont, our members and our partners in the Fair Share for Vermont campaign.
They will also have the backing of the vast majority of their constituents. Voters overwhelmingly support proposals like Fair Share for Vermont, and those voters will be looking to their representatives for solutions this election year.
James Lyall is executive director of ACLU of Vermont.
Editorials
Editorial: Watchdogs
We take pride in our role as watchdog. Accountability matters.
Nobody likes to be watched while they are doing something. But public officials need watching, not because what they are doing is suspect but, rather, there are processes in place to provide transparency. It is important for the public — voters and constituents — to see what our public officials are doing, and ensuring they are doing their work in the public’s interest.
Newspapers, including ours, have struggled to cover all of the meetings. Tighter newsroom budgets have meant our smaller reporting staffs have to pick and choose which meetings they will attend in person, and which ones they will follow up on later.
Fortunately, we are still able to make those decisions. Between the pre-pandemic months of late 2019 and the end of May 2022, more than 360 newspapers across the U.S. closed, a report by Medill’s Local News Initiative found. About 7% of the nation’s counties, or 210, now have no local newspaper. Since 2005, the country has lost more than one-fourth of its newspapers and is on track to lose a third by 2025.
We take seriously our role in providing coverage of municipalities and school districts. The decisions there affect our readers most, in large part because the decisions impact tax rates. As we have seen, just in the last few months as municipal and school district budgets have been taking shape, these important discussions have required reporting.
That watchdog role is critical by serving as the eyes and ears of the public as to what precisely is being discussed. It keeps folks coloring within the lines of open government. Recent research within the journalism industry shows that in communities without a strong print or digital news organization, voter participation declines and corruption increases.
As journalist and media watchdog Margaret Sullivan noted in 2018: “One problem with losing local coverage is that we never know what we don’t know. Corruption can flourish, taxes can rise, public officials can indulge their worst impulses.”
The gaps created by having fewer journalists means that others also need to be paying attention, whether that is through civic engagement, or other entities. Fortunately in Vermont, we have two additional layers of accountability that serve to protect the process of governance.
There are 24 public access television stations that attend, record and broadcast gavel-to-gavel coverage of public meetings. That service, which provides coverage of nearly three-quarters of the communities in Vermont, is a valuable resource for journalists (who might need to watch a meeting after the fact), as well as the citizen who was unable to attend the meeting at the time it occurred. Per capita, there are few states nationwide with that level of public access engagement on behalf of its municipalities and school districts. (ORCA Media in Montpelier also covers goings-on at the Legislature — including some committee meetings — as well as major events, such as the governor’s news conferences and major addresses such as the recent State of the State and the upcoming budget address.)
There is also the state auditor. A recent promotional email from Doug Hoffer (our current state auditor) reminded us that the kicking over of stones within government is also a critical piece of the checks and balances ensuring accountability (and in many cases transparency, as well.) In that email, Hoffer notes: “When we encounter these weaknesses in government accountability, we offer constructive suggestions to the relevant agency. Sometimes they adopt our recommendations, but not always. When they do not, it is Vermonters who lose out. Vermonters fund State government and are the ones who are impacted by its performance. They deserve accurate, clear, and timely performance measures.”
He went on: “Too often, though, the promise of these terms is undercut by bad data, incomplete information, and misleading representations from officials. … When State government does performance measurement well, Vermonters are able to determine whether state programs are working well and if their tax dollars are being efficiently spent. When it’s done poorly, though, the information can tell a less-than-complete or misleading story, leading to bad decisions and wasteful spending. At worst, it can be a total waste of time.”
He then went on to describe some of his department’s most recent audits, including focusing in on Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, districts; the telecommunications infrastructure in the state; a look into the Agency of Digital Service’s IT project management; an evaluation of the state’s Ten-Year Telecommunications Plan; performance reporting for the Vermont Training Program; a dive into the Dam Safety Program; and a recent review of nurse recruitment and retention incentive programs.
The most recent outcomes report from Hoffer’s office can be found atbit.ly/report0110online.
Of course, having watchdogs is half the battle. It matters to have someone watching what government is doing. It is up to citizens to pay attention to that information, and make educated decisions about whether public officials and our state government are on course.
There are pages of news reporting, hours of broadcasts, and reams of reports for your consideration. That engagement is entirely up to you. Don’t waste these valuable resources.
