Save Vermont's Green Mountains - Protect the Lowell Ridgeline

We the undersigned petition The Vermont Public Service Board To Deny the  Application for Public Good made by Quebec Gaz Metro's Green Mountain Power for the Lowell Wind/ Kingdom Wind project   Dockets: 7156, 7250, 7508, 7628

The Lowell Mountains in Vermont are currently targeted by a foreign owned power company to be developed into a industrial scale wind project. Building the proposed twenty one 460ft tall turbines will require the construction of massive roads, the clear cutting of turbine bases and transmission lines and intense blasting of rock formations. The construction and operation of the project will impact wildlife habitats and crucial headwater streams permanently. Vermont's scenic beauty, vast wildlife, and prominent green mountains are legendary throughout the world. Poets, writers, artists, photographers have lauded this magical landscape. Industrial scale wind turbines inside this ecologically sensitive and impressively beautiful area is simply inappropriate. Please help us let elected officials in Vermont know that this type of development should not be tolerated. Vermont's natural wonders should belong to the wildlife, its people, and the world, not to corporations looking to profit.

We the undersigned agree with the following:

Wind is not free power; it exists because of subsidies, mandates, and tax breaks.  Consumers are forced to pay for it.  NO CHOICE! Taxes are imposed and national debt is increased to provide industrial wind developers with a lifetime of corporate welfare checks.

If  Quebec's Gaz Metro owned Green Mountain Power Lowell Mountain industrial wind project (Kingdom Community Wind, Docket 7628) is approved, it will set the precedent for other projects. This project, and the ones which follow, will drive jobs out of Vermont and stop future job growth with its resulting, exorbitant electrical rates. The tourism industry accounts for 12% of Vermont jobs and is responsible for bringing in 1.65 billion dollars to Vermont towns and businesses per year. It is blatant stupidity to put this industry in jeopardy, for at best, 15 MW-hrs. of high-cost electricity.

The Logic:  First, pad the pockets of the lawmakers, buy a poor town, and use your influence to exempt yourself from the protective environmental laws. Second, clear the forests, blow up the ridge line, flatten the mountain, put in a road wider than a four-lane highway, install multiple 469-foot tall turbines (45 stories high--34 stories higher than the tallest building in Vermont, 360 feet taller than Independence Hall, 95 feet taller than the statue of Liberty on her base,) that will produce a negligible amount of power which is not dependable.  Third, build or keep running  a second facility using conventional fuels that are dependable which will produce 80% of the power for your project and will be on stand-by 100% of the time. Fourth, have the taxpayers and ratepayers pay for the destruction while lining the pockets of foreign investors.

No wind farm anywhere has allowed the closure of a conventional power plant, thus they duplicate a job already being done.

Green Mountain Power, a Quebec- Canadian-owned company, and the wind industry have convinced our lawmakers with sound bytes  saving the planet, green energy, renewable energy, getting off foreign oil, reducing CO2 emissions  to not have Vermont%u2019s environmental laws apply to them. All they have to do now is convince a three-member Public Service Board. The PSB hearings are legal proceedings; you need money, power, and lawyers to be in the game.

Green Mountain Power has above-the-law status. Adjoining landowners, whose life and properties will be decimated, do not have the money, power, or voice even to speak in the PSB hearings. They are not politically connected nor do they have the expertise to influence the process; they are ordinary people with jobs and families." They are the insignificant statistics according to Green Mountain Power's experts.

Surrounding communities who are affected HAVE NO VOTE in the process.

This project will have zero effect on foreign oil dependency, and more than likely, increase CO2 emissions and destroy the environment.  Common sense tells us, if this is such a great idea, GMP and industrial wind developers would not have a problem going through the environmental process the rest of the citizens of Vermont must abide by.

Green Mountain Power gave $5,000.00 towards Shumlin 3-day inauguration party; the CEO of Green Mountain Power  chaired the party. Shumlin is the boss over the Agency of Natural Resources and Department of Public Service. Shumlin is pushing this project through for Green Mountain Power (and to get us off foreign oil), by directing the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources  and the Vermont Department of Public Service to make deals with Green Mountain Power. 

These agencies are making decisions about wildlife habitat, environmental degradation and Vermonters livelihood based on political motivations instead of scientific and factual data. Up until 2/24/11, Shumlin didn't even know where the Lowell Mountain range was.

 Green Mountain Power has filed Memorandums of Understanding with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and the Vermont Department of Public Service . These agencies have now reversed their position and support the project.

Green Mountain Power stands to get a check for $51,000,000 or more.  You and I and our children will be FORCED to pay for this by Section 1603 the Clean Energy Treasury Grant Program.  Federal subsidies of $23 per MW hr. adds another 3 million. Accelerated depreciation reduces Green Mountain Power income taxes. The green tax credits can be sold to the polluters who need them for green energy portfolios

Vermont is known worldwide for its natural beauty, mountain ridges, and rural landscapes. The Northeast Kingdom, home of the Lowell Mountains, was picked as a geo-tourism site, worldwide, by National Geographic Sustainable Destinations, for its beauty, cultural and natural landscapes, and quality of life.

We want the Vermont Public Service Board, The Vermont Legislators, and Governor Peter Shumlin to know:  We do not want the Lowell Mountain Industrial Wind Project approved, it is not for the public good.

Judges of the Vermont Public Service Board, Governor Peter Shumlin, and Vermont Legislators, Thank - you for taking the Time to read this petition.

For more information go to:

www.friendsofmainesmountains.com ; go to link- industrial wind facts;

www.windaction.org

www.investigativereportingworkshop.org; go to link -blown away -Overseas Firms Collecting Most Green Energy Money;

www.wind-watch.org

To look at Green Mountain Power track record go to:

www.aweo.org/windsearsburg.html

Google;

Why Wind Won Work.pdf

Energize Vermont - http://energizevermont.org/

Vermont for a Clean Environment. - http://vermontersforacleanenvironment.blogspot.com/

Join: Save The Lowell Mountains Now! On Face Book http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Save-The-Lowell-Mountains-Now/14264653912862