Editor’s note: This story comes to VTDigger.org through an exchange with the Barton Chronicle.
COLCHESTER — If production goes as intended for the industrial wind farm being proposed for Lowell Mountain, five surrounding towns would share in the economic benefits.
Known as the Good Neighbor Fund, as much as $150,000 would be distributed annually over 10 years among the towns of Albany, Craftsbury, Eden, Irasburg and Westfield.
The fund does not include the host town, Lowell, which stands to receive “significant property tax benefits,” according to a press release from Green Mountain Power.
Announcement of the fund came Friday, May 21, the same day GMP filed its petition with the Public Service Board to erect as many as 21 wind turbines on Lowell Mountain. The company says the 63 megawatt wind farm will have the capacity of “generating enough electricity for 20,000 homes.”
At roughly 1,300 pages the petition is thought to be the most comprehensive of any filing submitted by a wind developer seeking a certificate of public good from the board. And together with the announcement of the Good Neighbor Fund, GMP appears to be ratcheting up its efforts to win the hearts and minds of Vermonters when it comes to siting wind projects.
“This is a community based approach that can deliver economic benefits to neighboring towns,” said Mary Powell, chief executive officer and president of GMP, in a recent interview.
Powell characterized the company’s plan to spread the wealth among towns within a five-mile radius of the project as innovative, saying it “raises the bar” for developing wind projects in the state.
“We view public acceptance as critical to the development of wind in Vermont, and we’ve heard from residents of neighboring towns that benefits should extend beyond the boundaries of the host town,” Powell pointed out in a recent press release.
Payments from the Good Neighbor Fund would be based on the amount of power generated by the Lowell wind farm — known as Kingdom Community Wind — according to Robert Dostis, who handles public relations for GMP.
“No town will receive less than $10,000,” he said.
Dostis dismissed criticism that GMP was trying to buy local support for its wind farm that, if approved, will run along a three-mile ridge line on Lowell Mountain.
He noted that Albany residents recently voted against a call to oppose the project, which also won endorsement from voters this year at Lowell’s Town Meeting.
Dostis said the idea of distributing benefits beyond the host town came originally from the Northeastern Vermont Development Association. In its regional plan, NVDA recommended involvement by towns within a ten-mile radius of wind projects.
But members in a group that opposes the project charged in a press release Tuesday that the Good Neighor Fund is a sham.
“A real Good Neighbor agreement would include a real property value protection/insurance program, with an offer to buy out the neighbors,” said Kevin McGrath, a member of the Lowell Mountain Group.
Shirley Nelson, another member of the group, accused GMP of “throwing a very small amount of money at surrounding towns in hopes of neutralizing opposition.”
Of the five towns that would reap a share of the project’s economic benefits, Eden would receive the most — $60,000 of the projected $150,000 — as roughly 40 percent of land within town limits would be included in the five-mile radius.
Albany would receive $54,000, with about 36 percent of its land falling within the same radius. As projected, Craftsbury would receive $26,000 and Irasburg and Westfield would each receive $10,000.
The projected allocations from the fund that were announced two weeks ago in Albany where voters decided the town would not oppose the project. Voters at the same meeting agreed to seek party status in the technical hearings, but defeated a $25,000 assessment to support representation.
Held before the Public Service Board, testimony at the hearings determines whether an electric generating project deserves to go forward and receive a certificate of public good. Only participants awarded party status can present evidence at the hearings.
Albany residents are “going to have a bird’s-eye view” of the wind farm, according to Town Clerk Debra Geoffroy.
At the time of last week’s vote, Geoffroy said she knew nothing of the economic benefits that could come into town if the wind project is approved.
“Not to my knowledge,” she said when asked if voters realized the town could receive as much as $54,000 if the turbines go up on Lowell Mountain.
News of the sum also surprised Albany resident Jim Goodrich, who lives three-quarters of a mile “as the crow flies” from the project and opposes it.
In an interview this week, he said it would have been unlikely for the selectmen to withhold information about an annual benefit of up to $54,000 prior to the vote.
Goodrich said he had heard about a $10,000 windfall for the town if the project comes on line, but that was all.
Both the project and the community-based approach have won strong support from Senator Vince Illuzzi of Derby, who recently characterized himself as the only legislator from the Northeast Kingdom who supports wind power.
Wind farm developers have “got to demonstrate that economic benefits go beyond the host town,” he said in a phone interview.
PSB clerk Sue Hudson said the petition would be posted electronically once it had been officially reviewed. No date has been posted yet for the technical hearings.
