Editor’s note: This commentary is by Travis Belisle, who resides in Swanton and is a principal of Swanton Wind and owner-operator of Rocky Ridge Construction.
[E]veryone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own set of facts. When it comes to the wind farm my family proposes to build on the hill behind our home in Swanton, I appreciate that there are many different opinions. I do not understand or appreciate the way in which many opponents of our clean energy project have shaped the opinions of others by fudging the facts and creating a climate of fear.
Brian Dubie has been a consistent critic of Swanton Wind’s proposal to bring stably priced, locally produced, zero-emission power to our region. He has also been consistently wrong about many key details.
Most recently, in a Nov. 21 press release that he circulated widely to Vermont media, Dubie cried wolf in claiming that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had “determined” that Swanton Wind would present problems for air navigation. In doing so, he disregarded the FAA’s clear indication that it had not reached a conclusion and further study would be necessary before making a determination.
In actuality, the FAA issued Swanton Wind a final “Determination of No Hazard to Air Navigation” on Dec. 20, stating that its “aeronautical study revealed that the structure [our planned wind turbine] does not exceed obstruction standards and would not be a hazard to air navigation.” To get all the facts, you can read an investigative article published by the independent news site VTDigger titled “Dubie’s Behind-the-Scenes Swanton Wind Fight Fails to Fly,” but really the headline tells it all.
Dubie’s lack of special training in acoustic engineering or public health hasn’t stopped him from making alarmist claims, in a letter published in several newspapers this fall, about health impacts from sound generated by wind turbines. Dubie compares wind turbine sound emissions with sound emissions from airplanes and chain saws, claiming that wind turbines are as loud or louder than those other sources. Because my family and I live just down the hill from where we plan to build Swanton Wind and we value the relative quiet of our area, Dubie’s comparison concerned me. So the sound experts assisting Swanton Wind to comply with the state’s strict standards checked Dubie’s calculations and descriptions for accuracy — turns out his statements are far off the mark.
First, Dubie’s letter ignored the conclusions of independent experts like those in the 2014 Health Canada study that found no evidence to link health problems and sound generated by modern wind farms. He also ignored the fact that Vermont’s Public Service Board requires wind projects to comply with sound standards that are stricter than the World Health Organization levels — roughly the equivalent of background noise in a quiet library.
After all the public hearings and evidentiary proceedings where witnesses will have to swear an oath to tell the truth, I am confident that we will prove how this project is in the public good of Franklin County and Vermont. Until then, please keep an open mind.
More troubling, however, is that Dubie appears to have mixed up the sound measurement concepts of “sound pressure” and “sound power” to produce a grossly inaccurate picture of what wind turbines sound like. For example, Dubie’s letter says “So, when you think of industrial wind turbines on a ridge line, envision an airport with a line of airplanes that are holding for take-off. The airplanes are powered by airplane engines that have run up their engines to full power.” It is a scary comparison, but one that would only be accurate if the comparison was between a jet plane and hundreds and thousands of wind turbines, not seven as Swanton Wind proposes.
The following table, produced by an acoustics expert, compares the sound power of two airplane types, the Boeing 737-400 and F-16 fighter with the sound power of the GE 2.75-120 wind turbine — a common modern wind turbine model. While taxiing the Boeing 737-400 has a sound power of 135 dBA and the F-16 has a sound power of 133 dBA. According to the expert’s analysis:
• For a wind farm to match the sound emissions of these airplanes, there would have to be 794 turbines, assuming the 737-400, and 447 turbines, assuming the F-16.
• Assuming that the Boeing 737-400 is taking off and the F-16 is at maximum power, the sound powers increase to 151 dBA and 168 dBA respectively. Now, 31,623 modern GE wind turbines would be necessary to equal the 737-400 and 1,698,244 would be necessary to equal the F-16. This is assuming that all the wind turbines could be located at the same place.
Table 1: Comparison of GE 2.75-120 Wind Turbine Sound Power with Other Sources
Dubie’s lack of engineering credentials also didn’t stop him from going on WCAX-TV on Sept. 1 or standing in a public meeting later that day to make the badly overblown claim that Swanton Wind “proposes to clear cut 70 acres.” In fact, the Colchester civil engineering firm that created Swanton Wind’s map, calculates the proposed vegetation clearing at 35.38 acres, nearly half of the amount claimed by Dubie. Days later, Dubie backtracked when speaking to a Seven Days reporter, this time claiming — without apologizing for his prior inaccuracies — his “revised” “estimate” that was still higher than the number given by the Swanton Wind civil engineers working directly on the project.
Sadly, this is only a partial summary of the misinformation Dubie — and many others — have spread about Swanton Wind and wind power in general. After all the public hearings and evidentiary proceedings where witnesses will have to swear an oath to tell the truth, I am confident that we will prove how this project is in the public good of Franklin County and Vermont. Until then, please keep an open mind.
