Friday afternoon brought us, courtesy of VTDigger, a fascinating story from down Bennington way, where local officials have basically waved the white flag over a proposed solar array north of town, planned by “solar developer and lawyer Thomas Melone.” Melone has been highly litigious in this matter, and numerous cases are pending before the courts. Apparently the town Parental Figures have decided to stop paying lawyers and let Melone have his way.
And you know what? In this case, the litigious plutocrat is the good guy.
I’ll sit back for a moment and let the brickbats fly.
Now, I don’t know the history of the case. But I sure as hell recognize a flaming outbreak of the NIMBYs when I see it, and this is a classic example. The opposition to this development goes to outrageous lengths to make its case. Reading this story made me wonder how in holy Hell we will ever get close to meeting our emissions reductions targets. Which, reminder, are established in state law.
Opponents of the array, who all seem to live in the surrounding neighborhood (I know, I was shocked, too), make arguments so outrageous that they discredit their own position and make Melone look like a reasonable guy.
If you haven’t already, take a look at the photo (by Glenn Russell, of course) of the proposed site. It’s not in a bucolic paradise; it’s along Route 7 opposite the Bennington Welcome Center, near where Route 279 veers off toward New York State. I’ve driven by that spot numerous times, and it is decidedly not uniquely picturesque or remote. That highway is pretty damn busy.
I think the opponents realize they don’t have a solid argument because they resort to one of the most ridiculous examples of NIMBYism I’ve encountered — and that’s saying an awful lot in this state.
Two different people, who both live near the site, complain that the solar array would be visible from the Bennington Battle Monument.
Okay, well, if that’s a valid reason to kill a solar proposal, then I guess we’ll never have any in Vermont. At all.
First of all, the Monument is three miles away from the site. Are you seriously suggesting we can’t have any solar arrays within three miles of any notable location in Vermont?
Second, unless you’re on top of the Monument with a good telescope, that solar array would be little more than a smudge in the distance.
Finally, do you know what’s even more prominent in this expansive definition of the Monument’s viewshed? A whole lot of ugly development in Bennington and North Bennington. Gas stations, strip malls, and other true eyesores of our time. If you want to keep the Monument’s entire vicinity, broadly defined, free of development, you’d better call in the heavy equipment. You’ve got a lot of demolition to do.
Honestly, I don’t get the obsession with solar panels — and wind turbines, for that matter. I had to drive through northern New York today, north of the Adirondacks, and there are a lot of giant turbines up there. (I’ll see even more tomorrow when I drive through southwestern Ontario.) When I see turbines, I see hopeful signs for a future when our footprint on the earth will be much smaller than it is now. I think the same way about solar arrays. I’d much rather have wind and solar as part of our landscape than the polluting infrastructure of fossil fuels, from extraction to transportation to processing to transportation again to winding up in consumers’ fuel tanks. And the emissions contributing to climate change, which is a much bigger threat to our environment than any quantity of renewable installations. .
From reading the story, it’s unclear whether this truce means the array will be built. Gov. Phil Scott’s Public Utility Commission has been a resolute foe of solar and wind, and has often concocted reasons out of thin air for rejecting proposals. It has ruled against the Melone plan in the past.
Speaking of the story, it follows the unfortunately well-worn path of amplifying objections to a renewable energy proposal and giving little or no room to supporters. Four local opponents were quoted in the piece, and all of them live near the proposed site and are hardly disinterested parties. Also featured: an attorney who has fought the Melone plan.
As was Annette Smith of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, who’s a complete outlier in the Vermont environmental community in her opposition to renewable energy. Digger reporter Greta Solsaa made time to call Smith, but didn’t manage to find time to call any other environmental organization. And aside from a written statement provided by Melone himself, there was not a single voice in favor of the proposal. That’s bad journalism, pure and simple, but it’s too often par for the course around these NIMBY-rich precincts.
The Vermont Political Observer. 
Given the deterioration of the Bennington Battle Monument, I wonder how much longer tourists will be allowed in to see the view.
Irene Wrenner
Glad you pointed out the poor performance on the part of the ‘Digger [sic]. The very unfortunate truth about VTDigger is that since the departure of Anne Galloway, they’ve become a hollowed out system of easy, cheap transcription.
A true shame for an organization and news source that made its bones by chasing down the who, what, where, when, and hows even when that chasing required butting heads with the powerful and comfortable (whom they now regularly massage).
To your preferred point: way too many folks just don’t want to see where their electricity comes from beyond some wires that pipe the power in. I’d argue all electricity should be generated within sight of the user – it’d spare a lot of economically and racially disadvantaged folks from bearing the brunt of our convenience (read up on mountain removal for coal, and waste disposal for fracking for examples).
Of course that “all … within sight” is impracticable in many cases, but nonetheless some measurable and meaningful amount can be achieved for that standard.
The one thing you got right is you don’t know anything about the history of the case. Talk about bad journalism.
Your disdain is my validation.
VCE has always been a disingenuous name for that organization.VNAOC would be more accurate: Vermonters for No Action On Climate. They’ve spread misinformation and used cherry-picked statistics for years, just so they could avoid looking at windmills or solar arrays. They apparently don’t mind looking at (while others suffer the massive costs) extreme flood events, or seeing and breathing smog and wildfire smoke. I’d rather have cleaner air, a more predictable climate, and fewer lung- and brain-damaging particulates.They continually use China and the rest of Asia as a bugaboo “they use more!” while ignoring that they have 5,000 times the US population. If we compare PER CAPITA use of energy, the US – including Vermont – uses FAR more fossil fuels than the rest of the world.Their favored boogey-man is rapidly switching to renewables, building a world-class renewables and storage manufacturing and production infrastructure in the process, and leaving the US in the dust on both the science and engineering fronts.We’re ceding the equivalent of the industrial revolution to the rest of the world, just so a few oil and gas companies can scrape up a few more dollars in profit.
As someone whose town plan and zoning are currently facing contrary proposals from an Amazon warehouse developer, it’s hard for me to side with a “litigious developer” after only reading one VTDigger article. Surely, there’s more to this than meets the eye. I wish VPO would dig further.
As a (former) Selectman, who participated in executive sessions where knowledgable and opposing voices were excluded, while staff proded us to settle, I feel for the opponents.
Oh, and while I don’t always agree with VCE, I appreciate how they assist the public in participation in regulatory processes. I have not known VCE to be anti-renewable. Instead, VCE holds corporations accountable for their actions in our communities and, from what I’ve seen, raises the voices of Vermonters to respond to inappropriate developments of all types.
The real point of my piece isn’t that the developer is a nice guy. It’s that the opponents are throwing out extreme arguments that would dramatically curtail renewables in Vermont. As for VCE, they are definitely hard-core anti-renewable.