To The Vermont Public Service Board,

The world faces a grave fossil-fuel energy crisis on three broad fronts:

(1) Fossil fuels contribute massive amounts of CO2 and other greenhouse gases directly into the atmosphere, accelerating the global warming crisis. About one-fourth of such emissions come from oil, coal and gas-fired power plants.

(2) Fossil fuels, especially oil, require an imperialist foreign policy, as evidenced by the Iraqi invasions and by ongoing efforts to destabilize the entire Middle East, where the bulk of the world’s proven reserves are located. The monetary costs of these wars are now in the trillions of dollars and have helped double US government debt from 10 to 20 trillion dollars over the past eight years.

(3) World oil production has become uneconomic since 2012. It now costs more to locate, exploit, and deliver new oil than the world economy’s end-users are willing to pay — $2.3 trillion a year more. As a result, the oil industry is no longer replenishing its reserves, with eventually grave consequences for the world’s (and Vermont’s) transportation and agricultural systems.

Vermont has the goal of getting 90 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2050 (history will show this timeline too generous). To achieve this admirable goal the state must invest in all renewables, including large-scale wind, as well as small-scale individual net-metered wind, hydro and solar. The state does not have enough rooftops or enough agricultural land to rely on solar PV arrays to do the whole job. In fact, the state’s agricultural land will become it’s overwhelmingly most important resource with a decade.

I understand the Board has proposed rule changes that may result in a foolhardy moratorium on large-scale wind energy. Vermont would do well to follow the standards of Maine, which is ahead of us. Health experts maintain that 45 decibels for outside noise is an agreeable, if not perfect, standard. As regards NIMBY aesthetic stands I suggest you ask the Dutch about their feelings about the windmills that began to dominate their landscape 400 years ago.

Vermont will not transition to a sustainable future without wind power.

Please help Vermonters, all of us, secure our future.

Respectfully,

Ian Baldwin

South Strafford, Vermont