It can be very difficult to get an accurate sense of the impact of these wind turbines. This site has links to several sources, including that of the wind farm developers themselves...http://citiprogmtn.blogspot.com/. Personally, although these turbines will tower over my home, I'd be more supportive of them if they were going to provide any significant amount of energy for the state, or even the region. Instead they are going to be visible from several communities and changing the ridge line forever, while providing well under 1 % of our energy needs. Some things you might want to keep in mind if you attend the public forum:

All the information presented to you will be from folks who are paid by the developer. They have a vested interest in providing information favorable to public opinion.

Fairfax has little say in whether the project moves forward. The same is true for Georgia and Milton. The state Public Service Board has jurisdiction.

Vermont has no master plan for adding wind power to our energy grid. In fact, the state can only react to what developers propose. So, while the Georgia Mountain project may seem benign, it is possible that proposals will come forward for many other ridge lines in our communities.

The energy generated from these wind turbines will largely be unavailable to most of us. It will be fed into lines near the Husky plant in Milton.

If you live on Georgia Mountain, you will hear the turbines. How loud they will be is questionable however. The guidelines typically used are EPA limits, which do not discriminate between city and country. So, if you are used to waking up to the birds, there may be some background noise as well.

If the promise of cold fusion becomes a reality in the next few years as many expect, then we will be stuck looking at these large wind turbines while the cleanest of all energy sources provides most of our energy. We will be victims of jumping on this bandwagon too soon.