I could not disagree more with some recent letters to the editor regarding solar power development in Vermont. We are so used to living lives with our power being generated at distant power plants that are out of sight and out of mind that we tend to forget that any form of energy production has its adverse impacts.
This, I think, has resulted in a statewide problem with NIMBY-ism in Vermont. While some of us decry local solar energy projects, we seem to have no issue with getting much of our power from Hydro-Quebec, whose hydroelectric projects have flooded an area roughly equal to 70 percent of the size of the state of Vermont (although officially categorized as renewable energy, I respectfully disagree). Imagine if something like that was proposed here, we would never hear the end of it. But this is in somebody else’s viewshed, affecting somebody else’s culture.
We need to get over it and be supportive (proud, even) of reasonable local energy production projects. No, nothing is perfect or without at least some impacts, but I think a backlash against local solar energy production is nothing short of hypocrisy.
Eric Hanson
South Starksboro