(Important municipal-level issues on alternative energy and town governance.   – promoted by eli_beckerman)

The Select Board in Lenox is feeling the heat from some dedicated wind opponents, just as the Select Board in Amherst has been feeling some solar heat.

My letter to the Berkshire Eagle below suggests allowing the town meeting process to play out in Lenox next year, as happened this year in Amherst, where the town didn’t appear to be as divided as the solar opponents had claimed.

No one is suggesting a massive industrial wind farm.  The site that was tested can support one or two turbines, which would provide the town and possibly residents and others with clean energy options.  If Lenox has the capacity to develop both wind and solar it should pursue both options and present them to voters.

To the editor of the Berkshire Eagle:

The Lenox Board of Selectmen has heard from a group of persistent and organized people telling it that wind energy is controversial and divisive in Lenox.  Some have even lobbied town officials to close debate on wind energy at town-sponsored public forums.

Lenox voters should expect the presence of warrants on both wind and solar options at next year’s town meeting. It would have been a failure of leadership for the town to close public debate on wind energy simply because there are some resourceful and loud opponents to the idea.  At the moment there is not even a specific wind proposal to be for or against.

Comparisons with organized opposition to a municipal solar project in Amherst earlier this year are interesting. Judging by the volume of letters to the editor, the number of opponents who assembled at its meetings, and no doubt some behind-the-scenes lobbying the Amherst Board of Selectmen might have felt that the 4.75 megawat municipal solar project it was considering on a capped landfill was ‘controversial.’ Similar to Lenox’s wind energy site, the Amherst solar site is surrounded by high-priced residential real estate.  Opponents knew how to amplify their message.

The Amherst Board of Selectmen showed leadership when it presented the solar project on a warrant at its annual town meeting this year, where there was impassioned discussion that was promptly followed by an overwhelming and definitive voice vote approving the project.

At a minimum, the best wind and solar proposals for municipal power could produce significant savings off of the approximately $400,000 that Lenox now spends for electric power annually.  There remains ample time to educate Lenox voters on municipal alternative energy projects and on the additional financial and environmental benefits that can accrue from such important investments.  Let’s proceed in the spirit of open forums and a town meeting, where all the citizens can hear about all options, pros and cons, make an educated decision that will benefit the town, and where a final vote tally will reveal how controversial and divisive the issue truly is.