Two prominent Democrats on the town of Lenox’s Select Board proposed and seconded a formal motion in a ‘new business surprise’ item on August 31, 2011. The motion, if passed, would have closed public discussion of wind energy at upcoming public forums that were intended to focus on both wind and solar plans, thus limiting the municipal energy options that the public could learn about.
It so happens that the town’s Democratic Party Town Committee is meeting this evening. Might the Democratic Town Committee address and publicize its position on wind energy? One of the Select Board members who advanced the anti-wind motion is the Democratic Town Committee Chairman.
The Case for a Green-Rainbow Party Town Committee.
In addition to supporting candidates in partisan elections and being a vehicle for party-building, Town Committees for a political party are in a position to educate voters on the party’s platform through forums and warrants and to provide a nomination route for municipal candidates who opt that path to the ballot. The two aforementioned Select Board members were both placed on the municipal ballot by earning the nomination of the town’s Democratic Party Committee.
Although small in absolute terms the number of Green-Rainbow Party members in Lenox has grown threefold in the last several years, numbering 22 in a town of 2000 households. Together with these higher numbers and with the party’s attainment of major party status, Green-Rainbow Party voters in Lenox are able to form a town committee next year at the time of the party’s presidential primary on March 6, 2012. Five Lenox party members have already accepted a nomination on paperwork that will be filed with Town Hall and with the Elections Division so that they can be placed on the ballot.
New committee members and officers can be appointed following the initial formation of such committees, which happens only once every four years at the time of a party’s presidential primary.
In a proposal that it adopted on July 17, 2011, the Green-Rainbow Party State Committee supports the decisions of town and ward party members to form committees. The papers that are filed are due to Town Halls by November 4, so there is still plenty of time to collect the five certified signatures necessary to nominate party members who agree and qualify to be on the ballot.
At last night’s Select Board meeting, where the ‘new business surprise’ took place I happened to be in the audience and argued to keep all clean energy options on the table for the public forums. The town had been awarded $90,000 in grant money to fund a feasibility study for wind energy, the promising results of which were to be presented at the public forum this fall. Although most observers of the meeting had left by the time the surprise motion was made, there were about a half dozen wind opponents still present for whom this motion did not come as a surprise. They were clearly organized and prepared to speak on a subject that was not on the agenda. One of them argued that “when the public finds out” what the impact of the access road would be “they’ll have different thoughts [on the wind project].” He didn’t appear to get the irony that the motion he was supporting was all about preventing such public discussion from occuring in its rightful venue. My final point was that this item should not be voted on as a ‘new business’ item. At that point the motion was tabled until the next Select Board meeting on September 14.
Stay tuned for a near-future follow-up. Also, when it forms next year the Green-Rainbow Party Committee in Lenox will be clear on positions such as wind energy that are an important part of current town policy debates. All in the open, please!
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Scott Laugenour’s depiction of the events at the Lenox Select Board meeting on August 31st was selective, limited, and somewhat skewed such that a more complete assessment is in order.
The proposal by one of the Selectmen was to put a Board discussion of the proposed Industrial Wind Turbines atop Lenox Mountain on the back burner FOR NOW. In no way was there a suggestion that all public discussions should be curtailed nor that there shouldn’t be open forums in the future. Rather, it was a practical approach to using the time of the Board more productively. At the meeting, there had already been a vigorous discussion regarding the relative merits of placing a single sandwich board display on the grass in front of a small business in Lenox Town Center which occupied 30 minutes +/-. Can you imagine the amount of discussion entailed in the placement of two 500+ foot tall turbines covering a 70 acre area next to an Audubon preserve the blasting for which could completely disrupt and possibly destroy an aquifer that provides water for people living on the mountain or who rely on the Lenox Reservoir and Stockbridge Bowl.
An engineer at the meeting, who has read the entire feasibility study, commented on how little the study actually clarified. In fact, those of us with a science background recognize that charts and data in and of themselves may look impressive but may obfuscate the flaws in model design and camouflage what has been left out as much as anything else.
Someone else at the meeting pointed out the absence of a formal hydrology study which, in his words, was a “fatal flaw” of the proposal. The Town of Lenox received a grant for $90,000 with which to study the proposed Industrial Wind Turbines. Performing the further studies necessary and defending the inevitable suits that would arise were the Town to pursue the development of Wind Power on Lenox Mountain, would likely come out of the Town’s (read Lenox taxpayer’s) pockets.
I think the Selectman’s suggestion to pursue less controversial, less expensive, and equally effective alternatives such as solar power (and conservation) would be a much better use of the Board’s efforts at this time. He made the point that with all the studies and talk, Lenox had fallen behind neighboring communities including Pittsfield insofar as Green Action was concerned. He preferred to get something done that would help the environment NOW versus putting off any action until the endless discussions regarding wind power would be exhausted.
As a lifelong advocate for sustainable living, I am reminded that just as all that glitters is not gold, all that generates electricity isn’t green. An approach to our energy needs should be diverse, appropriate to local conditions, and relevant to local resources and vulnerabilities. I favor the Cape Wind project where there is substantial wind all day long and no people live close to the turbines. I do not favor the Lenox Mountain project because of its location in a very small, environmentally sensitive area where adjacent people and other living things might suffer illness, the evidence for which is mounting (I recommend reading THE WIND TURBINE SYNDROME by Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD).
The availability of wind on Lenox Mountain is at the bottom of an acceptable range and is limited largely to the night time when the demand for electricity is lowest. Adding it to “the grid” sounds good so long as we ignore the cost of the actual transmission as well as ignore the scientifically proven degradation/loss of the generated power associated with long distance transmission.
I hope the above provides some useful additional information and places Scott Laugenour’s comments within a more comprehensive context.
John Cowl, MD