Right on the heels of overcoming NIMBY opposition to its North Kingstown Green wind turbine, developer Mark DePasquale and his company Wind Energy Development were dealt a setback on the second commercial turbine project they had proposed for NK.
The second project, slated for the Stamp Farm right off Route 2, was halted by the North Kingstown Planning Commission last night. DePasquale had proposed to reduce the size of the wind turbine from its initial 427-foot, 1.8 megawatt size to 389 feet and 1.5 megawatts.
By a 5-1 vote, the Planning Commission deemed this to be a "significant change" to the application, thus making it a new application and subject to North Kingstown's moratorium against any new wind turbine projects.
In both Charlestown and North Kingstown, local opposition to wind energy has been fierce, even over the top at times. In North Kingstown, the turbine developer has been willing to play extreme hard ball with the opposition, leading to the collapse of the opposition I reported yesterday when DePasquale filed a $25 million lawsuit against the objectors. That project has now been cleared for construction.
I'd say the odds are that DePasquale may deploy the same tactics to win approval of the Stamp Farm project.