Important Public Hearing on September 12

Will Charlestown be the first in the US to ban ALL wind power?
By Will Collette

Maybe some of you are thinking, after the experience of this past week, that you'd like to be a little less dependent on National Grid and are thinking about a wind generator for your home. Well, you can forget about it unless the majority shifts on the Town Council.

The Charlestown Town Council will conduct a public hearing on the Planning Commission’s proposed Ordinance 341 which will totally ban wind energy in Charlestown. And they may vote on its adoption.

Contrary to the propaganda from the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) and the Westerly Sun that this is an innocent measure designed to “buy time” for the Planning Commission to write a new ordinance just for residential wind generators, Ordinance 341 is a total ban that we predict will last a very long time.

It is also unnecessary. It is radical. And it will make Charlestown look ridiculous because it is the first such law of its type in the nation.

You should attend the Town Council meeting AND you should send your comments to the Council in writing.

BACKGROUND: Developer Larry LeBlanc proposed the Whalerock wind farm project which would overlook Route One with at least a couple 450+ foot turbines . Later, the town and the Washington County Regional Planning Commission partnered together on a plan to put one or more smaller turbines in Ninigret Park to provide power for municipal use.

"We had to burn  this village down to save it."

Both projects caused neighbors to become alarmed and organize NIMBY (“Not in My Back Yard”) groups. These groups expanded their focus beyond the flaws – some of which were obvious – in these two specific projects to adopt what has almost become an ideology that all wind power is bad, unhealthy, dangerous and ineffective – all science to the contrary. Even though a CCA poll showed overwhelming support for wind power in Charlestown, the majority of current Town Council members – Tom Gentz, Dan Slattery and Lisa DiBello – caught the NIMBY fever. Dan Slattery caught it REAL bad – he often mentions health effects caused by wind turbines (from very suspect sources) driving his conviction to purge the evil wind from our town.

The Planning Commission was already there. Under the leadership of Charlestown Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, the Planning Commission had already drafted an ordinance that was enacted as part of the town’s moratorium against wind projects. This ordinance did not ban wind energy outright, but made the conditions for obtaining a permit for residential or small commercial wind turbines almost impossible to meet.

With the moratorium about to run out, the Town Council decided, with the advice of Town Solicitor Peter Ruggerio (bad advice IMO) that instead of extending the moratorium, the Council should enact Ordinance 341 that bans all wind-to-electricity devices, regardless of size, purpose or location to “buy time.”

Our NIMBY-dominated Planning Commission and Town Council thereby propose to destroy any hope of a sensible Charlestown alternative energy policy in order to save it. To solve a relatively straight forward policy problem, the Town Council proposes to go nuclear.

However, there is a much more sensible approach involving three separate, relatively simple actions.

1. Industrial-sized turbines. The Council and Planning Commission have deemed any wind generator that is taller than 200 feet and generates more than 100KW to be an industrial-sized generator. There appears to be majority sentiment – or at least very strong and vocal NIMBY sentiment – that wind turbines larger than 200 feet are unacceptable. So ban them.

2. Residential wind generators. The Council and Planning Commission defines these as generating less than 15KW. They also know there are many new designs coming on the market where generators can draw more energy from less wind and do not need to be mounted very high. They also acknowledge that there is little or no opposition to residential wind energy use. So de-regulate them – allow them to be installed anywhere in town, subject only to meeting the town’s nuisance regulations and safe building practices.

3. Mid-range wind generators. These generate more than 15KW and less than 100KW and are shorter than 200 feet tall. The current ordinance – the one that Ordinance 341 is meant to replace – provides a starting point for figuring out how to properly regulate these types of wind generators. The level of regulation in the current ordinance – not the total ban – is already extremely detailed and already leans totally towards protecting neighbors rather than encouraging wind development. Let those rules stand, for now, for these mid-range generators.

Given these alternatives, there is no need for such a radical remedy as Ordinance 341. It will set back efforts to promote alternative energy solutions in Charlestown. It may even have a wider reaching negative effect, given its unprecedented nature.

It will just make all of us in Charlestown look silly and backwards.

To submit your written comments on Ordinance 341, you should send them to Town Clerk Amy Rose Weinreich first.

You may also wish to send them to the individual Council members:

Thomas B. Gentz, President – he voted YES for the ban on first reading

152 Sea Breeze Avenue

Charlestown, RI  02813

401-527-7181

tom.gentz@charlestownri.org

Gregory J. Avedisian– he voted NO on the ban on first reading

354 West Beach Road

Charlestown, RI  02813

401-212-0078

greg.avedisian@charlestownri.org

Lisa A. DiBello - she voted YES on the ban on first reading

35 Morley Street

Charlestown, RI  02813

401-213-6729

lisa.dibello@charlestownri.org

Marjorie F. Frank - she voted NO on the ban on first reading

4700 Old Post Road

Charlestown, RI  02813

401-364-6645

marge.frank@charlestownri.org

Daniel J. Slattery, Vice President - he voted YES for the ban on first reading

24 Watchaug Lane

Charlestown, RI  02813

401-213-6182

dan.slattery@charlestownri.org