Grafton Woodlands Group & Community Resource Center
Founded in 2014, the Grafton Woodlands Group is a non-profit community-based organization that educates citizens about environmental issues. Its Community Resource Center in Grafton offers a library of materials and resources, and the GWP hosts events at the Center and elsewhere. See the Contact and Events pages for more information, as well as the articles below.
Articles related to the Grafton Woodlands Group
Grafton to screen award-winning documentary, “Windfall”
NY-Times-acclaimed "Windfall" documents the experience of a small rural town in upstate New York impacted by industrial scale wind. Friday, July 1, 6:30pm, at the White Church in Grafton, 55 Main Street. Free. All are welcome. Refreshments will be served.
Author Mitch Frankenberg: An Evening of Twists, Turns, and Industrial Wind
On Wednesday, June 1, at 6:30 p.m.at the Grafton Elementary School, Mitch Frankenberg, a member of the West Rutland Select Board and author of the new book, “Twists, Turns, and Yellow Brick Roads: A Declaration of Independence, Empathy and Self-Control” will speak about why Vermont and land throughout the world is targeted for large-scale build-outs of wind, solar and gas and why as citizens we need to pay attention. Frankenberg says: “Iberdrola is one of the world’s richest holding companies, and it is a corporation that trades on the Madrid Stock Exchange. By creating subsidiaries in America such as New England Wind LLC and New York State Electric and Gas Co, Iberdrola, has received more than $2.2 billion in free welfare money that was paid for by you, me and millions of American taxpayers.”
Agency of Natural Resources has betrayed its mission to protect Vermont
GRAFTON, VT — On Friday, March 18, before an audience of more than 100, Geoffrey Goll, P.E., environmental engineer and vice-president of Princeton Hydro, described the failure of Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources to protect the public from potential damage caused by ridgeline wind installation.
GWG Program features Geoffrey Goll on the Impacts of Ridgeline Wind Development on Vermont’s Water Resources
GWG presents Geoffrey Goll of Princeton Hydro, who will discuss the Saxtons River watershed and the potential impact of industrial wind. The focus will be based on his direct relevant experience with other wind projects and the impacts of Vermont’s high elevation headwater sources of water for people and the ecology. Goll will highlight the extreme difficulty of controlling storm water runoff from high-impact, high-elevation construction sites. He will describe the risks associated with the permit conditions, lack of enforcement, and the downstream troubles imparted by such projects – including increased flooding, stream bank erosion, and sedimentation on culverts, bridges, and impacts on downstream communities.
Grafton Woodlands Group January Program: Professor Ben Luce
Ben Luce, renewable energy expert and professor of physics and sustainability at Lyndon State College, will join us on January 15. Professor Luce spent several years in New Mexico, where he advocated with environmental nonprofits to pass significant renewable energy legislation; additionally, he was the head of alternative energy for Los Alamos National Laboratory. Since returning to Vermont in 2008, he has conducted intense studies of the numerous proposed industrial wind projects sited on ridgelines in the Northeast.
Swanton, VT residents vote 731-160 against industrial wind. Shumlin also now changing his tune.
Governor Shumlin is saying very different things about Big Wind than he was just months ago, and it may finally spell the end of subsidy-grabs for mega-corporations like Iberdrola as well as opportunists like NH-based Meadowsend Timberlands, whose plan to develop a massive industrial wind site at Stiles Brook Forest is also expected to be voted down by Grafton and Windham, VT residents.
Vermont Utility CEO explains why industrial “green” energy plan is DOA
One of the more appalling aspects of the proposed Iberdrola / Meadowsend Timberlands industrial wind project at Stiles Brook Forest: Iberdrola currently has no buyer for the energy they (might) produce, and would likely have to sell it "elsewhere" (read: NY), because Vermont utilities have made clear they are uninterested in buying any more Big Wind. Turbine_BurningIn a new interview with Vermont Watchdog, Dave Hallquist, CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative, explains why Vermont’s so-called "green" energy agenda (ie, foreign multinationals blowing up VT ridgelines) appears to be dead on arrival.
Grafton Woodlands Group plans informational programs
The Grafton Woodlands Group announces its first in a series of speaker talks that are designed to inform and engage citizens in discussions about local environmental and energy issues. Upcoming October and November programs include the showing and discussion of the documentary film "Windfall," as well as discussions on energy goals and climate change, conservation of natural resources and wildlife species, a community reception and information session and a retrospective of Vermont’s environmental past, present and future.
VT Digger on Grafton Woodlands Group’s new Community Resource Center
The Grafton Woodlands Group Inc. has set up an environmental community resource and knowledge center that will provide a home base for the group’s fight against a possible wind-turbine project in the towns of Windham and Grafton. The office is situated just up the street from an office previously established by Meadowsend Timberlands Ltd., the New Hampshire company that owns the land that may host Windham County’s first commercial wind turbines.