Anna Vesely Pilette and Carol Lind

Development in the name of the environment

Why are we destroying the very mountaintops and beauty that Vermont is known for all over the world?

In small towns, there is a wonderful sense of community and trust. We depend on our neighbors. We come through for one another - just think about how neighbors responded during Tropical Storm Irene.

No one stopped to think about the other's politics or whether they were a second-home owner or a permanent resident. Everyone pitched in to get the job done.

But Vermont's small towns are being threatened by a frenzy of development activity from huge energy-generation projects in the name of the environment.

One of largest landowners in the state, a company that owns the Stiles Brook Forest, which spans the boundary between the historic towns of Grafton and Windham, has invited one of the world's largest foreign energy companies to build an industrial wind project there.

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