A pair of new grants totaling more than $228,000 will support educational and job training at Adult and Continuing Education of Martha's Vineyard.
The advertisement by the P.O.I.N.T. (Protect Our Islands Now for Tomorrow) organization in the May 28 edition of the Gazette contained a series of arguments that I think need to be addressed one by one. Many of the individual points are accurate and we should not ignore them, but the general thrust of the ad is very misleading. It seems to argue that the best way to deal with our energy need is to get it from somewhere else.
A divided Martha’s Vineyard Commission last Thursday clashed over whether the technical language in a recently adopted Aquinnah wind bylaw is in synch with a townwide district of critical planning concern (DCPC) approved over 10 years ago.
In the end the commission voted 7-6 that the new bylaw — drafted by the planning board and approved by voters at a November town meeting — does not conform with the guidelines of the townwide DCPC.
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission has a suc cessful history of protecting the Island from development that would enrich the few while hurting the public as a whole. Its temporary moratorium on large wind turbines deserves great praise as a courageous step given the risk of being branded antigreen energy. A pause to stop and understand fully the benefits and risks of siting industrial facilities (that’s what they are) on the Island is precisely what is needed because the debate over wind energy projects has become completely unbalanced.
Despite ongoing protests from a handful of small farmers, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission last Thursday continued on its path to develop regulations for wind turbines at sea and on land, voting to designate a sweeping land-based district of critical planning concern (DCPC) for airspace over the Island.
The vote was 12-0; it follows a vote by the commission six weeks ago to create a wind DCPC over the waters around the Island.
After nearly two years of rejections and revisions, Aquinnah voters agreed at a special town meeting on Tuesday night to adopt a bylaw to regulate private and public wind turbines. Crafted as an amendment to the townwide district of critical planning concern, the bylaw is the first of its kind to be adopted on the Vineyard.
But approval did not come without a wide-ranging debate that was at times passionate.
“If you believe in global warming, I think you should pass this,” declared selectman Jim Newman.
Kilowatt for Kilowatt
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
The following statement was read into the record by a West Tisbury selectman at the public hearing on Wednesday night:
