State Tyranny …Vermont Signals Citizens: Opposing Wind Energy Now Requires “License To Practice Law”!

The most recent move by the “Green Mountain” state and the wind power industry is the latest sure sign of desperation and policy bankruptcy. It is designed to stamp out citizens’ democratic right to peacefully protest and organize to oppose.

Now that Vermonters are finally waking up to the fact that the state and the wind power industry are gang raping Vermont’s idyllic landscape and natural heritage for profit and insane ideology, their resistance to wind park projects in Vermont has (finally!) grown to formidable mass – and so much so that the Vermont Attorney General’s Office is now resorting to brute legal intimidation to get the opposition to wind to back down.

This is the sad state of the wind industry in Vermont. Not only does it need junk climate science, massive subsidies and feed-in tariffs to survive, but now it also needs raw legal intimidation by the state itself.

Criminal investigation – just because they oppose

Annette Smith, executive director of the wind energy opposition group “Vermonters for a Clean Environment“, has posted at her Facebook site “Victims of Industrial Wind” that her organization has received a letter from the Vermont Assistant Attorney General, alleging their opposition activities against wind farms involves, get this, the “unauthorized practice of law”. The Victims of Industrial Wind organization is “assisting people and towns in participating in the Public Service Board process“, the site writes.

What follows is a copy of the Assistant Attorney General’s letter:

Vermont Letter_1

Vermont Letter_2

As the letter shows, Smith and her anti-wind advocacy organization are under investigation. Citizens actively participating in actions involved in peaceful protest and opposition now requires a license to practice law. This is absurd.

Obviously in Vermont if you want to protest the state, you first have to get a license to do so – from the state! If that is not tyranny, then what is?

Unarmed David vs Goliath

Vermont Digger here writes how Smith is aghast at the state’s aggressive move, characterizing it as “harassment”, “very intimidating” and “politically motivated”. Vermont Digger goes on to describe a legal environment where the state, in partnership with the powerful wind industry, is attempting to bulldoze and crush an opposition that is run on a shoestring and has no legal resources. Vermont Digger writes:

Smith said she represents people who too frequently have nowhere else to turn. Renewable energy developers hire talented attorneys against whom landowners near project sites have no other way of successfully representing themselves.”

The message Vermont is sending is clear: Get of our way, or we’ll squash you. This is a clear abuse of power by the Attorney General’s Office and a grotesque attempt to deny powerless citizens the democratic right to engage in opposition.

 

16 responses to “State Tyranny …Vermont Signals Citizens: Opposing Wind Energy Now Requires “License To Practice Law”!”

  1. chris moffatt

    Clear violation of the first amendment on two grounds:
    1. abridging freedom of speech
    2. abridging the right to peacefully assemble to petition for redress of grievances

  2. Ric Werme

    That’s pretty impressive. It sounds like there’s a lot of stuff happening with people trying to get back control of their state despite the actions of the wind industry.

    Worth reading: http://watchdog.org/254581/vermonts-energy-siting-struggle-hits-crescendo/

    Press conference that the article is about: https://youtu.be/mbNpjd3zxII

  3. Buddy Tumbarello

    “Now that Vermonters are finally waking up to the fact that the state and the wind power industry are gang raping Vermont’s idyllic landscape…”

    ABSOLUTELY. Couldn’t agree more. Maybe they can replace that horrible nonpolluting wind energy…..with “clean coal”. OK….so coal dirties the air, and dirties the water, and spreads poison. But compared to wind energy….I mean come on. Clean coal in 2016….:)

    1. yonason

      Because, as everyone knows, wind farms are perfectly safe.

      And CO2 is NOT a pollutant.
      http://www.populartechnology.net/2008/11/carbon-dioxide-co2-is-not-pollution.html

      1. yonason
    2. DirkH

      “OK….so coal dirties the air, and dirties the water, and spreads poison.”

      You do know about that invention called flue gas scrubbing, right? Well if not, there’s always google.

  4. Cat

    If Chen moves more than hot air, Smith & Co should file a first amendment suit.

  5. Robert Doyle

    The “weasel”, slippery, escape word for Mr. Chen is “possible”.

    The correct first step [IMO] is to write Mr. Chen:

    1. Our efforts are First Amendment, protected speech.
    2. Considering this U.S. protection, how does the state of Vermont, wish the “possible” conflict of your observations regarding Vermont statutes and First Amendment privledge be resolved.

    Regards,

    Annette Smith

    Then, if the state of Vermont’s A.G. office doubles down, explore State funded and NGO legal support for litigation.

    Good post.

  6. Doug Proctor

    That is certainly a Stalinist or Chinese Communist move! It would include you or I reading about a precedent/case that sounds pertinent, and then telling someone who might benefit from it, and them proceeding (after review) on the basis of the knowledge.

    The guilds of 16th century England have not gone away. Knowledge is power, then and now.

  7. Augustine O'Brien

    There are a number of residents of New England that often referred to Vermont as the “Peoples Republic” of Vermont and if the tone of this article is to be believed then the reference is very appropriate.

    1. yonason

      It’s what fascists do. If they can’t win an argument using facts (which they virtually never have), they’ll resort to intimidation or worse. California is now cracking down on AGW deniers. And it’s the AGW scam that’s responsible for windmill woo in the first place.

  8. yonason

    Before long, they’ll say if you aren’t a licensed politician, you can’t oppose any of the candidates, either.

  9. cementafriend

    I notice that Vermont has a Board of Professional Engineers to administer and registration of engineers and take disciplinary actions.
    Regulations require
    6.5 Practice Guidelines
    The Board endorses the following Fundamental Principles and Canons of the Code of Ethics of ABET as
    recommended guidelines for the practice of professional engineering:
    The Fundamental Principles:
    Engineers uphold and advance the integrity, honor and dignity of the engineering profession by:
    1. Using their knowledge and skill for the enhancement of the human welfare;
    2. Being honest and impartial, and serving with fidelity the public, their employers and clients;
    3. Striving to increase the competence and prestige of the engineering profession; and
    4. Supporting the professional and technical societies of their disciplines.
    May a complaint can be put in first about the Attorney General who is not registered and knows nothing about engineering, and secondly about the engineers involved in designing and installing the monsters in that they are not complying with the practice guidelines of considering the public, being honest and being competent.

  10. John F. Hultquist

    2/3 of the voters went with B.O.
    Twice.

    “tyranny of the majority”

  11. chris moffatt

    In any case the VT Asst Attorney General is clearly wrong. There is nothing that prevents people from doing their own legal research. You don’t even need an attorney in court; it is not illegal to represent yourself at law, criminal or civil.

  12. Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #214 | Watts Up With That?

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