In Vermont, Thorn in Side of Powerful Faces Criminal Probe
By dave gram, associated press
"Even though this is a preposterous charge, and will likely be thrown out, its purpose will be fulfilled: to chill anyone's free speech rights who dares to question the powerful in Montpelier," attorney Deborah Bucknam wrote in an op-ed.
Smith's efforts to give towns and local groups greater say in large-scale renewable energy projects are meant to "help those who cannot afford the high priced lawyers the developers can," wrote Bucknam, who has represented critics of a wind project in northeastern Vermont.
Smith, 59, uses a small solar installation to power her home in Danby, where she milks a cow by hand and defies Vermont winters by growing citrus — limes and grapefruit — in a greenhouse. But she has been an outspoken critic of what she sees as the negative effects of large-scale wind and solar projects: wildlife deaths and noise pollution from wind turbines, visual blight from sprawling solar arrays.