Wind developers and their lawyers are brutal to anyone who consistently stands in their way. Annette Smith of Vermont is one who has fought with everything she has, and helped others have the courage to do the same. She doesn’t give up. Apparently she’s so good at helping that the wind developers and their lawyers need to ‘get rid of her’, and the only way they can think of is to drag out some ancient law that hasn’t been used in Vermont since the ’60’s for “practicing law without a license”. And it carries potentially severe penalties. “It is punished as criminal contempt of the Vermont Supreme Court, and is potentially punishable by fine or imprisonment or both, in the court’s discretion,” John Treadwell, Chief of the Criminal Division at the AG’s office says.
This is such a long stretch of an accusation that these lawyers have schemed up, yet Annette has to fight it, she doesn’t have a choice and it is going to cost her a pile just to defend herself. Think about any person in this wind fight that has given you guidance, direction, hope, skills, intelligent thought, and experience (I can think of more than a handful!). That’s the kind of person Annette is. Now imagine that person is getting prosecuted just because she helped you find your way around the messy world of tribunal hearings etc, that were created by legislators and lawyers to be as incomprehensible to the average person as possible.
There are broader implications of this sort of action that wind company lawyers hunger for too. It has the same effect on free speech and protest as a SLAPP suit. Those who need to fight for their homes will have nobody to turn for for help, unless they can afford lawyers that cost at least tens of thousands of dollars, usually hundreds of thousands. These people will not have a voice, and the wind companies can have smooth sailing. On top of this, those who have the experience and knowledge
will feel threatened to lend a hand to those who are desperate for some direction but can’t afford a lawyer – yes they are silenced too. The only people left to speak are the LAWYERS! Alarm bells! Does that sound a tad frightening to you too?!
Please spread the word and generously help Annette out. Here’s the GoFundMe site that takes donations to help with this legal battle that has been imposed on her.
~Esther Wrightman
AG’s Office Investigating Complaints Against Annette Smith, Anti-Wind Advocate
…The state attorney general’s office has opened an investigation into criminal complaints against a prominent champion of Vermonters who are adversely affected by renewable development. The attorney general’s office is investigating whether Annette Smith, executive director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, has practiced law without a license — a charge with penalties left entirely to the court’s discretion.
Smith says the complaints that prompted the AG’s investigation are politically motivated. Attorneys who have argued against Smith’s clients say she gives bad advice, unconstrained by the sanctions licensed attorneys would incur for similar behaviour. Smith says the AG’s investigation “is very intimidating.” “I don’t know what to do. I think our work’s being shut down,” Smith said. “I believe this has the potential to shut down my organization of 16 years. It clearly falls under the definition of harassment.”
Residents who live near planned and existing renewable projects have claimed she’s their only advocate. 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. Many of these cases involve people who can’t afford a lawyer, and who didn’t want to become involved in legal proceedings to protect their interests, she said. Lawyers know it’s impossible to fight renewable energy developers, Smith said, and won’t take on affected landowners’ cases anyway. “Anybody who does this with a lawyer has wasted tens of thousands of dollars,” she said. “The reason I’m doing this is so people have a voice without bankrupting themselves.”
In Vermont, thorn in side of powerful faces criminal probe
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Annette Smith has been fighting the power for more than 15 years, tenaciously opposing energy projects she believes harm the environment or quality of life in Vermont. Now she is the target of a criminal investigation into whether her efforts constitute unlicensed legal work — but her allies say her only offense is too often annoying a green power industry that boasts deep pockets.
“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. She won’t comment on the specifics of the allegations — “Anything I say can be used against me,” she said — but called the investigation “a government-sponsored SLAPP suit,” using an acronym meaning “strategic lawsuit against public participation.” Read article
Vermonters should demand that Annette at least has a jury trial!
Is every librarian who ever looked up legal information for people going to be jailed as well?
Good, clear thinking! Excellent points.
Wikipedia: Vermont Supreme Court
Note who appointed the present members of the Vermont Supreme Court.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_Supreme_Court
Wikipedia: Vermont Public Service Board
3 members all appointed by Gov. Shumlin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_Public_Service_Board
Vermont Watchdog, Feb.1, 2016
Smith scrutinized due to complaints amounting to practicing law without a license-an act considered contempt of The Vermont Supreme Court.
https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=75816
Economic Impact Of Vermont Yankee Closure
UMass Donahue Institute, December 2014
This report spells out the economic impact this closure will have on this New England Region.
Loss of 50 percent of the electric supply for Vermont.
http://donahue.umassp.edu/documents/UMDI_Economic_Impacts-VY_Closure_Dec2014.pdf
At least everyone can see what an economic impact report is and not be mislead by any “green” propaganda that has been put out about how great it was to close this plant.
Try: http://www.donahue.umassp.edu/our-publications/economic-impacts-of-vermont-yankee-closure
2014 Publications Archive.
Has link to the Report.
350.org is located in Vermont with Bill McKibben & Naomi Klein running it.
Just a coincidence that 350.org had a rally in Toronto last July (2015) while the Summit of the Americas was taking place which Gov. Shumlin attended?
Where’s Bernie Sanders when you need him?
Likely in Iowa today for the Iowa Presidential Caucus vote.
Greenpeace USA, Jan.11, 2015
More Than 20 Organizations Ask Presidential Candidates to Sign a “Fix Democracy Pledge”
Bernie Sanders signed.
350.org and Bill McKibben signed this pledge
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/20-organizations-ask-presidential-candidates-sign-fix-democracy-pledge
McKibben has been/is associated with Greenpeace Canada activities in Alberta.
Greenpeace, Netherlands Office, Nov.25, 2014
Photo of Naomi Klein at Greenpeace, Netherlands.
http://www.photo.greenpeace.org/archive/Naomi-Klein-at-Greenpeace-Netherlands-Office-27MZIF3UVFR2.html
Desmog, Feb.3, 2016
Senators Introduce “Merchants Of Doubt” Amendment Into Energy Bill, Call On Fossil Fuel Industry To End Climate Denial and Deception
“Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joined the amendment as a co-sponsor once it was introduced.”
http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/02/03/senators-introduce-merchants-doubt-amendment-energy-bill-call-fossil-fuel-industry-end-denial-and-deception
Sanders would not introduce such a bill but would join in after it was introduced.
A version of this situation situation is already in Canada with the Competition Bureau Complaint.
RollingStone, Australia, Feb.2, 2016
Interview with David Suzuki
Item 2:
“I really believe that people like the former Prime Minister of Canada should be thrown in jail for willful blindness.”
http://www.rollingstoneaus.com/culture/post/david-suzuki-encounter/3089
Who are the people like the former Prime Minister who should be thrown in jail?
Hey Barb, is there an address I could send a donation to? I don’t do facebook. Thanks.
Annette Smith
Vermonters for a Clean Environment Inc.
789 Baker Brook Rd.
Danby, VT 05739
Thank You
It’s interesting that Erin Brockovich tweeted in support of Annette Smith. I sent Erin a long message in late December about our situation here in Ontario.
I hadn’t been aware that she was called in to Oakville just before the gas plant got cancelled.
She is very caught up with a large CA lawsuit for residents near the methane leak in California, but she is obviously well aware of our plight.
Let’s keep her informed of our situation in rural Ontario. Anyone can leave messages for her on her site.
Stephen Lewis, father-in-law of Naomi Klein, is a party in/to the Canadian Competition Bureau Complaint about some billboards in Canada.
The Competition Bureau Complaint document is available online.
350.org
Moving Planet, Vermont, Sept.24, 2011
Scroll down to quotation attributed to Gov. Shumlin & Bernie Sanders.
http://www.350vermont.org/moving-planet-2
There is more online information on this topic.
Global Renewable News, Jan.29, 2016
The Wind and Hydro Response
“Leading Wind Developer Joins Transmission Experts to Deliver Clean Energy for New England”
Wind developer, Invenergy and Hydro-Quebec join in proposed project to deliver up to 400 MW to New England. The wind project will be near Plattsburg, N.Y.
There are a number of renewable energy projects proposed to supply Southern New England with electricity which includes Mass., Conn., and RI. who are closing conventional power plants and looking for renewable energy supplies.
http://www.globalrenewablenews.com/detail_news.php?ID=562255
This will be accomplished at the expense of rural residents.