Representatives for the company looking to build 33 wind turbines on ridgelines in the unincorporated areas of Dixville and Millsfield fielded some tough questions from the more than 120 people who attended a public hearing in Groveton last night.

Some focused on the details: How would birds and bats be affected? What kind of safety regulations would be in place during construction? Will the turbines affect flight patterns?

Others had a broader concern: Will the company, Granite Reliable Power, postpone the project in order to allow the construction of wood-burning power plants, which would provide more jobs for the region?

The 99-megawatt wind farm would feed into the transmission line known as the Coos County loop and would effectively absorb its remaining capacity. Upgrades would have to be made before new electricity generators, including biomass plants, could come online.

In the first part of the meeting, Thomas Getz, chairman of the state Public Utilities Commission, took questions from the audience on note cards. One said, given that wood power would bring more jobs to a region hit hard by mill closures in recent years, "why are we even discussing this?"

Getz said adding capacity for an additional 300 megawatts would cost about $200 million. His office, along with public utility officials in Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island, have argued that the cost of expanding the regional electricity grid in order to bring new renewable energy projects online should be shared proportionally throughout the grid.

That means New Hampshire electricity customers would pay for about 9 percent of the cost, while Massachusetts's customers would pay 50 percent. Officials in that state and in Connecticut have argued against sharing costs.

Getz said two wood-burning projects have been proposed for the county but are not as high in the queue to connect to the grid as Granite Reliable and its parent company, Connecticut-based Nobel Environmental Power. After several questioners asked why the other projects couldn't go forward first, Mark Lyons, senior counsel for Nobel, said the application is not a matter of wind vs. wood.

"Both are great renewable resources," he said.

Nobel Environmental has an application for a second wind project - a 146-megawatt farm to be built northeast of the 99-megawatt site - so the company has an interest in expanding transmission as well, Lyons said.

The company has agreed to give $495,000 to the county as a payment in lieu of taxes. Lyons called the wind farm a "high-value" economic development opportunity with little drain on local services.

"We will not require the building of a new schoolhouse, for instance, to house children of new employees," he said.

Executive Councilor Ray Burton spoke in favor of the project. He said it "fits well" in the North Country.

"Coos County needs this kind of economic stimulus," he said. "It isn't going to create 1,000 jobs, it isn't going to create another mill, but it is a step in the right direction."

Peter Roth, public counsel and senior assistant attorney general, asked Lyons whether or not the project is for sale, given that Nobel Environmental is majority-owned by JPMorgan Partners and given the nation's financial turmoil.

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