COLCHESTER, Vt. – A proposed three-year moratorium on ridgeline wind energy projects in Vermont could dampen any future investment in renewable energy, a developer says.

But Caledonia Republican Sen. Joe Benning, a proponent of a three-year moratorium, said the Northeast Kingdom is being targeted by wind developers and a time-out is needed so the state can study the cost and the environmental impact of the projects.

“We would share the view with a number of others that feel that a moratorium is unnecessary,” said Jack Kenworthy, manager of Seneca Mountain Wind, which is working on a 40-turbine project in three towns in the region that would become the state’s largest. “It certainly sends a clear signal to investors in clean energy in Vermont that it’s not a safe and reasonable place to make those investments. And I think it would serve to certainly stifle those investments.”

There are two industrial wind power facilities in the Northeast Kingdom. A 16-turbine project in Sheffield went online last year. A 21-turbine project in Lowell is just beginning operation. The last turbine there was connected to the electric grid Nov. 21.

Benning said the moratorium, which has bipartisan support in the Senate, is needed.

“The Northeast Kingdom does not need to be the pinwheel cushion for the rest of the state of Vermont just because some politicians have decided industrial-strength wind is the way to go,” Benning said.