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• Anonymous

  Nuclear energy.   Gen IV plants are the safe answer to our future energy needs.

• Anonymous

  Same old song
  Just a drop of water in an endless sea
  All we do
  Crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see

  Dust in the wind
  All we are is dust in the wind

• Anonymous

  Nuclear Energy. Yeah Right… U can have it in u’r back yard. I have seen what Nuclear Plant do to
  an area.  The air is free, fresh and doesn’t cause Cancer. And yes its true. There is a Place in Pawling
  NY where a Nuclear  Plant was. Ask some people in the area that had Cancer from this delight. U ask how, when the Plant has a melt down and steam is placed in the Area. Of course u would not hear
  of this on the news as it was kept a secrect. The area wild animals also payed a price when the plant
  was closed and the cyclers were drop in to ore mines in the area.  I have seen the result.  So if u like 
  Nuclear, I suggest that u go to area that already has one.

• Anonymous

  The tree huggers will never be happy.  “Not in my back yard”  Continue living in your tents and avoid all change and progress.  Granted, the wind mills are an eye sore and some of this article makes sense but face it, we’re dependant on fossil fuels and the way things go in this state, will probably always will be.

• Anonymous

  “This electricity that is going into the grid is not needed in Maine. It’s being sold to lower New England states like Massachusetts,” O’Neil said. ”

  This is not true, although it is a well kept secret in ME. US govt. vs FERC over the building of the Stetson Mt wind farm . No room on the grid. Bottleneck in Orrington. Where does the PUC want to start the new 1.4 billion dollar “updates” on the transmission lines? Orrington.

  Our legislature passed a bill in 2007 that gave the state of ME power to take land by eminent domain for transmission lines. This is just for wind farms which produce about 15% of the capacity that they purport. The wind farm production  numbers are so abysmal that FERC won’t even allow rate payers to see them. Deregulation was supposed to lower energy rates by competition. The result is exactly opposite.

• Anonymous

  Worked so well in Japan.

• Anonymous

  Not in My Back Yard. NIMBY Guess defending your home from the noise and thumping , strobe lights is undemocratic. A true patriot would just suffer.

  The American people are expected to get ripped off and love it at the same time. If you don’t you are a hippy/NIMBY.

• Anonymous

  A nuclear plant in Vt. has gone past it’s expiration date and is leaking radiation in the Conn. river.(forget the name of the plant)

   The governor wants it shut down. BUT , the federal govt. wants it to continue polluting US. 

• Anonymous

  Those weren’t Gen IV plants. And if it weren’t for the influence of a catastrophic weather event, that plant would still be running without problems.

• Anonymous

  Want to google how many US nuc. plants are built on fault lines? Don’t know what Gen IV plants are…but Japan protested the building of their nuc plants on fault lines. The people lost.

• Anonymous

  And there are two billion dollar transmission line project which were just started in Orrington and headed south.

• PaulNotBunyan

  There was a weapons research facility near Pawling that had an explosion in 1972. The contamination released was plutonium dust. It was not a nuclear power plant. The explosion blew 2 windows out. There was no reactor so there was no melt down.

• Anonymous

  So what do we do to end out dependency on foreign energy sources and become energy independent.

  For ever alternative source there is a group against it.

  Tidal Power – fishing and clam/lobster beds.

  Wind Turbines – well the above article covers that.

  Nuclear – waste.

  Dams – sports fishing, fish migration

  Coal – strip mining, mountain top mining.

  Natural case – limited supply, gas pipelines

  etc….

  I know I am missing some sources but we either want to be energy independent or we don’t.

• Anonymous

  No nuclear plants are build on fault lines.

  The closest is Diablo Canyon. Where I worked 6 years ago.

• Anonymous

  Not true. There is no record Vermont Yankee having a ongoing leak into the Connecticut river.

  You’re just spreading false information. Not making any legitimate argument.

• Anonymous

  Did not know that. 

  NH also does not want the new power lines. They have to be built too. First Wind stated that they wanted the power to go to Mass in the summer, and Canada in the winter years ago. When you consider that the turbines have a 20 yr. life span, and Stetson Mt was finished the last of 2008..they were very sure of themselves. Since all those power lines through multiple states weren’t even built. Powerful players in politics behind the travesty, most of them democratic unfortunately.

  Former AG Max Blumenthal of Conn. was one democrat who fought it. He said that he was not going to approve of the transmission lines for a few wind farms in upper state ME. Lot of money being spent to line the pockets of corporations and politicians for a boondoggle.

• Anonymous

  Did not know that. 

  NH also does not want the new power lines. They have to be built too. First Wind stated that they wanted the power to go to Mass in the summer, and Canada in the winter years ago. When you consider that the turbines have a 20 yr. life span, and Stetson Mt was finished the last of 2008..they were very sure of themselves. Since all those power lines through multiple states weren’t even built. Powerful players in politics behind the travesty, most of them democratic unfortunately.

  Former AG Max Blumenthal of Conn. was one democrat who fought it. He said that he was not going to approve of the transmission lines for a few wind farms in upper state ME. Lot of money being spent to line the pockets of corporations and politicians for a boondoggle.

• OldWench

  It’s Vermont Yankee operated by Entergy.

• Anonymous

  Thank you.

• Anonymous

  The governor was on Democracy Now saying it. Have read it in other places too. I could say you are ignorant for not knowing , then I guess we would be even in the personal attack thingy.

• Yates1234

  Let’s not get carried away.  Of course there are groups against all these sources. But one has to evaluate the logic against a source of electricity.  A small hydro dam with a fish way is not as offensive as far as I know as wind power projects. Wind projects are easily and sensibly opposed. Every power source has its detractors. 

  Wind power is good about 30 percent of the time and a backup such as a natural gas plant is needed. This is inefficient and costly and unsightly.  Small hydro projects with a fish way produce energy 100 percent of the time and no backup is needed.  If the fish way is designed for numerous sea run species, the fish way will benefit all the fish that need to go upstream. Nuclear produces 100 percent but then we have spent fuel rods to store forever, so there is a lot of sense to oppose nuclear.  Biomass boilers have good scrubbers in the stacks and burn waste wood and other wastes.  This, too, is a sensible source of electricity.

  I guess my point is made.  Don’t throw the baby out with the dishwater.  Evaluate the various sources of electricity here in Maine.  Oppose the sources that harm the environment and stand up for the sources that provide the services we need with a minimal impact on the environment. 

• Yates1234

  Let’s not get carried away.  Of course there are groups against all these sources. But one has to evaluate the logic against a source of electricity.  A small hydro dam with a fish way is not as offensive as far as I know as wind power projects. Wind projects are easily and sensibly opposed. Every power source has its detractors. 

  Wind power is good about 30 percent of the time and a backup such as a natural gas plant is needed. This is inefficient and costly and unsightly.  Small hydro projects with a fish way produce energy 100 percent of the time and no backup is needed.  If the fish way is designed for numerous sea run species, the fish way will benefit all the fish that need to go upstream. Nuclear produces 100 percent but then we have spent fuel rods to store forever, so there is a lot of sense to oppose nuclear.  Biomass boilers have good scrubbers in the stacks and burn waste wood and other wastes.  This, too, is a sensible source of electricity.

  I guess my point is made.  Don’t throw the baby out with the dishwater.  Evaluate the various sources of electricity here in Maine.  Oppose the sources that harm the environment and stand up for the sources that provide the services we need with a minimal impact on the environment. 

• Anonymous

  I don’t think they are tree-huggers..  I am betting that they are the kind of people who don’t like anything new.  New things scare them.    “I used to be With IT. But then they changed what IT was. Now what I’m with isn’t IT, and what’s IT seems scary and weird. It’ll happen to YOU.”   ~Abe Simpson

• Anonymous

  I don’t think they are tree-huggers..  I am betting that they are the kind of people who don’t like anything new.  New things scare them.    “I used to be With IT. But then they changed what IT was. Now what I’m with isn’t IT, and what’s IT seems scary and weird. It’ll happen to YOU.”   ~Abe Simpson

• Anonymous

  “Those opposed to wind energy in western Maine have heard it all. They’ve been called tree huggers, hippies and fanatics, they said…”
   
  Oh boo hoo.  So the anti-wind activists have got their feelings hurt over being called “hippies.”  Has Erin Cox ever noticed the perennial slander that the anti-windys heap upon anyone who supports wind power?  “Parasites, shills, subsidy-sucking criminals, thieves.”  These are just a few of the charming playground taunts the antis throw at anyone who doesn’t agree with their point of view.  

  Here’s  a little advice for Chris O’Neil and his sensitive minions:  If you don’t like getting a little bit of dirt on your shirt, then quit slinging mud.

• Anonymous

  Mary, remember those massive blackouts in August of 2003 that left tens of millions of Americans and Canadians without power?  That was caused by the inadequacies of the electrical infrastructure…in other words, there was too much demand for electricity and not enough muscle in the power lines to deliver the goods.  Thankfully, after eight years and an ongoing national discussion among energy experts about what needs to be done, the problem is finally being rectified.  Call it a boondoggle if you want, but there’ll be plenty of critics who will be madder than hornets the next time they have to sit in the dark without their TV and their air conditioners.

• Anonymous

  Backups like natural gas plants are needed with or without wind power, since our electrical system demands backups for all forms of electricity generation.  To make the argument that spinning reserves are needed solely because of wind power is a fallacy that the anti-wind side loves to trot out. 

  There are many pluses when it comes to hydro.  However, when it’s your land that is being submerged and drowned behind the dam, you will curse the dam.  Mainers have already shot down very practical dam projects for that very reason…Dickey Lincoln comes to mind.

  Also, burning waste is an idiotic way to make electricity, particularly since a lot of the waste that is burned contains toxins like lead, and is brought here in massive quantities from out of state.

  I agree with you that we should evaluate the various sources of electricity in Maine, but the sources you put forward as optimal are not necessarily so.