GREENBUSH, Maine — Steve Cravin spent 22 years helping build at least 10 Los Angeles, Trident, Seawolf and Centurion class nuclear submarines as a pipefitter and shipbuilder for General Dynamics in Rhode Island.
Cravin moved to Maine and has had a cabin on Saponac Pond since 1998 to get away from the grime, smoke and claustrophobia of those all-metal environments. He told Maine Department of Environmental Protection leaders that he feels his lakeshore investment threatened by a new form of industrial ugliness: industrial wind turbines.
“I think this [state review process] should go a full year because I don’t think enough people out there actually know what’s going to happen here,” Cravin said Thursday during a public meeting at Helen S. Dunn Elementary School.
“I know you people look at dollars and cents. Everything is jobs,” Cravin added. “The problem with this is you have hunting and fishing there, scenery that everybody loves to look at. Do you plan to do a study on this?”
Cravin was among a dozen speakers who told state officials that the proposed 14-turbine industrial wind site proposed for Passadumkeag Mountain would blight one of Maine’s most beautiful mountains and lakes. More than 150 people attended.
Called Passadumkeag Wind Park and proposed by Quantum Utility Generation, an alternative energy company based in Houston, Texas, the site’s turbines would be 459 feet from base to extended blade tip. Each turbine would generate 3 megawatts of electricity, according to the company’s proposal.
Electricity would be collected in a 34.5-kilovolt line to run about 17 miles from Passadumkeag Ridge along Greenfield Road through Summit Township, Greenfield Township and Greenbush. The project would include a substation in Greenbush and a connection to an existing 115-kilovolt transmission line on Greenbush Road.
Speakers expressed fears that DEP approval of the site would cause land values to plummet, threaten wildlife and the area’s tourism industry while contributing few jobs and less industry to the area.
They complained that strobe lights hung on the turbines would be a nuisance and that the turbines would threaten wildlife, including many species on federal preservation lists.
“I don’t understand. We are supposed to be the tourism state,” one speaker said. “People are supposed to come here and see beauty. What beauty is this?”
Several speakers expressed hope that DEP would follow the example of the Land Use Regulation Commission when it rejected First Wind’s proposed 27-turbine site on nearby Bowers Mountain in April.
Neighbors and guides who work the area successfully argued that the First Wind site would mar the pristine beauty of the nine-lake region, considered by some to be one of Maine’s most beautifully natural and unspoiled regions, and ruin the tourist-based industries in the area. LURC commissioners agreed.
Speakers at Thursday’s meeting used the same argument, saying that Saponac was among several bodies of water that needed preservation and that the area adjoined one of the state’s largest conservation easements. Almost all speakers at Thursday’s Passadumkeag Mountain project meeting spoke against Quantum’s proposal.
Lincoln resident Gary Steinberg, a spokesman for the Citizens Task Force on Wind Power, accused DEP officials of being part of the “wind cartel” and pronounced the meeting “a joke” because it didn’t permit him to cross-examine the project proponents.
Brad Blake, another task force member, showed commissioners pictures of the Rollins Mountain wind site and implored commissioners to stop the “cumulative impact” of wind sites on Maine.
The department’s review process is continuing. The meeting was the second DEP held to discuss Quantum’s proposal. The first was in April.
The Penobscot County board of commissioners met Tuesday to discuss tax benefits the project would accrue the county.
Both review processes continue.
The wind companies just caused a 19.6% spike in CMP ratepayers’ transmission charges.
To get the details, please google (in quotes):
“what every maine ratepayer needs to know”
Clearly the time has come for a moratouram on these destructive monsters. Step back and make a full evaluation of the pro’s and con’s. Maine would have been far better off taking advantage of its greatest asset H2O. Far more efficient Hydro, owened by Mainers.
Hmm, I would think the people of Passadumkeag would be more concerned about the radioactive waste the Unviersity buried in that town back in the 1970s and 1980s. And then lost the paperwork of where exactly it was buried.
Or so the old rumor went.
@ wellcomposted, thank you for asserting that hydro is a preferred electricity generator over wind. We generally agree, because both impounded hydro and run of the river hydro are better suited for grid-scale use. Furthermore we agree that when we compare the production (both quantity and quality) to the environmental impact, hydro beats wind again.
However, you are falling into the trap that was set largely by the wind lobby. That trap has many of us convinced that there is some desperate shortage of electricity, and that we need to generate more electricity.
Of course nothing lasts forever, including electricity generators. But we have PLENTY of generating capacity, and if we ever need more, we will probably need base load power to replace a couple of base load coal plants in southern New England. Windmills do not provide base load. New England has over 34000 MW of capacity and we have never needed that much. When we get into a peak pickle (the hottest few days of the year) Canada has plenty of backup, because their peak is in winter (they heat with electricity). Maine has about 4400 MW and we typically need a quarter to a third that much juice. Our best power plants, like the new natural gas plant in Veazie, for instance, which can produce the electricity of 20 Passadumkeag projects (and ON DEMAND) operate at less than half their generating capacity. In 2011 the 520 MW Veazie plant produced only 40% of its potential, at an average price of 4.1 cents per kWh for the year. With greater efficiency derived from more robust use, who knows how much cheaper the price would have been! The biggest plant in Maine is also the dirtiest, but it is handy for those few hot days per year when the Boston AC is on. It’s the Wyman Plant off the coast of Yarmouth/Cumberland, and its 622 MW of capacity is all oil-fired. We hardly ever use it. Last year, it netted over 60 cents per kWh. You read that right.
These comment sections are full of well-meaning people professing their allegiance to one “alternative” or another. (Alternative to what???) “Give us hydro…No, we need solar…nope, it’s geothermal …or tidal or coal or nukes or…” .and so on and so on…
Please remember this: there is no shortage of electricity. They want you to think there is. The kicker is, the electricity mix we have right now is very good, albeit expensive compared to the rest of the country (particularly states where lots of coal is used to produce cheap electricity). Maine already has one of the top three cleanest generation mixes in the nation. 50% of our generation is renewable. Some states don’t even have 5% renewable. Almost all of the remaining 50% of Maine generation is from clean, abundant, reliable, inexpensive natural gas plants that were built to fill the void left by Maine Yankee. Last year less than one half of one percent (that’s .4%) of Maine generation was from oil. We are OFF oil, thank you very much. Maine’s renewable standard is the highest in the nation by far, and with 90% of our land covered by forest, we likely consume more C02 than we produce.
The wind lobby (and others) has created this hype — bordering on hysteria — that “we need to DO something!!” That is self-serving, pure and simple. If we actually do need to do something, wind would be one of the least pragmatic choices.
So please, just because the waiter wheels the dessert cart right up to your table and parks it under your nose does NOT compel you to make a choice between cake or pie. It’s OK to politely tell him that the meal was fine, and that you’ll just take the check, thank you.
Same for electricity. If they all get built they all will go to the government to secure a return on their “investment.” That means more mandates on us to buy their unaffordable, unnecessary, unreliable, unsustainable, and useless electricity. Just say no.
Thanks for the informative post. It seems I did fall into their trap, their more useless then I thought, annoying me further. All I can do now is push for a moratouram.
Many pro wind bloggers accuse the pro Maine bloggers of not offering alternatives. That is why many feel the need to propose something else, though more efficient appliances and not wasting energy would go a long way. Is Maine Wind Concerns a new group? Thanks for a thoughtful post.
M-O-R-A-T-O-R-I-U-M
There absolutely should be a moratorium on the construction of these quality-of-place-degrading projects. There is NO urgent need to build mountaintop wind farms in Maine other than to satisfy the people building them – Reed & Reed, Sargent, Cianbro, Maine Drilling & Blasting and the mostly non-Maine companies that will be operating them.
Why not step back and re-evalutate. Make the determination that we can’t live without wind turbines all over Maine’s mountains before proceeding. This approach, of course, is not favored by those profiting from these grossly overrated developments. A thorough, honest evaluation of Maine mountaintop wind would be adverse to their enterprise.
When these things are installed and running–does it decrease the taxes that the people in the towns have to pay?–Doe’s it decrease the price for supplied electricity that these people have to pay monthly ? What exactly are the benefits for the people? Other than being privileged to have to look and listen to these monstrosities scarring their otherwise beautiful and natural landscapes …All the power Generated will be sent to a substation in Greenbush and a connection to a 115 kilo volt transmission line from there–so does this mean that folks living in these towns will be paying less for electricity ? I mean 42 million watts more in the lines being supplied. HaHaHa yeah right !
Greenbush will NOT receive any tax relief! ZERO permanent jobs will be created! CMP has already increased transmission rates 19.6%,how much higher will it go by the time we reach the former Governer’s pipe dream of 2700 mw of industrial wind projects? All of this energy is surplus energy sold out of state at 3 times the rate of gas etc.
Maine has a 10 billion dollar a year tourism industry based on it’s natural resources and scenic beauty, quality of place, solitude and uniqueness. The tourism industry employs thousands of maine families PERMANENTLY! Every time we build a wind project we lose tourist driven economic growth. When these wind projects are obsolete, and no longer generating inefficient energy, where will we be. Maine will wear a permanent scar on it’s landscape……the legacy left by the DEP for just “going through the motions”
Just an idea but maybe, just maybe everysingle person involved in this effort to stop IWP’s in Maine should start relentlessly calling Governor Lepage’s office on a daily basis?? Just a thought
Kick these carpet baggers out! Keep Maine beautiful. Protect our biggest economic engine, tourism, which provides over 170,000 year round jobs and bring in ten billion dollars annually. Industrial wind is the biggest “green” scam ever. Trees are green, Chinese towers aren’t.
Just where are these jobs around this mountain, I lived on this mountain for 2 years, and never seen anyone up there, must be a different mountain, and who is looking at this mountain one of Maine’s most beautiful mountains, I bet most Mainer’s have not heard of it, or even know where it is. You can only see the mountain from a few spots in Greenbush, anyway. If Maine would benefit and get cheep power from them then I say build them, but we don’t see a dam thing so I agree not to build them.
Jed, wind power will increase our elec bills, it is just beginning with the CMP rate increase and will only get worse. We the ratepayers will pay for the overbuilt trans. lines for the foreign owned companies.
“Almost all speakers at Thursday’s Passadumkeag Mountain project meeting spoke against Quantum’s proposal.”
Wait, aren’t we always being told that Mainers overwhelmingly support wind power development in Maine? Where were they? Fickle bunch, eh?
Not fickle, just NIMBY’s
Tofuman, there you go again with your labels. Many of the 140 or so people who attended the meeting will NOT have views of the Passadumkeag turbines. Your labelling them all “just NIMBY’s” is inaccurate and obfuscates the issues.
I generalize, b/c it’s true. From casinos, to water turbines, to nuclear power, to wind farms to liquified natural gas piers. Everyone talks a good story, but when it’s tried to be built in someone’s community, the answer is a flat NO, build it somewhere else. I don’t think that’s a generalization. Do the history and you will see.
What is it that you like about wind power? Have you studied it at all? Seriously?
I have not studied it thoroughly as I would say a final exam, however I do know they can be loud, it’s not a save all due to storage issues, they are an eyesore. But it is re-newable, about as expensive as a new energy plant, it’s green. Am learning that it may cause a slight increase in ground level, thermal temps at night.
I am all for oil and using oil/natural gas/coal, but doesn’t seem to be the green trend.
Billy, what would you suggest to use as another form of alternate power source? Would you approve of nuclear power plant, some form of hydro electricity, or would you keep status quo?
We don’t need an alternative source of power. We generate much more than we use already. You talk about NIMBYs? We’re the patsies for Massachusetts NIMBYs, all the power will go there, not here, so why should we want the things in our yards? As well as the money, none of it will stay in the state. Why do you think it’s a Texas company that wants to build this eyesore of giant lawn ornaments? Maine is now seen as prime grazing land for false-green profiteers because of the idiotic mandate Baldacci and crew put in place for their buddies. Look how many executives in the wind industry are former Maine government employees from LURC etc. Iberdrola has lost their subsidies back home since the Spanish government realized they lost two jobs for every absurdly expensive “green” job, so now they’re peddling their BS here. And speaking of Iberdrola, I’d like to know how a foreign company was allowed to buy CMP.
Natural gas and Canadian hydro. Baldacci/King classified hydro over 100MW as non-renewable. That’s absurd and it prevents Mainers from buying dirt cheap Canadian hydro like Vermont, who a couple years back cut a deal to get Canadian hydro at 6 cents a kwh for 20 years. The enviros like NRCM and Reed & Reed and Portland law firms who feed off wind helped kill it.
So did Stacey Fitts on the Energy and Utilities committee whose company makes money from wind and boasted about their man Stacey changing the wind laws in their favor. Let me know if you need documentation on that last one.
I can only go by the article and the way BDN reports it. Besides the company, no one that attended spoke up why they should have it there. So what am I led to believe by reading the article?
It wasn’t almost all. It was all. Three dozen towns have voted against wind too. The 80 to 90 percent of Mainers who the wind lobby says are supportive of turbines are under the impression that the turbines have some value, whether getting us off oil, reducing emissions, saving us money, providing jobs, etc. Those three dozen towns did their homework and found that the mythical benefits just don’t add up, but the impacts are real and harsh.
Vanishing Vacationland
I have been vacationing and now living in Maine since 1949. The lure of The North Woods was ingrained in me from my earliest memories. Our family came every summer from wherever we lived at the time. Alabama, Ohio, New York, Maryland, New Jersey . . . . none of them had the draw we had to this beautiful, wild wilderness. We brought a number of families with us over the years to experience Maine, and every one of them ended up coming back again and again and some eventually retired here.
Our destination was a small lake in the Lincoln area where the last 15 miles of the road was dirt in 1949. The camp we rented was primitive . . . no electricity, an outhouse, no TV and a crackly transistor radio, kerosene lamps, an old fashioned ice box, with real ice, a wood cook stove . . . all the amenities. Today it is still that way, but we bought it back in 1972, and we like it that way. We grew up lying on our backs on the dock at night looking up at the trillions of stars and galaxies in the pitch dark. So did my kids, and now the grand children and great grandchildren. As kids we learned about nature and the universe, Grandma read us books about the wilderness at night. We learned an independent spirit because we could go just about anywhere on the lake and still be in view of the camp. It was great for our young psyches to have the controlled freedom to explore, fish, swim, camp out on a secure island, canoe, motor boat, hike, gather berries and do all the things The Maine Woods offers.
Sad to say, I showed up at the camp in the spring of last year to find my view out the front porch of our camp, the view my recently passed Mother thought was “the best view in the whole world” (and she lived and traveled all over the world) was spoiled with 23 four hundred foot tall wind generators spinning during the day, and flashing their red and white strobe lights all night. I was heartbroken. Our idyllic North Woods retreat was ruined, and for what?
The myth that wind power is a good form of “Renewable” energy is just that; A Myth. The truth is, wind can not provide a reliable, dependable source of energy without enormous subsidies from the government and the power industry. The cost of production is double that of gas and coal fired generators, and three times more than hydro power. If the investors in Wind Power had to rely solely on the output from their generators, there would be no investment. Regular power plants with enough energy production to provide 100% of the grid needs as a backup still have to be powered up 24/7. Operating these plants at reduced and intermittent power is very inefficient. After 30 years of building wind generators, it still only amounts to less than 2% of our total energy production. Europe has been at it for just as long, and in spite of the fact that they have far more generators than we do, it is still not profitable, and still is just at 2% of their power grid.
Much of the income for Vacationland comes from tourism, people who come here to experience the same idyllic wilderness we did in 1949. I’m not too sure how many of them would come to see wind farms on the horizon of their “most beautiful view in the world”. Two recent pairs of Bald Eagles on our lake and thousands of bats are also endangered because they are attracted to the spinning blades.
It is time we make some hard decisions about who we are here in Maine. While it is important that we find alternative ways to make power, maybe we should consider going back to the hydro power we used here for generations of Mainers. Some of the dams we still have could be upgraded to boost the output to the same amount the wind farms generate. They provide steady reliable power, unlike wind. We could really cut back the use of fossil fuels, because hydro doesn’t fluctuate. Is there anyone else out there that wants to keep the beauty of The Great North Woods?
Jim Lutz
I published this back in May in the BDN. I no longer spend nights at camp because of the sight of the lights. I hope that the DEP makes the right decision and doesn’t do to the visitors and residents of the Passadumkeag Region what they did to us two years ago. I have seen grown adults not just angry, but cry over their loss. Once the tops of the mountains have been reduced to rubble, they can NEVER be replaced the way they were.
unfortunately, the problem with tourism (in a sense like your turbine story) it is inconsistent. When the economy tanks (as it has) so does the tourism industry. We don’t want to be held hostage to foreign oil, we don’t want wind, H20 turbines will destroy the fishing industry, don’t even want to go nuclear here, solar is too expensive, so where should we get our re-newable energy from? Anyone want to answer, b/c there will be some tree-hugger group saying how it will damage something.
Tofuman, there are so many generalizations in your comment that it is counter-productive. Enough with the assumptions and labels. People opposed to industrial wind on our mountaintops are not all tree-huggers. They are a very diverse group that spans the political spectrum from ultra-liberal to ultra-conservative. They’re young and they’re old. They come from all income strata. They’re Mainers and folks from away. I myself am a strong proponent of the latest nuclear technology.
unfortunately stream, you may be for new nuclear power, but try and put a plant somewhere in this state. Everytime some organization tries to build something, it gets shot down or there is so much opposition that the companies that want to build, don’t b/c of the legal hassles just to build and develop.
There’s a reason that 3rd world countries are like they are, no industrialization. Maine is getting that way b/c of lack of industy. You can’t live on tourism only w/o pitfalls and we are seeing the results of those ideas of the 80’s and 90’s.
@ toufman and dane, Every form of development has impacts. Energy development can have very big impacts. But those impacts need to be weighed against their benefits before any of us can make a true value judgement. When you objectively enumerate the benefits from a grid scale wind project like the one proposed, then compare those benefits to the massive impacts, then you have earned the right to say whether you want it on the mountain or you don’t. Those people who have done the math know. This (like all mountain wind power in Maine) is a bad bad deal. Not worth it.If there were great benefits that would exceed the impacts, people would accept the project. Look at any airport, communications tower, highway, bridge, etc. They bring impacts, no doubt. But they are all crucial, useful, beneficial to society so we tolerate (and limit) the impacts.
You two are both right, what both of what you said boils down to one thing, NIMBY. Nuclear? Not in my backyard. Hydro? Not in my back yard, my family has been fishing that waterway for 6 generations. Pipeline? Not in my back yard, what if there is a spill? Wind? Not in my backyard it will effect my view and property value. There will always be those opposed for personal reasons. We want power and oil, but we don’t want it made anywhere near us.
Not entirely true. Who cares if there is hydro in their backyard? Or a pipeline? Not too many. None I have heard from. Note that the wind cartel NEVER proposes a windsprawl in their OWN backyards.
When the economy tanks, Maine tourism remains remarkably strong. People may not fly to Europe but they’ll drive to Maine. Tourism has been Maine’s biggest economic engine since the 1800’s and will remain so as long as we protect our natural resources and quality of life.
Very well said, Jim. But please don’t fall into the trap we mentioned above in reply to “well composted.” It does not have to be one or the other. The demand for new generation is a fiction.
Does anyone realize what the Penobscot River is going to look like from about Passadumkeag down to the Old Town Dam that is being removed? What we have looked at for a century is going to turn into a stream, not a river. There will be no resevoir effect to retain runoff, traversing in a small boat will be nearly impossible. Will the salmon come back? That remains to be seen. But one thing is SURE. There will be no reliable, steady, inexpensive electricity flowing into a grid that is capable of distributing it to Mainers and beyond. We have lived with the river as it is now for as long as ANYONE still living would be able to remember. No one LIVING ever caught a salmon in the upper river, and no one ever may for a very short sighted green initiative to make a change. Don’t let the “green” Wind initiative spoil another of our resources.
Jim, let’s demand that the blinking red lights be replaced with radar activated ones. Many are thinking the same as you and I. Ideally, the turbines would be removed, but the night skies would be returned most of the time as they were.
All you need to know about this fraud and subsidized money conduit to funnel cash and perks to the well connected insiders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NAAzBArYdw&feature=related
It’s tribal .. real environmentalists from all walks of life .vs. self-proclaimed self-serving environmentalists who want to cash in on their political connections.
The DEP approved fifty 500 foot tall wind turbines overlooking 2 Class 1 wilderness lakes in Oakfield / Island Falls in Aroostook County. Maine will no longer be known as the Tourism State but as the state who decided to destroy its Natural Beauty for the sake of energy inefficient, tourism killing, property value killing eyesores. All because of corrupt politicians in bed with corrupt Big Wind executives. This scandal must stop – NOW!
DEP Commissioner Patricia Aho is fully committed to expanding wind energy at all costs. After all, in addition to deciding ALL wind project permits, she’s on the Board of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and is therefore marketing the Renewable Energy Credits (REC’s) that the wind developers sell once the projects are built. She’s also designed “a new, transparent process” that prohibits the public from asking any questions of a wind developer. Do you think she has an agenda? Duh! The wind energy profits directly from Aho’s decisions at every turn. Commissioner Aho must be replaced.
Just for the record, David Littell, the Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission (you know, the group that’s supposed to be looking out for Maine consumers), is also the Chairman of the Board of the RGGI. Given his approval of smart meters (which the Supreme Court just ruled ignored the public health and safety issues) and his approval of the illegal merger of Emera and First Wind (which gave FW cash to expand in Maine and which is under appeal by the State’s Office of the Public Advocate), do you think he’s looking out for the Maine consumer? No way. The wind energy profits directly from Littel’s decisions at every turn. Comissioner Littell needs to be replaced.
Excellent points! It almost sounds like Aho and Littel are gearing up for their next jobs with the Wind industry? Wonder how they would feel / vote if they were prevented from going to work for the industries they regulate after they leave office? That would stop a lot of this corruption in its tracks!
Complain about wind, complain about coal, complain about nuclear… How exactly are we supposed to generate clean, renewable energy if all you people do is complain? Maybe instead of whining and complaining you should come up with a way to do it better. If all you have is problems, and you offer no solutions, you are part of the problem.
jd: We have no nuclear in Maine, We have one oil plant (hardly used), We have one small PRIVATE coal plant and yet we produce more that TWICE as much electricity here in Maine than we use. You have been duped by the media and Wind shills that only care about collecting the easy government $$$ and don’t care about spoiling Maine’s landscape. Our producers make cheap electricity with more than 50% coming from renewables; hydro, biomass, wood, etc. We have recently decomissioned several hydro plants that have been producing cheap, reliable energy for over a century. Why? We could have just as easily put in fish ladders for the salmon as they have in the Northwest and upgraded the power generators to more than make up for all the industrial wind turbines proposed in Maine. AND we wouldn’t have to make the massive upgrades to the grid to get the intermittant, uneven and unreliable power from the Wind Turbines to its destination. Let the states that need the electricity fight their own battles to get more power. We have done our part.
For the first time, the leadperson for the Department of Environmental Protection has left the cozy confines of Augusta to see what real people think of wind turbines in Maine. She must fully realize, after last night, that the respect people have traditionally had for the Department is in jeopardy.
I don’t think she cares.
Besides, the public meetings are theater. Does anyone believe the DEP is paying attention to the people speaking. The DEP has been given their marching orders: RUBBER STAMP ALL WIND DEVELOPMENT PERMITS. They’re just complying. Mainers opinions are really of little consequence in permitting decisions according to Maine wind law.
“cumulative effect” This won’t be the first and only time people will be out to stop this wind charade.
Every form of development has impacts. Energy development can have very big impacts. But those impacts need to be weighed against their benefits before any of us can make a true value judgement. When you objectively enumerate the benefits from a grid scale wind project like the one proposed, then compare those benefits to the massive impacts, then you have earned the right to say whether you want it on the mountain or you don’t. Those people who have done the math know. This (like all mountain wind power in Maine) is a bad bad deal. Not worth it.
If there were great benefits that would exceed the impacts, people would accept the project. Look at any airport, communications tower, highway, bridge, etc. They bring impacts, no doubt. But they are all crucial, useful, beneficial to society so we tolerate (and limit) the impacts.
I live near the windmills and who says they are an eyesore?? Not me, I find them to look quite nice. When it comes to harming wildlife..what are your facts? I belive more birds are killed by automobiles and planes than wind turbines. Wind farms do produce renewable energy with out any emissions. I would suggest taking a ride to the windmills, chances are you will not even hear them running or be blinded by the red strobe lights…Oh, and you might even see some wildlife.
They are magnificent machines, so large and overwhelming as to be awe-inspiring. But they are useless and unnecessary to society, therefore any impact they bring is unacceptable.
How much money are you receiving for your lease to the wind cartel? Who is your employer?
to say tourism tanks because of the economy as a justification for ruining pristine northern Maine making humans and animals sick or have to leave and basically destroying history and pristine nature and habitat while spiking the electricity is ridiculous..people own camps and even if tourism slows down the wind turbines are sure to make it slower or stop- does that makes sense to those who cherish these lakes and woods? Baxter would be turning over in his grave and we who love the land and animals as much as he did are doing what we can to reveal the scam of wind. ALL PROJECTS need to be stopped but with the politics corrupt it makes it most challenging.
this is not tree hugging..time and time again I say watch the movies WINDFALL or see Maine Wind Task Force or Wind Watch online listen to the case studies and the facts around this hasty scam.
gotta say one more thing- those of us opposing wind may not have the solution but we are sure that wind is most definitely not viable- that does NOT make us part of the problem, it makes us informed citizens who CARE and deserve to be heard.
Excellent and accurate point, Sewall.
N.B. There is no Trident submarine class, although there are submarines which carry Trident ballistic missiles. There’s also no Centurion submarine class, though “Centurion” was the working title of the project that eventually produced the Virginia class.
N.B. 2 Wind energy is a technological dead end, and I’m pretty sure its high-level backers are canny enough to know that. It’s all about grabbing alternative-energy subsidies and winning lucrative contracts for these people. The real tragedy there is that behavior like that irreparably damages public perception of alternative energy as a general concept. This makes it very difficult for the people who are genuinely well-meaning, and working hard to develop real alternatives, to make any headway. They all get tarred with the same brush as the smirking, community-damaging profiteers. Nothing can do more to harm a still-young field than premature hype leading to public failure.
In my darker moments I sometimes entertain the notion that the people pushing these dead-end wind farms know that only too well, but that would be a Hanlon’s Razor* violation, so I can usually put the thought aside.
* “Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence.”
Ben, the “still young field” has reached maturity in Europe. They began 20 years ago and now have to move to the US to continue the energy subsidy gaming. No coal fired plants have been shut down and new nat. gas plants have been built. It never reached “economy of scale” and energy prices have skyrocketed. Aside from that minor disagreement, I liked your post.
I wonder how The DEP and PUC Commissioners would feel / vote if they were prevented from going to work for the industries they regulate after they leave office? That would stop a lot of this corruption in its tracks!