CARROLL PLANTATION, Maine — A First Wind subsidiary will try again to build an industrial wind site on Bowers Mountain, this time proposing to erect 16 turbines instead of 27, company officials said Wednesday.
The new project, company officials said, answers problems that led the Land Use Regulation Commission to reject the initial plan in April. Under the new proposal, turbines would be farther from nearby lakes. The towers would feature radar-controlled aviation warning lights to reduce light pollution and carry turbines that generate 30 percent more electricity than previous models.
First Wind of Massachusetts or its subsidiary, Champlain Wind LLC, also will create a watershed fund — money that could be used to improve the deer herd and promote local guiding and other tourism businesses, officials said.
“This is a $100 million project that would be located in rural Maine and has the potential to put nearly 100 Maine companies and hundreds of Mainers to work during the construction phase, with several permanent positions for the life of the project,” said Matt Kearns, First Wind’s vice president of Northeast business development. “The wind industry has invested more than $1 billion in Maine over the last few years and with projects like this we can continue to invest in Maine companies, communities, students and organizations.”
“Since 2009 we have been listening to people who live in and around the project area to make sure that their input is considered in the design of the project,” said Neil Kiely, director of development for First Wind. “Although it is early in the review process, we are extremely encouraged by the support we have received.”
Located east of Lee and southeast of Springfield near Route 6, Bowers Mountain is 1,127 feet. It overlooks seven lakes — including Bottle, Keg, Duck, Junior and Scraggly lakes — near the western Washington and eastern Penobscot county lines.
Its surroundings include some of the most sensitive wildlands in Maine, project critics have said. The mountain is home to many varieties of wildlife as well as thriving camping, hunting and wildlife guide industries.
About 144 residents reside in the proposed host community of Carroll Plantation. Recently, 112 residents and landowners signed a petition in support of the project, company officials said.
Now called the Land Use Planning Commission, LURC voted 5-0 with little fanfare to accept a staff recommendation and reject the 27-turbine project during a brief meeting April 20 at the Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Bangor. Commissioner Robert Dunphy abstained.
Commissioners said they were swayed by arguments that the project would have a punishing effect on hundreds of nature guides and other tourism-based industries employing hundreds more indirectly that all depend on the area’s beauty to survive.
The commission’s scenic consultant said that Champlain Wind’s consultants downplayed the project’s impact upon the region. In their 27-page decision, commissioners said they relied heavily on testimony from the area’s guides that the turbines “would reduce the likelihood their clients would want to return to the area and thus [the turbines would] adversely impact their businesses.”
Anti-wind-power advocates and residential groups that had opposed the project called the LURC vote their most significant win since they started fighting projects proposed by First Wind of Massachusetts about five years ago.
“It’s a good day. We have been fighting this for a long time,” David Corrigan, a registered Maine Master Guide from Concord Township who opposed the project, said on April 20. “This sets a great precedent. The commission spent a lot of time discussing and looking at this. I think it sets a precedent as far as how these projects should be scrutinized and what the results should be.”
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has accepted the new, or second, application, spokeswoman Samantha Depoy-Warren said. The agency certified the application as complete on Oct. 25. Environmental protection officials are required to have two public hearings on the project. One hearing will be attended by the agency’s commissioner or deputy commissioner, Depoy-Warren said.
Under new state laws passed during the last legislative session, the DEP and LUPC will review the project concurrently, with LUPC certifying to the DEP that the project meets LUPC criteria, LUPC Director Nick Livesay said. The DEP will issue the project’s final permit, if the project qualifies, he said.
First Wind claims endorsements for the project from the Maine Audubon Society, American Lung Association of the Northeast, Conservation Law Foundation, the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, and the Maine Chapter of the Sierra Club. The project has also been endorsed by the Washington County commissioners and the Sunrise County Economic Council, officials said.
One of the project’s opponents, Lakeville resident Gordon Mott, expressed doubt Wednesday that the new proposal would change his opinion. He credited the company with scaling back the project’s footprint but said he didn’t see enough conservation benefits in the new effort to warrant his support.
Mott cautioned, however, that he had not seen the proposal in detail.
Just wait a week or so you will have all the help you need to get this passed.
I will stamp my feet and sulk until I get my own way, and then if I don’t get my own way I will stick my tongue out and stamp my feet and sulk again. What ever it takes !
So much for the little guy. The big bucks win again. It is amazing what money can buy.
That is the way we have built this country. That is the platform that the GOP runs on, and to a lesser extent the Democratic party also. If you think different, you’re not paying attention.
It is a shame that we build something that takes so long to pay back. There is no value in these projects the increase in employment is short lived and the positions created after completion don’t seem to be important enough to mention how many will be created. These are dreams captured by the wind and when the wind stops blowing there is no positive impact in energy or jobs. Want to buy some property in Florida?
It is simply mind-boggling that all those brand-name environmental groups would give “endorsements” to a land use application, like it was some sort of political campaign. Oh wait. It IS political? Go figure.
It comes down to impact versus benefit. These environmental groups are overestimating the benefit and underestimating the impact. Why else would they endorse such a huge-footprint marring of wild territory in exchange for a product that is essentially useless and unnecessary? They’ll smugly tell you it’s good for asthma or C02 emissions, bla bla bla. But those sorts of daffy fairy tales have long ago been disproved. A wind generation project in Maine cannot replace or displace a dirty generation plant in Maine, Connecticut, Ohio, or China. It just does not work that way, even if people want to believe it does. Aside from being a stain on Maine’s physical Quality of Place, the wind project is merely a bunch of paper in an investment and tax shelter scheme. Either the environmental groups are too thoughtless to figure it out, too lazy, or they’re getting a piece of the action. Tangible benefits, anyone?
Another reason the laws need to be changed to stop this government mandated gravy train.
If you want to talk about “huge footprint” projects, look at the impoundments behind hydropower dams. If you’re concerned about deforestation of mountaintops, look at the logging industry. Both of these industries have tens to hundreds of times greater impact on the forest. Impact to wetlands, woodlands and habitat are not valid arguments against windpower projects.
Dear Grandchildren, We are so sorry that we didn’t fight harder against the profiteers who covered Maine’s northern mountains with hundreds of inefficient and ugly 45 story wind turbines. We wrote letters, argued at hearings, sent e-mails and tried to get the government to stop the unjust construction of these projects. We did our best, but the government wouldn’t help us. We hope that your generation will be wiser and will fight harder. We hope that you will speak up when the forests of Maine are threatened. We hope the government will listen to you, just as it ignored us. – The People of Maine, 2012
A vote for Angus King is a vote for more wind farms…………….
And more taxes.
The people of Mars Hill and Vinal Haven who live in close proximity to the turbines, are having health problems related to the constant noise. This is constant throughout the nation as well as in other countries. This complaint is always met with “there is no scientific evidence” of health problems, from First Wind representatives. End of discussion. The discussions of REAL problems from REAL people, living within a mile of the turbines appears to be of no significance.
First Wind has NOT listened to the people in the towns and lakes region as they claim they have. They say that they have signed petitions from almost all the residents of Carroll Plantation . . . . I find that hard to believe. Recently, the government of Great Britain has put a stop to the further building of wind farms onshore due to the blight they have caused all over the island. They also have done an economic study and found that the only thing that can make wind work is huge costly taxpayer subsidies. The same thing is true here. Hopefully, we are going to have a big change in Washington in a week, and the money for the pockets of the First Winds of this world will dry up. They won’t put their own money into the projects because they can’t make a profit. Angus King took $140 million for his project when he had $120 million in the bank, and the backing of The Yale endowment (worth billions). It was no risk because it was taxpayer money. All he got were the profits from the initial investment . . . . we got the shaft. Destroying our mountains and lakes should not be an option.
We’ve had enough of these people, time they went back to Mass. which is where the electricity, if any generated, will be exported.
HAVE YOU SEEN THESE THINGS? HAVE YOU HEARD THEM?
THERE IS NOTHING…..NOTHING GOOD ABOUT THESE WIND
FARMS. Of course Angus made a few million on these and is back
for another swipe………Geeezus, what ails people???????
This project will help finance Angus’s campaign. The fallacy behind these turbines is that for the most part, they are paid to not generate power from these turbines because there is already more than enough electricity on the grid. Anything to make our rates go up.
most discussions are stopped because your tax money bought people’s right to speech.
The turbine companies have a contract to sell power. This is where the money will be made in selling the contract off at 100% of it’s value early in the game. and who will pay for this The rate payers. It a method that Angus perfected when he was Governor.. Because anyone with half a brain know you can’t make money selling energy with wind power..
You want to put a wind mill at your house, we live is a sort of free country go right at it.
P.S. The hampden landfill produces power 24/7 . The electric company only pays them when they claim they need the power. the rest is I guess donated to them, where as with wind power the power companies have to buy all of it. which is not much.
Destroying one of Maine’s most scenic and storied viewsheds for the financial benefit of a corporation like First Wind is a travesty. Maine’s biggest economic engine is tourism, not industrial energy production. The neglible amount of power produced by these short lived (but monstrous) turbines won’t begin to offset the environmental and financial damage they will incur on a part of Maine that relies heavily on tourism and guide-based business. This project was turned down the first time around for the same reasons it should be turned down again by the DEP, and it will be, if the DEP is really about environmental protection. If First Wind had a shred of decency they would never have submitted a second application. Keep the Grand Lakes region grand!
How many more of these need to be built with our tax dollars as subsidy? Large scale wind power is not and will not ever be the answer to anything. Electricity is demand based. If you need power in your home, you close the switch. The power company monitors demand and manages production based on load. The wind may or may not be blowing at the time, so other generation methods must be built and maintained to fill demand. I suspect that once the subsidy money dries up, the companies will disappear and tell us that it was a noble experiment, but we couldn’t make it work.
If you oppose Bowers Mountain please sign our petition here. We have 600 signatures and want to get at least 1,000.
http://www.change.org/petitions/maine-dep-deny-first-wind-s-application-to-build-the-bowers-mountain-wind-project
You can cut and paste the address. Please add comments too. Thanks for speaking up for the forests, mountains and lakes of Maine.
Thought for the day.
WIND sells to mandated renewable buyers in another area, miles away..
9.92 cents per kilowatt hour. WIND signs an agreement stating to produce/sell an “X” amount of energy. If WINDs turbines cannot produce (and they work at about 8% efficiency in Western Maine), they make up the difference by purchasing strips from ISO-NE at around 4.5 cents per KwH. That’s where the true scam comes in. Reselling non-green energy under the guise of wind produced.
closer to 35% efficiency, Alice.
What about the claim that wind corporations have invested a billion dollars plus in Maine? I suspect most of those dollars were transfer payments-from US taxpayers and Chinese lenders, to the corporations that destroying our mountains a d wildlife while supplying lower New England and Maine with high cost power. Our power rates are scheduled to increase annually as Maine people are required to pay for the wind industry’s high cost transmission lines throughout NewEngland and annual increases in the unneeded wind power component. All with the acquiescence of the DEP and the PUC. Clyde MacDonald, Hampden
BIG TYPO……????? two public hearings?
spokeswoman Samantha Depoy-Warren said. The agency certified the application as complete on Oct. 25. Environmental protection officials are required to have two public hearings on the project. One hearing will be attended by the agency’s commissioner or deputy commissioner, Depoy-Warren said.
A Boston paper stated today that the Bowers mountain project will supply 25’000 homes with electricity. The population of Boston per square mile is about 24’000 . The way that I see it is we are giving up a lot more square miles of pristine land for the good of 2 square miles in the state of Massachusetts. It is a shame that the fast talkers have duped us out of such a beautiful area for a measly few bucks. I haven’t heard of any turbines making any money in Mass. Check out the Princeton Mass light departments statements concerning turbines on Mount Wachusett. The town wants to sell their turbines because the maintenance costs are too high.
What will we do with the ones in our area when First wind bails out ?
On Tuesday every voter in Maine should support candidates who
are both wise to the wind power folly and have the integrity to resist wind lobby pressure.
Developers like Angus King’s have fed long enough at the
public trough and too much of Maine has already been
needlessly destroyed.
The wind scam has been recognized by the British for what it
is (link below) and Nov 6 could be the turning point for Maine.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/9644558/Death-knell-for-wind-farms-Enough-is-Enough-says-minister.html#dsq-comments
Bowers 1 was denied and Bowers 2 should also be denied. Industrial garbage doe not belong near the Downeast Lakes.
Maine Audubon and the Maine Sierra Club need to realize ISO NE states HYDRO is curtailed when wind power enters the grid. One renewable is replacing another for ZERO fossil fuel reduction. The turbines do not even repay their own carbon debt so are useless in slowing climate change. In fact they make it worse. Anybody care to explain why these two groups are endorsing Bowers 2? What money is changing hands behind the scene? I am reminded never to join SAM for their unthinking support of industrial junk.
Boston-based First Wind is certainly drawing the ire of Senator Gabbard of Hawaii
after three fires with battery storage facility that burned to the ground. He plans a briefing at the state capitol about First Wind problems in December.
KITV News HawaiiFirst Wind abandons Kahuku expansion as wind farm remains offline
Published 7:18 PM HST Oct 26, 2012
http://www.kitv.com/news/hawaii/Frist-Wind-abandons-Kahuku-expansion-as-wind-farm-remains-offline/-/8905354/17155910/-/k89fqtz/-/index.html'Kahuku wind farm fire spreads concerns over future
projects’
Posted: Aug 03, 2012 11:15 PM EDT Updated: Aug 03, 2012 11:49 PM EDT
By Tim Sakahara – bio | email
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/19194074/kahuku-wind-farm-fire-spreads-concerns-over-future-projects
What plan has ME to extinquish devastating wind turbine fires?
Thank for the info. Very interesting. Why do so many legislators keep ignoring these reports?
W/O production tax credits and other subsidy sucking renewable wasteful giveaways, these First Wind LEECHes are dead meat.
Romney sees wind as the farce that it is. Vote Romney if for nothing else than this issue alone.
Now that Great Britain has stopped onshore wind, it will be stopped here. It is unfortunate that more areas will be ruined in the interim.
No Bowers—– lets get no subsidy help for these scoundrels, liars and high level Obama connected crony capitalistic thieves.
Down with this insanity, before all the jobs are gone from these great lakes.
No one wants to see these things on their vacations.
See the mess that has been created in Lincoln!
Lincoln is on its way down.
see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2225544/Good-riddance-wind-farms–dangerous-delusions-age.html
also AEA Study: Removing Big Wind’s ‘Training Wheels’
October 31, 2012
New Study Finds Federal Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) No Longer Needed to Drive Wind Generation Development
Mature Wind Industry Can Compete On Its Own; Taxpayer-funded Welfare-For-Wind Must End
WASHINGTON D.C. – A new report released today by the American Energy Alliance (AEA) concludes that wind energy is a mature industry whose growth has rendered the federal wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) an obsolete government hand-out that should be allowed to expire.
Just because other industries make a mess in the woods is no reason to rubber stamp another slob industry. Where does it all stop? The wind scam can be faulted on many grounds, from habitat disruption to economic reasons with property devaluation, loss of tourism and the fact that wind turbines do not stop or slow climate change. Anyone who believes otherwise is mistaken or has been lied to by the self serving wind lobbyists. Too many people want to believe there is an easy solution but industrializing our way out of this mess is not an option.
Enroncrooks, If the press would print the news that benefits the public, unvarnished, perhaps the citizens would demand our legislators protect us from predatory business practices. If our representatives don’t hear from those they represent, the uninformed consumer, the status quo of crony capitalism and corporate welfare will continue to erode public wealth and the integrity of our natural resources.
The politically connected First Wind has thus far escaped scrutiny, even while UPC First Wind execs’ testimony identifies their affiliate as IVPC., and seven IVPC wind projects were seized by Italian police in Operation “Gone with the Wind”. This operation evolved to the largest asset seizure in Mafia history, $1.9 bn. IVPC Director Oreste Vigorito was arrested and later convicted by a judge in Italy in July of 2012. UPC First Wind CEO boasted the success of IVPC, until the arrest of Oreste, and most references that tie the UPC First Wind to IVPC, were taken off the Internet. The testimony has been downloaded for safe keeping; as well as the UPC Power Point that ties them to IVPC, at several locations.
I think history will show that Enron Lives and that we are witnessing Act II.
Take a ride down route 81 in Pennsylvania and see what can be done by land devastation.
Not only has the countryside been ruined , but the horizon has been too.
If we don’t take care of what we have now it will be gone forever.
All to line the pockets of an out of state company using Maine’s land to provide out of state people with enough electricity to cover about 2 square miles of population.