Long Islander's Blog – April 2018 Archive (42)

The following was written by David T. Edson of Tremont, presumably the David T. Edson who is CEO of Sewall, which benefits from Maine wind power.

The letter does not disclose Mr. Edson's connection to the wind industry.

This…

Using the latest available U.S. Census data pertaining to the NAICS category "Boat Dealers", on a per capita basis, Maine ranks # 1 in the nation in terms of number of boat dealers, annual boat sales and annual boat dealer payrolls.

While boat dealer data may not be a perfect surrogate for tourism data they are indication of what we already know -…

Using the latest available U.S. Census data pertaining to the NAICS category "Hotels (except casino hotels) and motels", on a per capita basis, Maine ranks # 7 in the nation based on the number of such hotels and motels. Maine ranks a still very impressive # 13 on the basis of per capita hotel and motel employees.

While such hotel and motel…

The precise boundaries of the northeastern megalopolis vary slightly by information source. At a minimum, it stretches from Boston to Washington, DC and some sources have it stretching as far north as Brunswick, ME.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_megalopolis

A picture…

This is the same Maine media that has essentially participated in a blackout of the rather significant recent news that Maine's only publicly funded onshore wind turbine, that at UMPI, was destroyed in a fire. And certainly no coverage on the implications of this fire - that a fire like that during a drought on a remote ridge top could cause tremendous devastation to Maine's forests and fire departments would have no way of putting it out. And basically nothing from the Maine media exposing…

From home page of Town of Roxbury, ME website

http://www.roxburymaine.com/index.php

As discussed in previous posts on this website, RoxWind LLC is proposing a 4-turbine wind energy facility, with associated infrastructure, in the Town of Roxbury. This wind project, which would be…

Maine's public advocate says he was ‘stunned’ to see that so many bills jumped, and criticizes the company for withholding the numbers until this week..........................

An explanation for the high bills reported by customers has remained elusive. An initial inquiry by the PUC could not explain the increases, and its staff is continuing to investigate. But the commission also is advertising for a third party auditing firm …

It is strange to read a perfectly normal, accurate biography of someone only to realize that the other side is using facts to try to smear someone for doing a sensible thing.

And for Tom Stacy, that “thing” is pushing back at the grassroots level against monstrous industrial wind turbines that are environmentally invasive, anti-consumer, and anti-taxpayer.

Yet mainstream environmentalists, favoring high prices and less reliability for the master resource of energy, not to…

NEW BEDFORD — Gov. Charlie Baker sat about 1,000 feet from the city’s waterfront as he discussed various aspects of the state with The Standard-Times on Tuesday. The proximity to the most valuable port in the United States wasn’t lost on him.

“I do not want (the fishing industry’s) voice to get lost, period,” Baker said. “And it won’t be.”

Through the National Coalition for Fishing Communities, scores of fishermen and organizations sent a letter to Baker on Monday to emphasize…

The three hour meeting just started. (2:02PM)

http://legislature.maine.gov/Audio/#216

Cross Building, Room 216

Audio should be available as soon as the meeting starts at approximately 2PM today, 4/9/18 at the following link: …

The willingness of environmental activists and their elected and appointed allies to ignore the drumbeat of bad news about the security and costs of the region’s energy supplies is a stunning abdication of responsibility for sound public policies to protect both the environment and the economy.......

Many recent events are being ignored by activists who are focused on absolute outcomes rather than a prudent transition. For example:…

Kevin M. O’Connor, once sat with me in his boardroom in the middle of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2008 and said, “As long as we have that ocean out there,” – as he pointed toward the ocean— “the East End of Long Island will always be a great place to live and own a home.”

" It's an electrical system, so unless we can know that there's no electrical charge or current or supply within that system, putting water on it is probably not a good choice. The other thing is, those units are just a whole lot of plastic and poly and electric wire, it's just a big generator really. So there really isn't, even if you could reach it, a whole…

DARK SIDE OF "GREEN": WIND TURBINE NOISE, FIRES, ACCIDENTS, INJURIES, AND FATALITIES RAISE SERIOUS SAFETY CONCERNS NEAR RESIDENTIAL HOMES

Hanover, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Presque Isle, Maine have all seen dramatic wind turbine fires in the last few weeks.

The obvious challenge facing firefighters is the height involved if a fire occurs in the turbine motor.

Due to the risk of falling fire debris over a wide area, approaching a burning turbine ...is…

The state of Maine should require that every customer at a real estate agency selling properties anywhere that wind projects are allowable be given a brochure on "Wind Turbines and Property Values". I suppose it could present both sides of the argument and include the wind developers' bald faced lies, but such a brochure would at least get people thinking. In a state where the media constantly lie on behalf of this industry, we need to do everything we can do to get the truth out. By the…

You don't know what you got til it's gone, so it's worth pausing for a few minutes and reviewing the amazing strength of Maine's outdoor brand versus the rest of the United States. Don't throw it away and allow giant industrial wind turbines and their requisite nasty new and huge transmission lines to spoil what we have.

Some very compelling observations of just how strong is the Maine outdoor brand:…

Places like Texas and the Great Plains are the heartland of the nation's wind industry and accordingly, most thinking regarding wind power in the U.S. arose with states like those as context - states which are very different from Maine. Maine is 90% forest, …

Millions of dollars of public money have been thrown away on a completely bogus feel good single wind turbine at UMPI and finally the project goes down in flames. What did the people of Maine get for their investment and why won't the University and the Maine media tell the people just how badly they've been had?

And now they want to do this on a far…

Clyde MacDonald has been warning Maine about the potential for wind turbine caused forest fires for years. Please see the links below. Now that the UMPI turbine had an apparently serious fire, the state should now be compelled to ensure fire safety with regard to these ticking time bombs in the Maine Woods.

It looks as though there were no trees near the turbine. What if there were and what if we were in a drought and what if there were strong winds…

It will be interesting to learn precisely how the fire was brought under control as stated in the article given the nacelle is pretty high off the ground. Given UMPI's track record of obscuring the facts about this turbine, one might be wise to be skeptical of this claim. It looks as though there were no trees near the turbine. What if there were and what if we were in a drought and what if there were strong winds blowing? Clyde MacDonald has been warning Maine about the potential for…