Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine

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Comment by Long Islander on March 10, 2010 at 2:01pm: I often wonder about NRCM. My guess is that they have some very dedicated members whose hearts are in the right place. But the history of the modern day environmental movement is one of well intentioned organizations morphing into, well, different organizations. Look at the Nature Conservancy (TNC). From their humble beginnings preserving the immensely beautiful Mianus River Gorge on the Bedford,NY Greenwich, Ct, border they have become a huge corporation and according to many, a huge greenwasher infiltrated by corporate money that lends its seal of approval to some unsavory corporate projects. The Washington Post did a watershed expose of "Big Green" (TNC) several years ago.
I don't know what is up with NRCM. I believe they agreed to some immense "mitigation payments" and that's a whole other discussion. For what is mitigation? For me, mitigation is I throw a bag of garbage out the car window on the Golden Road and when the hiding trooper pulls me over, I show him my TNC certificate of owning a TNC-preserved acre in Costa Rica and he lets me go with an apology. "So sorry sir, and please feel free to throw as much garbage here as you like" My deepest apologies".
These are hard economic times and I would have to believe many non-profits have seen their normal charitable donations from well intentioned individuals go down. I do not know if this is the case with NRCM. It just seems that if organizations are faced with cutting back and laying off staff, the siren song of corporate greenwashing money could become harder to resist. Again, I have no idea what is going on with NRCM. I'd like to believe that they simply hastily embraced the rush to industrial wind power as a reaction to their global warming concerns - without truly thinking it through. If I were a betting man, I'd say there are a small handful of staunch industrial wind pushers within their organization who may not be giving everyone else there all the facts - and there are likely some real skeptics. But again, I am just conjecturing. Does anyone know?

Comment by Art Brigades on March 10, 2010 at 9:38am: LI
This is good stuff. Have you heard from NRCM? Maybe their members will start to quit that organization and join here. Didn't NRCM get a six-figure hush-check from the Kibby wind project?

Comment by Long Islander on March 9, 2010 at 7:23pm: Maine’s Wind Goals, CO2 and the Forest NRCM has published figures on CO2 emissions avoided by select Maine wind farms. Then, to show that the clearcuts and clearing needed for these complexes, their roads and transmission lines should not be seen as significant, they also provide figures on how many acres of forest capture the same amount of CO2 as the CO2 emissions avoided by the turbines. The following document uses the NRCM's own figures to demonstrate that all the envisioned wind farms produce major degradation for wholly minor effect on CO2 reductions. Think about it NRCM. What are you doing? Maine's Wind Goals, CO2 and the Forest.pps

Comment by Long Islander on February 24, 2010 at 10:48pm: Here is a letter from UMPI president Donald Zillman on the $2 million UMPI wind turbine. It is new to the website. Their turbine site is http://www.umpi.edu/wind An article from the BDN dated nine months ago (May 15, 2009), when the turbine was commissioned, can be found at: http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/106065.html UMPI_Wind_Turbine_what-we-know-after-six-months-of-turbine-data.pdf

Comment by Long Islander on February 9, 2010 at 12:24pm: For immediate release, February 9, 2010
Legislators decline to protect Mainers
from health impact of wind turbines fm10-001 ammendment PR1.pdf

Comment by Long Islander on January 31, 2010 at 11:32pm: "For most of the time that she has been working on the book, Carolyn Chute has also been greatly occupied with an organization called the 2nd Maine Militia, of which she is the founder and, as she says, “secretary of offense, or offensiveness.” The 2nd Maine Militia, or Your Wicked Good Militia, as it’s sometimes known, is progun, against corporate lobbying and campaign contributions, and opposed to tax subsidies for big business. In 1996, in an incident recreated in “The School on Heart’s Content Road,” the militia invaded the State Capitol in Augusta, carrying placards that read, “Smash Corporate Tyranny.” Many of the militia children were in costume, and Mr. Chute wore a Revolutionary War uniform. There were some kazoo-playing and a little shouting, and someone duct-taped a piece of cardboard over a portrait of Joshua Chamberlain, the Maine governor and Civil War hero. The 2nd Maine Militia is a no-wing organization, Ms. Chute likes to say, with a membership that is “very right, very left and very shy.” At the first meeting, in the mid-’90s, she explained: “We had libertarians, greens, guys in camo, white supremacists, hippies off the land, anarchists, people from Communist organizations. All these people were people that someone had tried to take something away from. They all knew something was wrong.”
Carolyn Chute.pdf

Comment by Long Islander on January 15, 2010 at 7:45am: A Bit of Recent Maine History - Baldacci Nominates His Chief Counsel Kurt Adams To Maine PUC Baldacci_Nominates_Kurt_Adams_To_PUC.pdf

Comment by Art Brigades on January 10, 2010 at 4:49pm: Yes. It is the comment in this thread, just a few below here. It Begins "Thanks Art..."

Comment by Bob Brooks on January 9, 2010 at 9:01am: Can someone point me to Brian Rayne's narrative? I can't seem to find it unless it is the comment in this thread. Thanks.

Bob

Comment by Art Brigades on January 8, 2010 at 5:23pm: Bryan- Thank you so much for that narrative. In my estimation you just wrote the campaign speech for anyone in anytown that is thinking (or not yet thinking) about protecting itself from Big Wind. Every selectman and municipal attorney should get a copy of your words. We can work on that. Meantime, The Sun Journal, BDN, and Maine Sunday Telegram could all use a good op-ed submission with this content in it. Town Meeting season is approaching. Do it please.