BDN Headline Completely Overstates Wind Power Production in Maine

The BDN headline shown at the bottom of this post is simply not true and deserves letters to the editor and/or other submissions demanding a correction.
Please see the attached Excel file entitled "Net Generation...." where on Worksheet # 4 in cell AA14, it can be seen that according to the Energy Information Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Energy, Maine's Net Generation for the Wind Sector is  only 13.9%.
In other words, the "almost one fourth" claim in the headline is almost double the EIA figure seen in the attached. The source for the EIA data is listed on that worksheet, so go check for yourself. Or click here: 
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Aside from this seemingly overstated headline, what is lost in the type of shallow reporting in our newspapers and shallow (or non-existent) debate that went into the creation of Maine's horrible expedited wind law is that despite all the screaming about the dire need for wind turbines in Maine, only 8.9% of Maine's CO2 emissions derive from electricity production. You can see this for yourself on a second attached Excel file, called EIA_CO2_by Sector....
The underlying data are also from the Energy Information Administration. Go to the worksheet entitled "Ranked on % Electric Power" and in cell D9 you will see wind at a paltry 8.9% of Maine's CO2. Then go to cell G9 and see Transportation at a majority 51.6% of Maine's CO2. Perhaps someone needs to tell the media, environmental groups, university professor-cheer leaders and legislators "It's the driving, stupid".
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Keep in mind that the same chicken-little body that rammed through the horrible wind law without debate (the Maine legislature) is the same body that not too long ago raised the Interstate speed limits. Even the trucking companies protested that move because of all the extra fuel they would have to burn. We are living in Bizzaroland and it all happens because the media has gone from watchdog to unabashed propagandist.
Because wind installations can only supplant other fuel sources in this one sector, electricity production, even if we used the bloated claim of 25% as suggested in the BDN headline, the maximum CO2 reduction effect would be 25% x 8.9% = 2.2%. And right off the bat, given the exaggeration in the 25% claim, the number would be more like 1%. Then if we wanted to, we could further reduce the percentage based on a number of factors such as the redundant fossil fuel backup operating in highly inefficient stop-start-stop mode to infill for the unpredictable skitter of wind power generation. So the CO2 number is likely well below 1%. By the way, whereas electricity production in Maine accounts for only 8.9% of Maine's CO2 emissions, the same figure for the entire country is 38.3% or in a place like North Dakota, 50.7%  (where the wind blows far more than Maine and wind factories can be put many, many miles from human population).
But this is what happens when the ham handed Federal government sets "one size fits all" cookie cutter goals for all states, failing to consider the different situations in each state, such as Maine being 90% forested and heavily reliant on its viewsheds for all important tourism dollars. Actually, under the heading of "too little, too late", the Maine Tourism Association just took its head out of the sand and finally recognized the threat of wind to tourism dollars. See: http://www.windaction.org/posts/46539-the-maine-tourism-association...
A far bigger number would be how much money the wind industry and its coterie of bag men throw around to buy silence and seals of approval.
The BDN bloated brag is here:

Wind energy is almost one fourth of Maine power generation

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U.S. Sen Angus King

THE UNTOLD STORY OF RECORD HILL WIND

The Untold Story of Record Hill Wind, continued

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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