BDN: Wind and Maine's Economy

Comment

Comment by Martha thacker on December 27, 2014 at 6:46am

"arbitrary renewables mandate for electricity. "

Let's don't forget these words. It is the meat and potatoes of the scam.

Comment by Brad Blake on December 26, 2014 at 11:27pm

It makes me sick to see the BDN continue to pander to Habib Dagher and the false premises of industrial wind power, whether on shore or off shore. First of all, we didn't need to see yet another photo of Dagher's little toy floating wind turbine. The only thing Dagher has been successful at is leading a team that has raked in enormous amounts of easy taxpayer money made available by Obama. Money from taxpayers that contributes nothing except expanding the $17 Trillion National Debt. It is NOT the role of the Federal government to waste taxpayer money on such folly.
Secondly, Maine does not need any additional generating capacity of any type, as we are exporting 40% of what we already generate. We do not need any wind power to maintain our arbitrary renewables mandate for electricity. And we certainly should not ruin Maine's vaunted "Quality of Place" that was touted as the state's greatest asset by the prestigious Brookings Institute in 2007. We are inexorably doing so by allowing the spreading, sprawling scourge of industrial wind power development. Why should Maine trade of its natural and scenic resources, its nature based inland tourism, and seasonal home economy to become a wind turbine plantation to meet ideologue-based whims of other state's renewables mandates? That is insane!
Third, worse than insanity is economic self destruction. The more industrial wind turbines come into the grid, the more expensive our electricity rates become, for wind power purchase tend to start at twice the conventional wholesale rate of electricity and come with annual guaranteed indexing. Further, the modifications and disruptions of the grid due to increasing percentages of non-dispatchable, unpredictable, unreliable wind power, with its necessary multi-billion dollar transmission expansions will drive prices ever higher. If on-shore wind power is more than twice as expensive, Dagher's nightmare of floating 600 ft tall turbines in the deep and stormy Gulf of Maine will easily be a 5-fold increase. Right now, shallow water offshore wind using monopoles with existing components anchored in the seabed start at 24 cents per kilowatt hour, when ISO-NE is paying 4-5 cents for the current conventional mix. And don't swallow for a minute the great lie being spun that tens of thousands of jobs will come from manufacturing all the components here in Maine.
Just get ready to hold on to your pocketbooks, people, and wave goodbye to more jobs as we sacrifice our state to the scam of wind power. Repeal the heinous "wind law" enacted by Baldacci and the Democrats that gives this industry such an overwhelming (and undeserved) advantage and let it compete with the same regulations as all other industries. Repeal the arbitrary and unfair 100MW cap on large hydro generation and perhaps Maine could prosper by becoming the conduit for the massive amount of hydroelectricity being developed at Churchill Falls, Labrador that can be safely brought to southern New England via direct current conduit, not massive transmission lines. It is something we could start within a year or two if we were to be determined to get it done and it would have far better impact than Dagher's farce.

Comment by Martha thacker on December 26, 2014 at 2:13pm

Bangor Hydro and Central Maine Power had an agreement with MPUC to pay for the transmission lines to transmit power to lower New England. I have seen this written but did not save the link. So, now that there are new owners of First Wind, does that let Emera and CMP off the hook? ...as it turned out to be illegal anyway.... Do we see rates come down? Shouldn't there be money returned to ratepayers because it is difficult to ascertain whether the transmission lines are being built or not.

There used to be an article in BDN every time somebody from First Wind sneezed...there sure is a lot of secrecy around the transmission lines. Initially, it was not even public knowledge that there could be no transmission past Orrington. This was way after the massive onslaught of wind farms in ME. and we were exporting power at that time anyway. So there was no need for the wind farms. Big secret ...as well as the 19% rate hike. We need some new news papers in ME , laws for Mainers and not just corporations...and while I'm making my New Year's wish list...some people going to jail for raping and pillaging Maine.