A status report on Maine onshore wind from Bill Opalka

Maine wind lobbyist Jeremy Payne chooses to attribute stalled onshore growth to former Gov LePage's wind moratorium but fails to recognize market forces, transmission constraints and citizen outcries.

Maine’s wind farm moratorium is over, but how long will ‘chilling effect’ last?

Projects generally require three to five years of predevelopment work including environmental studies, outreach to host communities, and coordination with economic development authorities. That doesn’t cover the work of securing interconnection agreements and obtaining permits, power purchase agreements and investors. In Maine, permits are required from the Department of Environmental Protection, the Public Utilities Commission and the Land Use Planning Commission.

Two projects proposed before or during the moratorium are in the permitting and predevelopment process. They include the 22-turbine, 72.6-megawatt Weaver Wind project in the towns of Eastbrook and Osborn, north of Bar Harbor. Its applications were accepted in November 2018. State regulators have a statutory deadline of May 17 to issue or deny a permit.

Another, RoxWind, is a four-turbine, 15.2-megawatt proposal in Roxbury in western Maine. Project manager Lindsay Deane-Mayer said the facility may be only a couple months away from getting its environmental permit. The project was far enough along for development work to continue during the moratorium.

Read the entire piece here:

https://energynews.us/2019/04/03/northeast/maines-wind-farm-morator...

or

https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/04/03/maines-wind-farm-morator...

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Comment by Penny Gray on April 3, 2019 at 6:27pm

Outreach to host communities includes bribery and threats, let's not forget that.  Lawsuits, too. The host community is always left in a shambles, divided and destroyed.  "An animal on which a parasite lives" describes the wind industry perfectly.  

Comment by Paula D Kelso on April 3, 2019 at 3:57pm

The catch phrase being, outreach to host communities. And let the under the table and behind closed doors communications begin. By the time the 'community' hears about the project, all the influential powers that be in the town have been outreached  to be the foot soldiers for the development company. Pitting neighbor against neighbor and covering up potential ethical conflicts of interest. And that 'host community' phrase. What the hell does that mean. Host a welcome party? Googled the phrase. Results?  Host community for a hazardous waste facility, for refugees or displaced persons, for Marijuana Establishments, country of asylum. Host: someone who receives or entertains other people as guests; an animal on or in which a parasite lives. From Latin hostis 'stranger, enemy, army".   All wonderful associations for the lucky 'host community'. How lucky Clifton is to have been specially selected to be a 'host community' for Nova Scotian SWEB development corporation plus local hangers on. 

Comment by Dan McKay on April 3, 2019 at 3:34pm

Jeremy Paine's way of saying stick a fork in future Maine on-shore wind plants.

 

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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