This morning the Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision denying Champlain Wind LLC's appeal concerning a permit for its Bowers Wind Project in Carroll Plt and Kossuth Twp. Champlain Wind is a subsidiary of Maine's largest wind developer, First Wind. The decision marks the end of a six year process of hearings and appeals which pitted the wind developer against local residents, professional guides, traditional sporting camp owners and loyal visitors to Maine's famed Downeast Lakes Region. Spearheading the opposition was the Partnership for the Preservation of the Downeast Lakes Watershed (PPDLW).

The Court upheld the Board of Environmental Protection's (BEP's) conclusion that the project's sixteen turbines would have "an unreasonable adverse effect on the scenic character and existing uses related to the scenic character” of nine of the lakes which the State recognizes as "Scenic Resources of State or National Significance". The affected lakes include West Grand, Junior, Scraggly, Shaw, Pleasant, Bottle, Keg, Sysladobsis and Pug Lakes.

Gary Campbell, President of PPDLW said "We are very excited and relieved to receive this decision. Making our case required the sustained efforts of hundreds of individuals, groups and businesses. This victory is a testament to all their hard work. Ever since the Wind Law was passed as emergency legislation in 2008, citizens have been struggling to protect Maine's greatest natural assets from industrial wind development. The Court even noted in its decision that the purpose of the Wind Law was to minimize or eliminate opposition to wind projects based on their visual impact. This makes industrial wind project virtually impossible to stop. In fact, Bowers is the first wind project to be defeated under the Wind Law. PPDLW is not anti-renewables, not even anti-wind, but the Bowers project was so poorly sited we could not allow it to be built. Wind has its place, but Bowers is not it!"

It's time to get the Governor and legislature to revisit the Wind Law. While the law has remained the same, turbines have grown to 550' in height and the most appropriate sites have been built. Left unchecked, as they are under the current Wind Law, wind developers will destroy evermore sensitive areas with taller and noisier turbines.

The Court's decision is available at: www.courts.maine.gov/opinions_orders/supreme/lawcourt/2015/15me156c...

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Comment by Rob P on March 29, 2018 at 8:46am

Congratulations to all who worked so hard and so long. Thank you.

Comment by Rosemary Lowe on March 28, 2018 at 8:16pm

Wonderful News ! Now, we must work to Stop The Deep Water Mega-Industrial Wind Project being pushed on Monhegan Island, ME. This Industrial Wind Project will alter the environment and the character of this beautiful island environment for eons. So few places like this exist anymore, because industrialization has increasingly ruined such special places. Please help if you can to stop Aqua Ventus from destroying Monhegan and the ocean waters around it.

Comment by Eric A. Tuttle on December 4, 2015 at 1:41pm

Congrats and a big thank you, to ALL that worked toward prevention of this project. Hopefully the law itself can also be removed that allows future projects such as these in Maine to even be proposed. 

Comment by Donna Amrita Davidge on December 4, 2015 at 1:02pm
Best news
Comment by Rob P on December 4, 2015 at 11:07am

Congratulations and thanks for your years of hard and frustrating work. Great to see FW finally lose and sanity prevail. Keep up the fight.

Comment by Barbara Durkin on December 3, 2015 at 7:42pm

Congratulations to all committed to prevent FirstWINDle!

Thank You!

http://www.env.state.ma.us/dpu/docs/siting/13-165/13-165-Comments-9...

Comment by Jacqueline Dwinal on December 3, 2015 at 7:26pm

Congratulations to all who worked to defeat the "turbines".  Excellent work.  You are all to be commended.  Maybe now this wind law that we have in Maine will quickly disappear.  Great news!!!!

Comment by Eskutassis on December 3, 2015 at 7:22pm

Thank you Gary and the PPDLW! This is a huge moral victory, but more than that it is a huge move in the right direction.  No more can they ignore the residents and scoff off what we see as scenic beauty.  No more can they just assume the State is with them no matter what they propose.  We have to keep this up on every proposal out there and any new ones that come along.  Not only are these turbines ugly, but they are dangerous.  Fire hazards, bird killers, noise makers, polluters from the road cuts, blasting, defoliants and clear cutting.  

Thanks again Gary!

Comment by Donna Amrita Davidge on December 3, 2015 at 7:09pm

Monique is so right that not only did you win the fight- and I am so glad I drove down in the dark during training I was giving 10 hours a day for 21 days to testify one of the two nights and to hear all the wonderful people who showed up for this fight- but my soul, so saddened and broken hearted from the 3 year battle we lost over our historic lakes, is encouraged and so grateful for the win Gary and his group have today- let's keep it going..we love Maine..First wind and their arrogant legal team

have finally lost- may they continue to..it takes a GARY!! 

Comment by Penny Gray on December 3, 2015 at 7:03pm

A long and arduous battle fought by citizens against a multi-billion dollar industry wielding the might and main of Goliath and a political system that stacks the deck in their favor; to win against such odds is phenomenal.  Thank you, Maine Supreme Judicial Court, and thank you PPDLW and all those who fought to preserve what makes Maine, Maine.

 

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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Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?

We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

 -- Mahatma Gandhi

"It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up."
Vince Lombardi 

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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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