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 K Campbell on December 3, 2015 at 4:17pm

Congratulations to the hundreds of people who got into this fight and worked to save the Downeast Lakes from this poorly-sited project.

 

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

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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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