Hyper Secretive Maine Wind Backers Suddenly Concerned About Public Meetings for New Wind Commission

Look at the bids that came in for the various wind projects responding to the Mass RFP. Many were so heavily redacted that they provided almost no information as to where great swaths of Maine would be grossly transformed. Many pages were 100% black. Look at the Maine media's refusal to serve their readership with the information that former governor Baldacci, the creator of Maine's sweeping wind law, joined the board of the nation's second largest wind company - Avangrid (CMP). Or that he became their vice chairman in December 2015. Look at the secrecy with which now Senator Angus King shielded all eyes from the identity of his major financial backer, which was legally registered simply as "Bayroot", a Delaware shell company. We only learned that Bayroot was the Yale University Endowment when they received a $102 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy which Chellie Pingree lobbied for on King's behalf. Look at the fact that Chellie Pingree's husband, S. Donald Sussman, also the owner of the Press Herald and other papers in Maine, turned out to be the person who had given First Wind's owner, hedge fund D.E. Shaw,  their start with a $28 million stake without any reporting on this from the Maine media. Look at the total absence in the Maine media of any reporting on the 11/15/09 Boston Herald story by Christine McConville that  "the Massachusetts native" who helped found controversial wind-energy developers Cape Wind and First Wind had been partners with Oreste Vigorito, who along with 12 others had been charged in a probe dubbed “Gone with the Wind”. Look at the complete mystery as to how Gov Baldacci's wind task force drew up the map defining the expedited wind area. The wind industry is just about the most secretive industry there is, which is particularly egregious in that their lifeblood is the public's money. 

Now read the following  prominent and large article today in the Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram  decrying the fact that Governor LePage has formed a wind energy commission that "will meet behind closed doors – out of view of the public or the press".

https://www.pressherald.com/2018/01/28/shielded-wind-energy-commiss...

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Comment by Dan McKay on January 28, 2018 at 1:33pm

Mr. King, I can understand your apprehension to this commission's work and any eventual impact it may have on legislative changes. I can point out several successes that have occurred for wind opponents in Western Maine. Most notably, of course, is the Reddington and Black Nubble Mountain proposal that got denied and , yes it was before the Wind Laws were enacted, but, it has never entered the application process since. Angus King and associates were not only stopped cold in Byron, but, also in Lexington and surrounding areas of unorganized lands. TransCanada"s Kibby Mountain expansion to Sisk Mountain was denied by LURC in 2010, later a scaled down expansion was approved, but has never happened.. NextEra was denied permit to rezone unorganized areas into the expedited zone, just last year.
The project proposed by Iberdrola Renewables for Fletcher Mountain had obtained a PPA with Massachusetts' utilities, but that as far as it got.
I would also mention that many towns in Western Maine have taken itself upon themselves to enact ordinances discouraging development. Many areas of unorganized territories petitioned and received exclusion from the expedited wind area, thanks to a hard fought battle in the legislature to enact law allowing it.
I can't understand how the legislature remains deaf to these events. Believe me, the tenacious warriors that have scuttled the above projects will succeed even if the commission fails.

Comment by Bob Stone on January 28, 2018 at 1:19pm

I agree with Mr. King.  Why the big secret?  The swamp functions best in secrecy.  I say open this up and shine sunlight on every minute of deliberations.  

Comment by Long Islander on January 28, 2018 at 10:24am

Just saw a great comment from a reader in this article which included the very important observation:

"One tactic to stifle civil debate is to open the door to disruptive, intimidation by paid(???) protesters on behalf of the wind industry."

Comment by Richard McDonald/Saving Maine on January 28, 2018 at 10:18am

Liberals, progressives, AGW ideologues and wind scammers of all stripes don't care about the truth - only spreading their lies and pocketing the spoils. LePage will march on and tell them all to pound sand.  Thank you governor LePage.

 

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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