It's Getting Hot in Here covers Kibby Mountain protest - http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/
Earth First! blocks industrial wind project under construction in t...
I just got back from the Earth First! Rendezvous in Stratton, ME where activists from all over the country gathered under the banner “No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth.” True to the slogan, EF! activists ended the camp with civil disobedience against a controversial industrial wind project being built in the Maine North Woods. Activists blockaded the entrance to the construction site while others stopped a semi-truck carrying a massive turbine blade and locked themselves to it. This action will no doubt be controversial within the environmental/climate movement. Hopefully it will spark RESPECTFUL debate in our movement about the role industrial wind should play in combating climate change. Is our movement diverse and resilient enough to have communities like Coal River fighting for wind pr0jects in their backyard, while others are fighting against them? Are we ready to get beyond unquestioning support of all wind power and really confront some of the major problems that are presented by industrial wind projects being built by multinational corporations?
While I am not from Maine I felt compelled to lend my solidarity to this action for a number of reasons:
-It is important to make clear that this action was not against ALL wind. It was against corporate run industrial wind projects that impact rural communities and sensitive ecosystems. We are in full support of small scale, community run wind projects.
-The wind power being built in Maine is not replacing any fossil fuel plants. It is all additional capacity, so in reality no emissions are being reduced. We would be far better off reducing consumption and improving efficiency rather than producing more electricity.
-These wind farms are being built in sensitive wild areas that are home to the endangered lynx and migratory birds as well as rare alpine ecosystems. We can’t ignore the impacts that industrial wind has on an ecosystem. We cannot right these impacts off as collateral damage.
-The wind farms are being built by Transcanada, a major player in the Alberta tar sands. These wind farms are not producing electricity for Maine. It is all being sold to other states. Maine residents shouldn’t have to have their wildlands carved up so that an oil company can greenwash its image while turning a profit selling electricity to the grid.
With that said lets get a discussion going on these issues around large scale wind projects.
Views: 112
Comment
-
Comment by Steve Thurston on July 17, 2010 at 9:11pm
-
Denise,
Sorry there is no translation available but the French study is here:
http://www.ventdecolere.org/archives/doc-references/gaz-a-effet-de-...
-
Comment by Denise Hall on July 11, 2010 at 9:23am
-
Steve,
If you happen to have a source for the French studies, could you please send them along?
-
-
The reason wind power does not reduce emissions is because it causes decreased efficiency for other types of generation. Think of it this way. Your car gets 30 mpg on the highway but 20 mpg in stop and go city traffic. The output of a wind plant is like stop and go traffic for the generators in the grid. French studies have shown that a wind turbine needs to achieve an impossible 50% capacity factor in order to cancel out the increased emissions from baseload plants that must constantly react to the ebb and flow of the wind. Wind power leads to a net increase in emissions at the 20-25% capacity factors that prevail in Maine. It is insane public policy to support this industry.
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/
Not yet a member?
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
Task Force membership is free. Please sign up today!
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/
© 2024 Created by Webmaster.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine to add comments!
Join Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine