Joe Benning Speaks About Maine as Well as Vermont

 

I don't often post something from out of Maine unless it is relevent to our issues.  Joe Benning, the author, is a Vermont State Senator. Folks in Maine must read this and simply put Maine everywhere he writes Vermont. Otherwise, every word here is the truth about the wind power issue in Maine. He hiked to the top of Lowell Ridge. In Maine, substitute Mars Hill, Stetson Mt, Jimmey Mt., Owl Mt., Rollins Mt., Rocky Dundee, Bull Hill, Spruce Mt., Beaver Ridge, Vinalhaven, Record Hill, Flathead Mt., Partridge Peak, or the Kibby Range. Stop the senseless destruction of our beautiful uplands for the pathetic farce of wind power.

Fire on the Mountain

DSC_7883by Joe Benning
 
Recently I hiked up to the top of Lowell Ridge to see where twenty-one, four hundred foot wind towers will be placed.  As I crested the mountain I came face to face with an energy policy that is at war with itself.  The environmental destruction taking place there pits those seeking to reverse climate change against those who wish to preserve Vermont’s pristine natural resources. While that battle rages, the economic cost to Vermont has been pushed aside as irrelevant.   
 
Our new energy policy calls for a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.  Targeting our entire energy spectrum (including transportation), it relies on instate renewables to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.  At the same time we’re eliminating Hydro Quebec, nuclear power, fracked natural gas and less efficient biomass electricity as acceptable “renewables.”  Industrial wind, currently the darling of the present administration, has become the power that now drives our legislative policy.


What price are we willing to pay for this new policy?  Vermont currently does a better job than most states at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, so self-imposed mandates are not even necessary.  And to those who believe Vermont will “lead the way” in reversing climate change, any hope that Vermont alone can cause a world-wide domino effect to achieve this lofty goal should be carefully balanced against the very real environmental destruction taking place right now in the cherished natural solitude of the Northeast Kingdom.
 
And more wind farms are coming as corporate investors, motivated by tax incentives and artificially inflated electric rates, seduce small towns with infusions of cash.  Since wind is intermittent and has no storage capacity, our policy alone will require more wind farms and many miles of transmission lines to achieve our energy goal.  If regulatory authorities fall short insisting on decommissioning plans, our ridgelines will end up littered with forty story rusting hulks when this technology becomes obsolete.   These new wind farms are encroaching on our wildlife corridors, destroying pristine mountain environments and radically changing the aesthetics of our state. They pit citizens of towns against each other, and towns against towns in a given region.  
 
In the meantime, we in the legislature have not been living up to the responsibility that comes with guarding Vermont’s Constitution.  Article 18 urges us to be moderate and frugal when enacting only such legislation as is necessary for the good government of this state.  At a time when Vermont already has more power than it can use, our new policy is not moderate, not frugal, and certainly not necessary.   We haven’t even taken the time to ask ourselves what these policy goals will mean to our economy in the absence of similar goals in surrounding states.       
 
I cannot support the raping of a pristine environment in exchange for intermittent power that has to be subsidized by both the taxpayer and the ratepayer.  At a time when Vermont already has an ample power supply, this is no energy plan, it is a blind obsession.  It’s time for Vermonters of every political stripe to join together in defense of “These Green Hills and Silver Waters.”

Joe Benning is a Republican State Senator from the Caledonia-Orange District

This essay was published by www.vermonttiger.com and posted on Face Book on 2/22/13

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Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

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(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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