Karen Pease in Bangor Daily News: Wind Opposition of an 80% Majority Ignored
The need to be heard
I live in an Unorganized Territory. There is no recognized “town government” in Lexington. We’re too small for that. But we’re still American citizens. We believe that our voices and our wills should not be disregarded simply because we live in rural Maine.
More than 80 percent of our residents signed petitions opposing Iberdrola Renewables’ proposed industrial wind facility planned for the mountain summits rising above our homes. But because of the 2008 passage of LD 2283 (former Gov. John Baldacci’s “Wind Energy Act”), rural citizens in the “expedited wind permitting zone” aren’t allowed to have any real influence in the future of our communities.
In any other situation, an 80 percent vote would be considered a landslide. The people’s will would have carried the day. Why is this not the case for us?
We have told Iberdrola and landowner Plum Creek about our collective decision. We’ve asked them to abandon their wind development plans. Instead of respecting our resolve, they’ve continued to move ahead with their plans; contacting locals, asking them for private “meetings” (while refusing to hold public meetings), asking them for easements to cross their properties and telling them that property owners have the right to use their land however they see fit.
If sight, sound, smell, pollution or environmental impacts stopped at property boundaries, this conversation might be different. But everyone in Lexington stands to bear the impacts if this industrial facility is built in our community.
If we lived in neighboring New Portland, this wouldn’t be an issue. But, we don’t. So, it is.
Karen Pease
Lexington Township
Please see all the letters here.
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Comment
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Comment by Donna Amrita Davidge on September 7, 2012 at 5:24pm
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go Karen...they just banned them in northern Holland cause it is so scenic...Maine needs to wise UP!!!!
and show and tell what others are doing and realizing...just like Oakfield ruined any hope for out lakes and wildlife to stay scenic and keep their historic legacy alive.,..just 150 years ago Native Americans were on those lakes..what would they think? I pondered that with two retreat guests as we walked by the wind test tower( in Island Falls, which has no ordinance much as I have suggested they do) overlooking our lake today..otherwise a beautiful hike.
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Comment by alice mckay barnett on September 7, 2012 at 10:14am
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What emergency procedure can we use? I know I would collect 1000 of the 75,000 signatures we need for state-wide moratorium. Any legislature happening? We cannot let this go on.
Thank You Karen for taking the time to keep fighting with us. Hugs.
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Comment by Mike DiCenso on September 7, 2012 at 9:43am
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Kaz is right. If the legislature had done their job, we would not have this problem. They didn't, so we do. The 'emergency procedure' should be revisited as the EUT committee passed the stupid wind act without full leg. discussion. Pretty sneaky.
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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