Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine

Letter to Maine Audubon from James Lutz

Mr. Lutz had difficulty posting, so asked that we post this heart-felt letter to Maine Audubon for him.

Dear Friends;

I have long been a supporter of the Audubon Society, admiring your policies on saving our environment and our birds. I have a camp on a Maine lake that only recently (in the last 15 years) has had several pairs of our most beautiful National Icon, The Bald Eagle, taking up residence on our lake. I have had fish taken right off the ice when ice fishing by several pairs of Eagles, and given them freely to them. I have sat on my dock for hours watching their maneuvers in the sky as they search the lake for a perfect meal.

It is totally baffling to me how you can support the #1 killer of these great hunters, windfarms. Since a series of windmills has been introduced to our lake near Lincoln, ME, I have only noticed one pair of the birds for the last few years. I can only assume that they either moved on to safer grounds, or became another fatality to the spinning blades. The wind industry has invaded our space that was once pristine, with clean water and clear skies, and replaced it with runoff silt into our streams and lakes, and flashing lights during the once #1 Bortle Night skies. I think you have been misguided by the "scientific" drivel from the Wind Industry, actually blatant LIES that make their construction seem like it is truly environmental, but in actuality is some of the most wasteful "investment" in our history. Let me list a few of the things that are true facts.

1. The State of Maine produces more energy than it currently needs for the population and industry that is here. We produce 4,300 mw of power and routinely use about 1,500 mw. None of it is generated by oil and more than 50% is generated by renewable resources. That is the highest in the nation. There is actually enough energy produced here to keep us in electricity for the next 40 years by all real experts.

2. The number of turbines needed in the state to hit the goal for Wind will amount to more than 3,000 turbines spaced out on our mountain tops and covering more than 3,000 miles of Maine land. Each turbine costs roughly $5 million for a total of roughly $150 billion. All that energy could be produced by one medium sized gas powered plant taking up less the 15 acres of land, and paid for by roughly $150 million. That is a far cry from the miles and miles of towers and about 10% of the cost.

3. Wind turbines operate at only about 25-30% of their designed output. The goal of 3,000 turbines to produce 2,700 mw of power works out to only about 810 mw in actuality. To get to 2,700 mw we would need almost 10,000 turbines, and we don't have enough room for that in Maine, unless we want to look like California.

4. Almost all the energy we are producing on our land is going to supply Massachusetts and Connecticut. They have already shunned putting up towers on their land, and in fact several towns in Mass have petitioned to have those that have been put up taken down. Why are we here in Maine taking the big hit in our rates on grid improvements when we don't even need them. Maine already has the highest electricity rates in the US, further chasing more business and jobs out of the state.

5. Wind will not get us off coal or oil. Maine has no coal or oil production facilities, but even so, wind farms have to be backed up with regular plants full time to make up for the intermittent production from wind. That is what makes the system so unstable, is to have wind's variability plugged in when the system is running. If the wind is blowing, and suddenly dies, the system fails unless there is a full time power plant to back it up. The drop must be covered in a millisecond or there is a brownout or blackout.

6. Wind will not significantly reduce the CO2 levels in the environment. Best estimates by real scientists show that 2,700 mw of electricity produced by wind would reduce the CO2 levels by 0.04% on a worldwide basis. That is hardly significant. But considering we are only getting 800 mw from that many turbines, that reduces it to 0.01333%. Ridiculous when you think about all the trucks, and heavy equipment used to build these sites and the number of trees that will be cut and cleared, trees that sequester more CO2 than these turbines will ever save.

7. When these advocates speak, they speak of "investment" in our future. Trillions of dollars have been spent on wind for the last 40 years and to date nationwide, it only accounts for about 2% of our energy production. The "investment" dollars come directly from our pockets as tax dollars. This is not true investment. It is subsidy. Real entrepreneurs who might be drawn into the wind industry have abandoned it when they realize they can not make it work. Even Europe, where wind was so heavily subsidized, has given up trying to make it work. Germany says it has chased away more business because of their high energy costs, primarily due to wind.

8. Jobs in Maine will not be enriched. Most of the parts of these wind turbines are built overseas, not even here in the United States. The construction jobs are largely imported from other states, and are only temporary. I know this for myself as I have rented several properties to workers who come in from the Carolinas and Texas who work on these projects for 3 to 6 months and then move back to home. Few if any taxes are collected as most of these projects are tax increment financing (TIF) deals and the local residents end up covering the taxes. That is a Maine deal.

9. Lastly, I get back to the subject of birds. This is something you are supposed to be experts in. If a duck lands on a pond at one of our oil production plants and is harmed in any way, the media and you and the EPA jump all over them, file charges, and fine them up to $1 million dollars for each bird harmed. These wind turbines destroy far more birds and bats, often many of them endangered species, with complete impunity. This is the most blatant double standard I have ever seen. And I think you are perpetuating it with your support of Wind. How can you be so double faced? How can you ignore all the facts that wind doesn't work and is destroying our Maine Quality of place and the birds.

These are all facts that if any of you were true scientists, would embrace and rethink your position. You, The Sierra Club, and others have got to get the facts before you make policy statements or let any of you spokesmen go out and make you look more foolish and two faced than I know you are. While there are good intentions on your mind, you are making a bad situation worse.

Very truly yours,

James J. Lutz

Bangor, ME

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Comment by Sherwin Start on December 13, 2013 at 1:06pm: All I can Say is JOHN J. Audubon Would be ashamed of the Maine Chapter of the Audubon Society!!

Comment by Sherwin Start on December 13, 2013 at 1:05pm: Very Good Comment By Mr. Lutz-However He needs to start supporting his Statements with DOCUMENTATion From CREDITABLE sources! He Has Recited a Number of "FACTS and Figures" That MUST Be Corroberated! I too WAS A member of The MAS for Years-But I will NEVER again Be-Because of their LACK Of Physical PROOF that Substantiates their Stand on Wind Power Generation Bird Mortality Rates/Species!! These Wind Turbines Are Killing Hundreds of Species of Birds-I have Seen it first Hand-And Whats Even worse the U.S. Government is SANCTIONING Another SPECIES Elimination!!

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U.S. Sen Angus King

THE UNTOLD STORY OF RECORD HILL WIND

The Untold Story of Record Hill Wind, continued

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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