Maine legislators decide to keep Maine state waters windfarm-free! Listen to them

Though the final vote won't be until Wednesday 2pm, Maine state waters will remain free of windfarms until further notice, the legislature's Committee on Utilities and Energy decided today

Scroll down to listen to audio mp3s of the March 23 work session on the bill LD1810 "An Act To Implement the Recommendations of the Governor's Ocean Energy Task Force"

The committee adopted changes to the controversial ocean windfarm bill in response to criticism from Maine fishermen and other coastal nature-dependent businesses.

Changes made today at the committee's 2nd work session on the bill focus Maine's wind efforts on constructing floating deepwater windmills on land, then deploying them at locations ten miles offshore and further.

The state can still consider tidal and wave energy projects in state waters under the bill, but no wind projects will be allowed in state waters.

However, commercial fishermen and other coastal stakeholders will be asked to review the concept of nearshore wind over the next year, with a reportto be delivered to the legislature in 2012.

The committee will meet tomorrow at 2pm for a final vote on the bill, which is being held up overnight while issues related to how competitive bidding for offshore wind development in federal waters will be handled. That issue will have no effect on the state's decision to keep windmills out of state waters, until further notice however.

Listen to speakers at the Maine Legislature's Utility & Energy Committee 3/23/10 work session on LD 1810 the governor's offshore wind energy bill Audio MP3s

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Comment by Charlie on March 25, 2010 at 3:33pm
If the legislature votes to ban windmills from it's waters it makes sense. If there is uncertainty about the future of the coastline then a lot of investment will stop and the shorefront real estate market will tank, even if windmills are never built. That market chilling effect should be obvious to everyone except the people who think they will make some money from it.

The idential debate is shaping up for the great lakes. We've had similar issues before, diversion of water and oil drilling. Both were banned for practical purposes. Now what happens with the windmill issue. I'm hoping a storm over the offshore windmills will make people more sympathetic to the problems with onshore windmills. The public waters belong to everyone so all of a sudden it's everybody's back yard. I suspect that, once a NIMBY, always a NIMBY.
Comment by Ron Huber on March 23, 2010 at 11:00pm
Offshore Wind Wire has this now-obsolete story Opponents Try to Slow Maine Offshore Wind Proposal
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Comment by Joanne Moore on March 23, 2010 at 10:20pm

Comment by Whetstone_Willy on March 23, 2010 at 9:52pm
Don Huber - if you can't get the turbine reefs down there, enough politicians sporting the latest spring fashions in cement footwear make great reefs! Actually forget that, the toxicity levels in the fish would get too high.
Comment by Ron Huber on March 23, 2010 at 9:09pm
Could probably lay 'em on their sides down off the Shelf, (down in the blue areas in the image) Freaky deepsea tubes for critters to skitter around in

Comment by Ron Huber on March 23, 2010 at 9:02pm
They said that windmills make good artificial reefs (once the oil and greasy and toxic stuff is removed. I think they would make a fine harvest, clipping them away from your mountains. How many ya got? Can we have 'em free?
Comment by Lisa Lindsay on March 23, 2010 at 7:50pm
Yes, please make them go away completely so I can stop cringing every time I look out at the mountains while plotting my move out of state.
Comment by Whetstone_Willy on March 23, 2010 at 6:51pm

Comment by Joanne Moore on March 23, 2010 at 6:50pm
That is really good news, Ron. Thanks.
Comment by Ron Huber on March 23, 2010 at 6:13pm
that awful expedited crap is so vexing to some of the legislators that they are looking to reconsider the expedited issue for new land-based windmill applications. You can hear it when I edit the recording of today's work session and post it.

 

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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