Maine offshore wind test center: FOAA docs shows state trying to make it a permanent windpower site.

Maine Coastal Program's 11/22/16 response to Friends of Penobscot Bay's FOAA  re Aquaventus/Volturnus 
request was for "Public records in custody of you or your staff dating from April 1, 2016 to November 14, 2016 that pertain to the Maine Aquaventus /Volturnus floating ocean wind turbines project, slated to occupy the Maine Offshore Wind Test Center.   (FOPB letter is page 34)
Much ado about trying to tweak the rules  to make the state offshore wind test center into a permanent windpower site - which it certainly was not intended to be!  A bit of groaning about opposition from Protect Monhegan folks as well.
FOAA Part One Pages 1-12  PDF   news articles sent to each other
FOAA Part 2 Pages 13-34    PDF   Emails between the  people listed below 
People and email addresses used within the FOAA'd material:
 
State Agencies
Kathleen Leyden  Kathleen.Leyden@maine.gov Dir Maine Coastal Prog (MCP)
Mark Bergeron  Mark.Bergeron@maine.gov   Dir DEP Bureau of Lands
Robert G. Marvinney Robert.G.Marvinney@maine.gov  ME Geologic Survey
Patrick C. Woodcock Patrick.C.Woodcock@maine.gov Governor's Energy Office
Meredith Mendelson Meredith.Mendelson@maine.gov  DMR Deputy Commissioner
Philip deMaynadier Phillip.deMaynadier@maine.gov  DIFW Coordinator
Todd Burrowes Todd.Burrowes@maine.gov  MCP federal consistency reviewer
Peggy Bensinger  Peggy.Bensinger@maine.gov  MDEP's  Asst AG
Matthew Nixon  Matthew.E.Nixon@maine.gov  MCP  GIS &  Ocean Planning
Monhegan Residents
* Barbara Hitchcock barbaramonhegan@gmail.com Monhegan resident, Hitchcock House
* Laura T Singer lsinger@maine.rr.com Monhegan Resident
Wind Industry
* Beth Nagusky bnagusky@leedco.org  Lake Erie Energy Development. Former head ME Governor's Energy Office under Baldacci.
* Val Stori  val@cleanegroup.org Clean Energy Group
Info@windindustry.com   "Website for the wind industry"

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Comment by Ron Huber on December 9, 2016 at 11:21am

Friends 

So would the change the wind related officials below want to happen  have to take place legislatively? or as an administrative action?

Read below a discussion by officials of whether the "test " designation of the offshore wind test center can be eliminated to make the site permanent ( these may be slightly our of order))

Beth Nagusky writes

>Todd --    ...Here are my specific questions as I went back to look at the statute you wrote and we passed ages ago. Maybe Matt (where are you housed Matt?) can answer: Do they still only need the general permit? Was there an amendment that extended the GP term from a few years to indefinitely for Monhegan? Is Kathleen still there? If so say hi!! 

Peggy Bensinger asked Todd Burrowes:

>Hi, Todd. Are you aware of any special provisions in law for the Monhegan area in regard to the >length of terms of the General Permit that can be issued?

and Todd writes:

>Hi, Peggy. I am aware of no such provisions other than the one regarding extension of the permit >term, 38 M.R.S. §480-HH(9)(B) (http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/38/title38sec480->... ). 

 and Bensinger replies

>Okay, thanks. Me neither. I received a question from Beth Nagusky, who now works in Ohio, and >she said she thought she had seen that there was some special exemption for Monhegan that >allowed a general permit there to last forever.

Beth Nagusky  wrote:

>... Somewhere I thought I’d seen that Monhegan had been exempted from the time limited nature >of the permit but that appears not to be the case. Maybe I dreamed it!!

Then Todd Burrowes writes:

>Hi, Beth. I think it’s best that you address your questions re: the general permit’s applicability to >DEP and the AG’s office. A good contact at DEP would be Mark Bergeron (207.215.4397;

> Mark.Bergeron@maine.gov ), who’s the director of DEP’s Bureau of Land Resources, which >administers that law, and Peggy Bensinger (207.626.8578; Peggy.Bensinger@maine.gov ) who >continues to represent DEP and BEP on licensing and permitting matters.

End

Comment by Ron Huber on December 9, 2016 at 10:04am

Thanks Eric! I'll edit that into the update

 

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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