Mike DiCenso BDN Letter: Legislature needs to correct the flawed wind law

Wind turbine folly

The Land for Maine’s Future program represents much money spent and untold hours of hard work to preserve areas for future generations.

The threat of such unique places being surrounded by ugly, blinking industrial wind turbines threatens to make the entire program an exercise in futility, with no climate improvements and minimal energy produced.

The Legislature needs to be more careful when passing “emergency bills” written by industry insiders and their committee “moles.”

There never was an emergency, and the “Expedited Wind Law” passed without anyone researching the fantasy claims or demanding proof that wind turbines are reducing climate change, as fossil fuels use is not reduced.

Hydro power may make room for the wind energy bursts, but that is one renewable replacing another for zero emission benefit. The current Legislature needs to correct the flawed wind law before more projects ruin the landscape.

Why do the Natural Resources Council of Maine and Environment Maine oppose the tar sands pipeline, which is already in use, and the Bald Mountain mine proposal? Where do they think the metals come from for their favored turbines and the energy to produce them?

Exporting our emissions to China is not an answer. Let’s protect the LFMF program and stop the wind turbine folly.

Mike DiCenso

Lincoln

http://bangordailynews.com/2013/03/03/opinion/monday-march-4-2013-w...

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Comment by Allen Barrette on March 5, 2013 at 7:21am

Great posting but do you think anyone on the legislature level is listening? There is way too much money being passed through state,towns,and individual pockets for any opposition to stop this illegal manipulation of the law. Just ask first winds executive idiot Baldacci (oh I can say that because I can prove it) he started the expediting process for his own gain and not for the clean air that we lack or the polluted water we drink I know this because the turbines are doing nothing except ruining the landscape,and air we breath. If you look into the science of carbon reduction you plant trees and nothing but trees and more trees and manage the forests not cut them. The government knows all this they are the ones that came up with land cost sharing to help manage forests and private lands. No matter how many turbines are erected it will have no impact on the environment other than bird kill and forest kill. We will probably feel the impacts of China's lack of environmental emissions control before we can even get a handle on our own bad air. The west coast will feel the effects first. Oh they are already here but will get worse unless we plant a trees and manage the forest.                   signed------------ GOT VISION

Comment by Brad Blake on March 4, 2013 at 10:07pm

Martha, all the "whereas" verbiage at the beginning of LD 2283 is the hysteria you speak of that actually did make this an "emergency" piece of legislation so it could get rammed through the legislative session at the last minute.  The law was written for and BY the wind lobby.  They hoodwinked Baldacci really badly.  The only "emergency" was the need for First Wind and the other thieves to get past the usual environmental regulations quickly enough to get feasting at the Taxpayer Subsidy trough before they went completely broke.

Comment by Brad Blake on March 4, 2013 at 10:02pm

Mike DiCenso is right.  How stupid of us to spend taxpayers' money, borrowed through binds, to preserve these great and wonderful natural resources, only to surround them with the industrial blight of 45 story tall wind turbines.  Folks, if First Wind has its way, the magnificent Downeast Grand Lakes will be encircled with these useless contraptions.  If First Wind has its way, there will be turbines right up to the ridges surrounding the borders of Baxter State Park.  Do we really want to climb Mt. Katahdin and see hundreds of wind turbines that we don't need and have no value except as a means for First Wind to feast off Taxpayer Subsidies?

Anyone who loves the Maine outdoors, anyone who chooses to lives out here for the peace and quiet and wildlife, anyone who cherishes the "Quality of Place" that is Maine's greatest asset (Brookings Instiute study 2007) should be as outspoken in denouncing this scam as is Mr. DiCenso.  

Comment by Martha thacker on March 4, 2013 at 6:38pm

"The current Legislature needs to correct the flawed wind law before more projects ruin the landscape."

As an example of just how flawed the expedited wind law is, hydro is not considered a renewable energy source in Maine. It is in NH. So in order to reach Baldaci's contrived quotos for renewable energy, we have wind farms all over ME and no way to transmit the power. The only people who benefit from the expedited wind law are the wind farm corporations. And the law couldn't have benefited them  more if it had been written by them. Maybe it was with all the hype and hysteria going on at the time. You would have thought all of Maine would be dark at night without that law..only thing missing was emergency in the name..emergency expedited wind law. 

Comment by Donna Amrita Davidge on March 4, 2013 at 5:33pm

thanks so much for letting us know about Mike's excellent letter..of course I made my comment. they need to reverse that law yesterday..we all know that. Angus in there does not help as we know too.

 

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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