NRCM, Environment Maine & other ocean windrush boosters should look before leaping offshore.
The announcement of a federal decision to fast-track the siting of ocean windmills off the US Atlantic coast, risks leaving many environmental impacts,including some potentially harming Maine's lobster and scallop fisheries, unexplored until after the windmills are in place. See govt press release
Organizations like NRCM, Environment Maine, with little if any experience with the ocean environment, need to look carefully at the oceanic ecological issues relating to windfarming before they wholeheartedly endorse the federal offshore windrush.
Ocean windfarms are proposed from Maine, in the path of the Eastern Maine Coastal Current, and all the way down the Atlantic coast to Florida, where the Gulf Stream itself may be affected as it passes through vast ocean windfarms planned off along the south Atlantic and
midAtlantic coasts.
"Some of these plans are like sowing dragons teeth" said Ron Huber, executive director of Penobscot Bay Watch. "We know something is goingto happen to ocean hydrology, but we aren't sure what. For instance,
one of the areas proposed for ocean windfarming off Maine is in the route of a current that transports lobster larvae from waters off Lubec south to Penobscot Bay.
"Will diverting any of that current east into the Gulf of Maine's deep basins take a lot of larvae with it?" Huber asked. "NRCM, Environment Maine and other groups need to look before they blindly leap
onboard the federal offshore windrush."
"We've seen the results when other newly exploited marine resources get piled on by everyone who can afford
to be out there," Huber said. "Unless other states follow Maine's lead of promoting floating deepwater windmills well offshore, state's will find it impossible to reposition ocean windfarms found later to destabilize the Atlantic coast's
currents."
"Natural Resources Council of Maine, Environment Maine and other land-focused conservation groups should proceed with
caution when entering ocean policy debate," Huber said.
BACKGROUND
http://penobscotbay.blogspot.com/2010/11/governor-lepages-choice-oc...
Graphics at the above link show the possible effect of ocean wind farming on maine lobsters Note the first image is a graphic from the UMaine marine sciences dept, The second is my attempt to superimpose the proposed windpwoer locations on a map of Gulf of Maine currents and the third is the map that Matt Nixon of the State Planning Office Coastal Program developed.
How windpower affects ocean currents: A meteorologist from the Norwegian meteorology Institute examines the issue * On the influence of large wind farms on the upper ocean circulation...
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Comment
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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