Mainers Give AWEA an Earful in Local Maine Newspaper
Jon Hinck has now weighed in. http://www.theforecaster.net/news/print/2014/01/06/letter-arguments...
(Also see how the AWEA has responded to Mainers defending their state)
http://www.theforecaster.net/news/print/2014/01/06/letter-arguments...
This powerful and concise letter appears in the online version of the Forecaster and hopefully the physical editions as well. The Forecaster, for anyone not familiar, is a free distribution widely read and very well done weekly newspaper available in several geographic areas. Its focus on hyper-local news helps assure strong reader engagement with the publication.
According to the newspaper's website, it has a distribution of 69,500 copies every week. That is 47% larger than the 47,326 Monday-Friday daily paid circulation of the other major newspaper in the Portland area, the Press Herald. (Source of Press Herald circulation is Wikipedia; could not locate on Press Herald website)
Letter: Arguments for wind power in Maine don't fly
In her recent Forecaster Forum, “Wind Yields Major Environmental Benefits for Maine,” Environment Maine's Emily Figdor claims Maine’s wind industry avoided 534,700 metric tons of carbon pollution in 2012. That's a misleading overstatement.
According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Maine industrial wind projects operated, on average, 24.27 percent of their stated capacity in 2012, avoiding far less than the 534,700 metric tons of carbon pollution claimed by Figdor. Figdor’s numbers are based upon 100 percent production capacity.
By comparison, it takes only 1 percent of Maine’s 1.4 million acres of forest to capture as much if not more carbon pollution annually. Figdor is clearly distorting the facts in favor of wind developers.
Regarding Figdor’s claims of billion dollars of investment in Maine, let’s not forget these investments are heavily subsidized by taxpayers in the form of federal loan guarantees and billions in lucrative tax credits – more than $13 billion since 2009. These hidden costs are never mentioned by Figdor. Again, she’s misleading.
The truth is wind power is a grand financial scheme, milking the public while making millions for investors and destroying some of Maine’s most treasured assets. And the millions of tons of menacing carbon pollution supposedly avoided by wind turbines are not nearly as menacing as the blatant promotion of misleading information from organizations masquerading as environmental groups that receive direct funding from the wind industry.
It is time for Mainers to start understanding the truth about industrial wind and stop being mislead.
Richard McDonald
Kennebunk
Read the rest here:
http://www.theforecaster.net/news/print/2014/01/06/letter-arguments...
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Comment
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Comment by Sherwin Start on January 6, 2014 at 5:03pm
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Wind Power Will RUN ITS COURSE-Just Like other Forms of Energy-and AFTER it Has, The DEVASTATING affects of the Catastrophic Environmental Affects that Wind Power Development is Going To leave behind are ging to haunt humanity for century's!
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RIGHT ON Mr. MCDONALD!! First NO ONE Wants to even to begin ANYTHING that FERC puts out About ANYTHING! REMEMBER FERC works for THE PRESIDENT-WHO Has Decided that ALL Data put out By ALL Federal Agency's (Unless its Bad News Of Course) Will be Made to look like He is a HERO Of the HUMAN Race! He is oing To SAVE the WORLD even if it takes one WIND Turbine On Every Mountain top in the Country!! HE DOES Not "MEASURE What we will gain by what we Will loose"
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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We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
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Vince Lombardi
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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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