Spruce Mt. in Woodstock from Bald Mt. in Sumner Before & After Photos
Patriot Renewables has ruined the northeastern ridge of Spruce Mt. in Woodstock with 10 turbines, each 404 ft tall. This project was scaled back, but still makes a negative impact on Bald Mt. & Speckled Mt. in Sumner. Both of the incredible natural resources were protected by purchase with money from the Land For Maine's Future Fund--taxpayer bonds. Both of these should have been considered Scenic Resources of State or National Significance within the 8 mile Scenic Impact Zone as defined in the "Wind Law". Yet DEP ignored the very law they are supposed to uphold and rubber stamped approval.
The first two photos are almost exact "before" & "after" shots, that I shot from the same spot on Bald Mt. and the same scale. This blog post only adresses the scenic impact that ruins part of the viewshed of a special place in Maine that would be set aside as a state park in most other states. Yet we ruin these places with industrial blight. The blasting, scarring and habitat destruction of Spruce Mt. is typical of Maine wind sites. People in Woodstock and on Concord Pond and Shagg Pond have complained about the noise.
If you would like to see the beauty of this place before the wind turbines, including a view of Mt. Washington from Bald Mt., I created a web album from my June 2011 hike. Click here: https://picasaweb.google.com/101554457531034815464/SpruceMtWindProj...#
The ridge of the northeastern end of Spruce Mt. Note there is a meterological data gathering tower on the left. This photo and the next were taken from the same spot. Photo taken June 19, 2011
The same ridge and year and a half later with 404 ft tall turbines. By comparing the contour of the ridges and the relative size of the communications towers on the distant summit, you can see these two photos are vearly perfectly the same scale. This photo taken November 4, 2012
Patriot Renewables did an entire photo documentation of building this project---they are so proud of blasting away and scarring the mountain to put up something that can suck up taxpayer subsidies! I did a screen capture of this shot, which shows Bald Mt. & Speckled Mt. across the valley. Is this what we are going to do to all of our beautiful natural resources?
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Comment by Art Brigades on March 14, 2018 at 8:24pm
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Some people look at these wind turbines and they blurt out words like "majestic" and "magnificent." But that's because those same folks have a false belief that the things are actually doing some good, that they are necessary and useful. Once people learn the high impacts and low benefits of wind energy, the turbines look a lot less majestic.
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Comment by MaineHiker on December 11, 2012 at 9:18pm
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Maine is dropping the ball all over it's future. Gov. Please halt this Holocaust!
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Comment by Hart Daley on December 11, 2012 at 12:12pm
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What I find disgusting is that DEP / Aho has issued a permit to allow Patriot Renewable / CMP to construct a substation on Ludden Lane in Canton to accomodate the power from Saddleback Mtn project, which is still being appealed at the Supreme Court....how brazen that they just assume they will win and begin a million dollar project in advance of the outcome.
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Comment by Mike DiCenso on November 6, 2012 at 8:56pm
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Great pics Brad. The developers don't have a clue or any appreciation of the Maine mtns. I wish they would leave ME alone!!
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Thank you Brad. Patriot Renewables has a permit for nearby Saddleback Mtn in Carthage. It is being appealed in the Supreme Court. If it gets built, Appalachian Trail hikers will be looking at wind turbines (Spruce, Carthage, Roxbury, Kibby) from the NH border/Grafton Notch almost all the way to the Kennebec River. About half of the 280 miles of AT in Maine, the holy grail for through hikers, the fabled last wilderness area that they trudge all summer to experience. Let's not forget that through hikers and sectional hikers alike are out there at night, when the red lights make the turbines startlingly visible from dozens of miles away...if this continues it will make the Maine Woods look like LaGuardia Airport. All for a tiny amount of expensive electricity that we don't need.
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Comment by Gary Campbell on November 6, 2012 at 9:28am
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First Wind's Neil Kiely is now talking about their plans for a wind energy visitor center on Rte 6 in Carroll. It will include a snack bar and "educational material". Ironically, the visitor center would create more permanent jobs than Bowers, Stetson and Rollins combined!
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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