Stop CMP's Power Line Expansion
STOP THE POWERLINE EXPANSION
STOP THE PROLIFERATION OF
INDUSTRIAL WIND SITES IN RURAL MAINE
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN CMP’S MAINE POWER RELIABILITY PROGRAM AND WIND POWER PROJECTS
Citizen’s Task Force on Wind Power (CTFWP), http://www.windtaskforce.org/ opposes the approval by the Maine PUC of CMP’s proposed expansion of transmission lines. CTFWP understands that transmission capacity is adequate for Maine’s existing needs and supports, planned, necessary upgrades to our existing Maine grid to better service our local needs. This should be an on-going function, part of the company’s business plan. Consistent upgrades and making Maine’s local grid “smarter” and more efficient should ensure reliable delivery of electricity for decades to come without adding large transmission capacity.
However, CMP is owned by utility giant Iberdrola of Spain. CMP makes its money by transmitting electricity. It is no longer the friendly, locally owned utility we are used to. Iberdrola is the world’s second largest operator of utility scale (or industrial) wind sites (which the industry euphemistically refer to as “wind farms”). This company stands to make millions of dollars at taxpayers’ and ratepayers’ expense if the transmission lines are expanded. Not just for utility scale wind sites envisioned in Maine, but for every kilowatt that flows through Maine from Canada to destinations in southern New England. Thus, they are aggressively pursuing expansion of transmission lines that does nothing positive for Maine but will wreak havoc with our quality of place and threaten our health and well being.
Iberdrola, First Wind, Trans Canada, Angus King and others lobbied heavily for the Maine Legislature to enact the so-called Expedited Wind Permitting statute in 2008. (MRSA Title 35-A, Chapter 34-A). That statute incorporates the goals of the Governor’s Task Force on Wind Power (a stacked deck to ensure an outcome if there ever was one!) for installed capacity for wind energy in Maine. 2,000 MW by 2015 and 2,700 MW land-based and 300 MW off-shore by 2020. This was driven through the legislature as an emergency measure without any thought to adequately educating the public about the pro’s and con’s of utility scale wind and thus with little input from an unsuspecting citizenry. Strictly a deal to open the floodgates for ravaging rural Maine with industrial wind turbines. Wind turbines erected not for the potential of generating a substantial amount of electricity---because they do not---but rather to suck millions of dollars in subsidies from the taxpayers and expensive electricity costs from ratepayers. What the industry calls a “wind farm” is more appropriately a “subsidy plantation”.
Any way you look at it, the wind sites are the reason for the huge, health menacing transmission line expansion and without the powerline expansion, the sprawling industrial wind sites never get built!
There has been relentless pressure for years to open Maine up for sprawling industrial wind sites. Simply put, we are seen as a poor, rural state that has large tracts of land owned by a single entity. Perfect for siting a “wind farm”. Overlooked is the fact that most of the state is rated as “poor” wind energy potential, meaning that a wind turbine in Maine is likely to produce less than a quarter (25%) of its rated capacity. It doesn’t matter, as the wind industry is so heavily subsidized and given preferential market treatment that each kilowatt generated earns money in three ways: the grid must purchase it; it earns 2.1 cents production tax credit; it can be sold as a Renewable Energy Credit.
What does meeting the installed capacity of 2,700 MW mean to rural Maine? This analysis is based on the “Rollins Project” of First Wind in Lincoln as a typical installation utilizing 1.5 MW GE turbines. Rollins is rated at 60 MW, with 40 turbines, each 389 feet high from base to apex of the blades. To install these 40 turbines, it means blasting away more than 7 miles of the ridgelines of Rollins Mt. and four unnamed ridges in the Rocky Dundee area. It means a network of 60 foot wide access roads up and across all these slopes. Tying together the turbines and the feeder to the Bangor Hydro lines means 20 miles of powerlines. The total footprint of the turbine pads, access roads, powerlines, and other infrastructure means at least 1,000 acres permanently clearcut. What isn’t graveled over will be kept clear using herbicides. Thus, the silt and herbicides of the project end up washing down from the ridges into 15 lakes and ponds and into three major rivers. Please refer to www.friendsoflincolnlakes.org for more information. Click on the loon icon to view the slide show that includes photos of First Wind’s Stetson I project.
If the state were to meet the goal of 2,700 MW of installed capacity, based on the Rollins Project, it means 45 more similar sized projects. 45 X 7= 315 miles of ridgelines blasted away. If the 1.5 MW turbines are used, it means 45 X 40=1,800 turbines. 45 X 1,000=45,000 acres permanently clearcut. All this destruction of natural resources, fragmentation of wildlife habitat and disruption of the lives of people living within the impact zone of the turbines is not, remember, for 2,700 MW but 25%, or 675 MW, just a bit more than the Calpine generating plant in Westbrook, which takes less than 100 acres and is a reliable baseline generating plant, not the unreliable, unpredictable, intermittent generation of wind turbines.
Maine does not need 45 sprawling industrial wind sites
Maine does not need to expand any transmission lines
Maine does not need to destroy what we cherish to feed electricity, whether from wind sites or from Canada, to Southern New England
Stop CMP/Iberdrola’s $1.4 billion folly that threatens the health and well being of Mainers. Pull the Plug!
Contact Brad Blake: bblake02@maine.rr.com
STOP THE PROLIFERATION OF
INDUSTRIAL WIND SITES IN RURAL MAINE
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN CMP’S MAINE POWER RELIABILITY PROGRAM AND WIND POWER PROJECTS
Citizen’s Task Force on Wind Power (CTFWP), http://www.windtaskforce.org/ opposes the approval by the Maine PUC of CMP’s proposed expansion of transmission lines. CTFWP understands that transmission capacity is adequate for Maine’s existing needs and supports, planned, necessary upgrades to our existing Maine grid to better service our local needs. This should be an on-going function, part of the company’s business plan. Consistent upgrades and making Maine’s local grid “smarter” and more efficient should ensure reliable delivery of electricity for decades to come without adding large transmission capacity.
However, CMP is owned by utility giant Iberdrola of Spain. CMP makes its money by transmitting electricity. It is no longer the friendly, locally owned utility we are used to. Iberdrola is the world’s second largest operator of utility scale (or industrial) wind sites (which the industry euphemistically refer to as “wind farms”). This company stands to make millions of dollars at taxpayers’ and ratepayers’ expense if the transmission lines are expanded. Not just for utility scale wind sites envisioned in Maine, but for every kilowatt that flows through Maine from Canada to destinations in southern New England. Thus, they are aggressively pursuing expansion of transmission lines that does nothing positive for Maine but will wreak havoc with our quality of place and threaten our health and well being.
Iberdrola, First Wind, Trans Canada, Angus King and others lobbied heavily for the Maine Legislature to enact the so-called Expedited Wind Permitting statute in 2008. (MRSA Title 35-A, Chapter 34-A). That statute incorporates the goals of the Governor’s Task Force on Wind Power (a stacked deck to ensure an outcome if there ever was one!) for installed capacity for wind energy in Maine. 2,000 MW by 2015 and 2,700 MW land-based and 300 MW off-shore by 2020. This was driven through the legislature as an emergency measure without any thought to adequately educating the public about the pro’s and con’s of utility scale wind and thus with little input from an unsuspecting citizenry. Strictly a deal to open the floodgates for ravaging rural Maine with industrial wind turbines. Wind turbines erected not for the potential of generating a substantial amount of electricity---because they do not---but rather to suck millions of dollars in subsidies from the taxpayers and expensive electricity costs from ratepayers. What the industry calls a “wind farm” is more appropriately a “subsidy plantation”.
Any way you look at it, the wind sites are the reason for the huge, health menacing transmission line expansion and without the powerline expansion, the sprawling industrial wind sites never get built!
There has been relentless pressure for years to open Maine up for sprawling industrial wind sites. Simply put, we are seen as a poor, rural state that has large tracts of land owned by a single entity. Perfect for siting a “wind farm”. Overlooked is the fact that most of the state is rated as “poor” wind energy potential, meaning that a wind turbine in Maine is likely to produce less than a quarter (25%) of its rated capacity. It doesn’t matter, as the wind industry is so heavily subsidized and given preferential market treatment that each kilowatt generated earns money in three ways: the grid must purchase it; it earns 2.1 cents production tax credit; it can be sold as a Renewable Energy Credit.
What does meeting the installed capacity of 2,700 MW mean to rural Maine? This analysis is based on the “Rollins Project” of First Wind in Lincoln as a typical installation utilizing 1.5 MW GE turbines. Rollins is rated at 60 MW, with 40 turbines, each 389 feet high from base to apex of the blades. To install these 40 turbines, it means blasting away more than 7 miles of the ridgelines of Rollins Mt. and four unnamed ridges in the Rocky Dundee area. It means a network of 60 foot wide access roads up and across all these slopes. Tying together the turbines and the feeder to the Bangor Hydro lines means 20 miles of powerlines. The total footprint of the turbine pads, access roads, powerlines, and other infrastructure means at least 1,000 acres permanently clearcut. What isn’t graveled over will be kept clear using herbicides. Thus, the silt and herbicides of the project end up washing down from the ridges into 15 lakes and ponds and into three major rivers. Please refer to www.friendsoflincolnlakes.org for more information. Click on the loon icon to view the slide show that includes photos of First Wind’s Stetson I project.
If the state were to meet the goal of 2,700 MW of installed capacity, based on the Rollins Project, it means 45 more similar sized projects. 45 X 7= 315 miles of ridgelines blasted away. If the 1.5 MW turbines are used, it means 45 X 40=1,800 turbines. 45 X 1,000=45,000 acres permanently clearcut. All this destruction of natural resources, fragmentation of wildlife habitat and disruption of the lives of people living within the impact zone of the turbines is not, remember, for 2,700 MW but 25%, or 675 MW, just a bit more than the Calpine generating plant in Westbrook, which takes less than 100 acres and is a reliable baseline generating plant, not the unreliable, unpredictable, intermittent generation of wind turbines.
Maine does not need 45 sprawling industrial wind sites
Maine does not need to expand any transmission lines
Maine does not need to destroy what we cherish to feed electricity, whether from wind sites or from Canada, to Southern New England
Stop CMP/Iberdrola’s $1.4 billion folly that threatens the health and well being of Mainers. Pull the Plug!
Contact Brad Blake: bblake02@maine.rr.com
Views: 213
Comment
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Comment by Brad Blake on December 27, 2009 at 8:18pm
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I think the pie in the sky idea of thousands of deep water turbines in the Gulf of Maine is fraught with daunting technological problems. One "tail end" of a hurricane with 80 mph winds and 40 foot waves pounding relentlessly for 6-8 hours? I think it will be prohibitively expensive, but, hey, if the Federal Gov't is going to feed debt money to this folly, we might as well get our share, right? That is an endemic problem with all this talk of wind power, whether land based or out in the ocean. It doesn't work worth a damn, is too expensive, and won't happen without subsidies that come from debt that we sell to China. Give me a free market in energy generation and baseline, reliable, 24/7 energy. You are right, it is all utopian vision and I would like to think that we create energy solutions without wind turbines anywhere.
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Comment by Art Brigades on December 27, 2009 at 2:35pm
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Long Islander: This statement from Mr. Perkins articulates a position that, at face value, is defensible: Picture a Maine that produces gobs of renewable power that is transmitted and distributed to a Maine and New England that has converted from oil furnaces to electric heat pumps, and from gas guzzlers to plug-in cars.
THAT is where we get off foreign oil.
But this utopian vision is predicated on:
- our ability to develop those electric heating and transportation methodlologies,
- our ability to store the electricity,
- our ability to RELY on wind power without all the backup generation,
- our ability to transmit and distribute the electricity,
- our ability to develop the technologies so that they are market-sustainable (sans subsidy),
- our ability to site the generation infrastructure (mostly turbines, but tidal too?).
Maybe we can do all these things. Remembe rthe man on the moon? If and when we can, I will be cheering that perhaps Maine will have created a new economy, developed an export that adds value, provides jobs, brings in tax revenue, and gives Mainers the cheapest prices (try buying a lobster for less than $75 in a New York restaurant).
It will be years and decades before we know if we can. Meanwhile, I say this:
- Maine's quality of place is rare and getting rarer.
- No more turbine degradation of our precious places on-shore.
- Focus on the ocean, whose once-sustaining bounty of fish is diminished, to develop sustainable wind and tidal power.
- If we can produce 5000 or 7700 MW of ocean energy by 2030, I will be the first to applaud the MPRP upgrade in 2010 or 2011.
- Just bar the door NOW to further desecration of Maine's wildlands.
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Comment by Long Islander on December 27, 2009 at 10:02am
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The following testimony at the Gorham 12/2/09 PUC public hearing is from Don Perkins, who identified himself as "co-Chair of the Governor's Ocean Energy Task Force". (Perkins is also the president of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute -- http://gmri.org/people/index.asp)
I believe this testimony evidences rather well that the state's aggressive wind power goals will require the transmission upgrade. I have excerpted as follows:
MR. BUCKLEY: The person in the back?
MR. DON PERKINS: I was not sworn in, I'm afraid.
MR. BUCKLEY: Would you like to be?
MR. PERKINS: Yeah, if -- if it's important.
MR. BUCKLEY: Yeah. I can do that.
MR. PERKINS: I don't know if it matters or not.
MR. BUCKLEY: If you'll just raise your right hand? Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you will give tonight will be wholly truthful?
MR. PERKINS: I do.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you.
MR. PERKINS: Thank you. Good evening. My name is Don Perkins. I'm a resident of Westbrook, Maine, and I'm here tonight speaking in my capacity as co-Chair of the Governor's Ocean Energy Task Force. And I'm circulating written testimony to -- to each of you.
The Governor created the Task Force a year ago to examine Maine's ocean energy resources and to recommend measures to advance development of Maine's vast offshore wind, tidal, and wave energy resources in an environmentally responsible manner. The Governor introduced legislation recommended by the Task Force last spring establishing a 60-day general permit for the testing and demonstration of emerging technologies, primarily deep-water offshore wind technologies, by the University of Maine and private companies in pre-identified state waters. That legislation passed unanimously, and in less -- and in less than two weeks from now, the state will announce up to five sites where this kind of testing can occur. As I'm sure you're all aware, the University recently received an $8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct deep-water floating turbine research here in the Gulf of Maine.
The Task Force had its last meeting last Tuesday to discuss our final recommendations, which will be delivered to the Governor later this -- this month and to the legislature early next year. One of the recommendations that we're going to be making is -- is to set a statutory goal of developing 5,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2030. This would be in addition to the existing statutory goal to develop 2,700 megawatts of onshore wind by 2020.
Perhaps just as important as the number of megawatts to generate from the ocean's wind, tides, and waves is the Task Force's belief and recommendation that we use this renewable energy to not only keep our lights and computers on, but also to replace our reliance on fossil fuels to heat where we live and work and to power the vehicles that move our people and goods. Such transformation will reduce and stabilize the costs of heating and transportation, keep hundreds of millions of dollars in Maine, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly.
Development of -- of 8,000 megawatts of -- of wind on- and offshore and electrification of heating and transportation is obviously an extraordinarily ambitious undertaking that will require leadership and action on many fronts over decades. It will include significant work on siting and permitting, coordination -- coordination with federal permitting agencies, economic development strategy, financing mechanisms, and ensuring that the electric transmission grid has the capacity to accommodate that much new wind power. The Ocean Energy Task Force will be making recommendations on all these fronts to help move development of Maine's renewable energy resources forward as efficiently as possible.
The need for transmission and possibly distribution capacity increases is not trivial. Maine's renewable energy goals can't be met without a robust and reliable transmission infrastructure and the addition of significant new transmission capacity in Maine and in the region. The offshore wind and tidal power developers that have appeared before the Task Force have emphasized this point. The Task Force will be proposing legislation that is needed to make transmission siting and permitting more efficient so that Maine can realize its ambition -- ambitious 8,000 megawatt goal.
Furthermore, because wind is an intermittent resource, there's a need to provide balancing energy resources -- sources. The example of Denmark using hydropower from -- from Norway as one of the sources of balancing its wind power is pretty well known. Although Maine is blessed with considerable existing hydropower resources, it's likely to have to look outside its borders, as we all know, to balance the addition of significant new wind development. Our proximity to balancing power in Canada and our potential operation of a regional -- in a regional energy market makes integration of significant new on- and offshore wind generation into the New England grid important.
National efforts are underway that will determine whether Maine and the other New England states import energy generated from wind and coal from the Midwest or generate clean energy for local use and export and capture the economic benefits here at home. Maine must demonstrate not only its support and commitment to developing new resources of renewable energy, but also that it can site and permit sufficient new transmission efficiently to deliver that energy to Maine people and to the regional market. I offer these comments with acute sensitivity to the fact that the PUC and the Department of Environmental Protection must consider a complex mix of private citizen, municipal, and state interests in the course of siting and permitting decisions.
But I -- I would -- I would emphasize that the Task Force is -- is comprised of 20 -- 20 individuals, very diverse in background, environmentalists, business people, legislators, whatnot. We struggle with a lot of complex issues. And frankly, I was surprised to see how easily we came to the decision of setting an ambitious goal of 5,000 megawatts. I was also surprised to see when we met last week that -- that we quite easily came to the decision that we really ought to stand up and -- and comment to you.
So on behalf of the Governor's Ocean Energy Task Force, I urge you all to take Maine's wind power goals into considerations -- into consideration, provide Maine with a robust transmission grid as the foundation for competing in the highly competitive renewable energy market, and ensure that Maine is feasible for and attractive to renewable energy developers to site their projects.
Thank you.
MR. BUCKLEY: Thank you.
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To quote one of the citizen testifiers in Gorham at the PUC public hearing on 12/3/09:
"I would actually be an abutter to this project that's going in. I do live in Lewiston. And I'm very surprised tonight, I'm hearing so much about wind power. It seems like the whole argument now has shifted from do we need these power lines for reliability in Maine to need them to support wind power..."
Indeed, if you read the transcripts of these PUC public hearings (Gorham on 12/3 and China on 12/10) it will be EYE OPENING. Here's how to access the written transcripts, which are in Microsoft Word:
1) First go to the following PUC web page:
http://mpuc.informe.org/easyfile/easyweb.php?func=easyweb_splashpage
2) Click on Virtual Case File
3) In the white box to the right of Case ID, enter the case #: 2008255
4) On 12/10, click the folder icon on the line that says Transcript (says Brown & Meyers off to the right) Then click on the Word icon and download the document.
5) Jump to the next page and repeat step 4 for 12/3.
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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