Scarring Maine's Blueberry Barrens and Great Heath with thirty 650' Tall Wind Turbines

It's curious that there's no mention in this article that the turbines would be spread out on three sides of the 7,000-plus acre Great Heath the largest peatland in the state and an area the state protects. See earlier post:

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/proposal-to-erect-thirt...

30-turbine Downeast Wind project on track according to developer

.......The selected landscape is dominated by blueberry barrens.

“We’re working mostly with partners in blueberry and forest product production,” he said. “One major thing we need is continuous, wide-open space...................Washington County, he explained, is relatively robust, and wind blows there on average 38% of the time. That’s enough to qualify as “strong wind,” he said. “And the technology for wind turbines has advanced so you can get consistent output from wind like this. The landscape of berry barrens and open space encourages that.”

................Because the wind project will be visible from homes around Schoodic Lake, the agreements include a one-time payment of $350,000 to property owners there, for the purpose of property improvements, he said......................The company’s noise impact studies show that, at the Schoodic Lake homes, which are closest to the project, the level will be about 42 decibels, or about the sound of a quiet office space, he said................................

Read the full article here:

https://www.mainebiz.biz/article/270m-washington-county-wind-projec...

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Comment by Art Brigades on January 26, 2020 at 6:38pm

Yes. More than 90 Mars Hills. 20 Binghams. 80 Rollins.Where would all those skyscrapers go?

Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain on January 26, 2020 at 12:01pm

"NECEC is a significant killshot to wind development, and would provide the equivalent electricity as 50 to 100 wind projects".

Comment by Art Brigades on January 26, 2020 at 11:48am

"Does anyone try to work on the politicians to get rid of that Expedited  Wind Law?"

Hundreds of us, and annually. This blog-site archives a decade of intense effort. 

The wind lobby owns the legislature. Mr. Remian even tried a ballot initiative. Statewide nonprofit Friends of Maine's Mountains and several local opposition groups have spent a lot of time and money litigating, opposing, educating and lobbying. But that expenditure is a drop in the bucket compared to the wind lobby, which is a broad cabal (some say cartel) propelled by the public's naivety and good green intentions. 

Delay has usually been the most Mainers could do. The law called for 2000 installed MW by 2015, and they didn't even come close. We are now nearing 1000 MW, which is about 999 more than we want/need. There are blueprints for thousands of MW in Maine. Landowner agreements abound. Many projects have been paused or abandoned for a variety of reasons, including citizen delay, transmission constraints, plummeting wholesale electricity costs, etc. Through citizen action huge swaths of land were removed from the expedited area and in communities where residents can enact zoning, dozens of strong municipal wind ordinances have been enacted.

It has been a sore spot for more than a decade that almost every Maine wind turbine has been erected to satisfy "demand" in MA, CT and RI -- states where nobody will allow turbines. The anti-Mass "don't tread on Me" sentiment caught a foothold with the Northern Pass NH defeat, and now it is catching on in Maine relative to the NECEC power line. While NECEC is a significant killshot to wind development, and would provide the equivalent electricity as 50 to 100 wind projects, it's appreciated on principle that Mainers are finally resisting the Commonwealth, 200 years after we formally broke off. (This is history repeating itself BTW, Google "Water Wars Flagstaff Baxter CMP Wyman" to see how it went down 100 years ago.) Moreover  MA, CT, RI are now increasingly procuring offshore wind, and in their own backyards! Even CT satisfied a "clean energy" mandate by authorizing a nuclear PPA. 

Comment by Kathryn Sternstein on January 26, 2020 at 8:49am

It's a constant battle. The ignorance about wind energy is very depressing. Delay is one major tactic as I'm sure people fighting turbines know. 

Does anyone try to work on the politicians to get rid of that Expedited  Wind Law?

Comment by Penny Gray on January 25, 2020 at 6:26pm

Yes, Thank you Kathryn.  It's easy to get discouraged after such a long hard fight but we can't give up.  There's way too much at stake.  Every time I think about throwing in the towel I remember Dan Remian.  Maine is worth fighting for.  I only wish more Mainers would do their homework and join the fight.

Comment by Art Brigades on January 25, 2020 at 5:02pm

Thanks for the optimism Kathryn.  Over 100 Maine towns have done their homework and passed zoning that protects them. But two major differences exist: Mass doesn't have an Unorganized Territory and Mass doesn't have an Expedited Wind Law.

Comment by Kathryn Sternstein on January 25, 2020 at 10:03am

I hasten to add that Savoy passed a bylaw outlawing wind installations and the developer had to go away.

It was difficult and some luck was involved but at least for the moment it slowed enthusiasm for turbines here down.

Comment by Kathryn Sternstein on January 25, 2020 at 10:00am

I live in Western MA in a small town called Hawley. An adjacent town is Savoy. More than 10 years ago a wind developer persuaded a majority of town resident to pass a bylaw (written by the developers )which allowed wind turbines in the town. Various things delayed this project for years but the developers came back about two years ago ready to install even larger turbines than originally proposed. However by that time people in town had learned a great deal more about the realities of these gigantic machines. They got together, held meetings invited people who live with these machines to speak, contacted local politicians and turned the tide to enormous opposition to a wind installation. It can be done. 

I've been fighting the wind industry for many years and when I started I felt very hopeless. I'm still scared but I've participated in several very successful fights. People get the idea that these projects are inevitable because of course the wind salespeople and their supporters make it sound that way. Contact the politicians in a non confrontational manner. You get nowhere in my view by yelling at them. Give them and everyone else  involved real facts about the turbines which can be found all over the internet.  Most people are too busy to look up information about wind turbines and most people have no idea what they are really like and how ineffectual they are with regard to combating climate change. 

Comment by Penny Gray on January 23, 2020 at 5:43pm

$350,000. for property improvements...what the hell does that mean?  A quiet office space.  Jesus these people are such liars.  How do they sleep at night?  Maybe their bank accounts are their conscience.

Comment by Willem Post on January 23, 2020 at 5:09pm

The developer says all is on track.

That means he has the verbal OK from state bureaucrats!

The developer tries his best not to deal with John and Jane Vermonter.

All that variable electricity will be fed in the NE high voltage grid, or the Canadian HV grid.

Existing gas turbine plants will have to vary up and down their outputs to exactly match the downs and ups of the wind electricity.

An extra burden for them for which they are not compensated.

Also, these up/down gas turbines have more wear and tear for which they are not compensated.

Also, additional grid will be required to hook up the new wind turbines, the cost of which will not be charged to owners, but to Jane and Joe Ratepayer.

The wind prices are about 50% of what they would be, because of direct and indirect cost shifting and because of subsidies 

 

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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Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?

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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