February 2018 Blog Posts (121)

"In Maine, plans to erect turbines atop ridges have outraged people worried about marring the rugged landscape and hurting tourism. The group Friends of Maine's Mountains has been fighting wind-energy developments in the state Legislature, before regulatory panels and in the courts. It has managed to slow or stop nearly all of the proposals.

Group spokesman Christopher O'Neil said he knows wind farms remain popular with many people in distant, more populated areas near Portland or…

As I have discovered over the years, wind industry research is not really research, it is a performance designed to fool the ignorant.  I have not read a single wind industry related study or survey conducted after 1985 that I consider credible. The studies conducted for this wind project fall into this same pattern.   The results derived from the research conducted for the Aqua Ventus wind project, by New Jersey Audubon, Stantec Consulting Services and the University of Maine,  Castine 1/8…

BDN

On Friday, the Maine Renewable Energy Association, an Augusta group representing wind and other renewable energy producers, sued LePage in Kennebec County Superior Court. It followed a January suit in a state court from the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation.…

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:

Maine: A proposed law amending wind energy regulation

Maine bill would gut wind energy streamlined permitting process

Research into mountain wind projects: major risk to visitor economy

End of federal wind industry handouts is long overdue

Wind projects are disrupting our way of life

Wind project under criminal investigation for bat and eagle deaths

Nebraska: A proposal to…

Trump budget cuts renewable energy office…

Based on the plan of eliminating fossil fuel plants (they emit CO2 and particulates) and nuclear fuel plants (they are alleged to be dangerous) by 2050, the existing gas, nuclear, coal and oil generating plants would be decommissioned and no new ones would be built.

This would require huge build-outs of wind, solar, and storage systems, and increased electricity supply via external ties to adjacent grids. There is no way one can close down nuclear, oil, gas and coal plants,…

Extremely good read!  https://nypost.com/2017/11/09/stop-subsidizing-the-big-wind-bullies/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons

Last month, Anne Reynolds, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, complained that the state is a “tough place to…

But those industries are fighting to turn Maine into a place that supplies green energy to wealthy states south of here that do not want those towering turbines in their back yards. He says Maine should be the “Saudi Arabia of wind power.”

Maine is lagging New England in job growth by 28,000 jobs. He says 1,560 of these jobs are filled by wind and/or solar here in Maine. He got his report from the “Economic impacts of wind energy construction and…

Matt Cota, executive director of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association testified: “Cold-climate heat pumps are inadequate during the colder days in winter. Many households with heat pumps found they could not adequately heat their houses. They had to turn off the heat pumps, which are very inefficient in cold weather, and turn on their oil and propane stoves or their wood stoves.”

Since about 2010, Efficiency Vermont and VPIRG have been extolling the virtues…

Massachusetts chose a $950 million project headed by Maine utility Central Maine Power to be its backup option for a massive clean energy procurement that appeared headed to New Hampshire before regulators nixed it last week.

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources said in a news release Friday that the New England Clean Energy Connect will be the alternative if the Northern Pass project in New Hampshire fails to win approval by March 27.…

If you think that the massive wind lobby–led by the $18 million American Wind Energy Association–is not going to push to get more subsidies from President Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion infrastructure improvement plan, think again.

https://www.masterresource.org/cre/texass-crez-transmission-line-wind-powers-7-billion-subsidy/

Related: …

Some gems:

• Studies have shown that wind farms can actually be a boon to tourism, if local tourism agencies market them as a tourist attraction.
• Wind power-related avian deaths are less than those associated with other forms of energy, and much less than those associated with the average house cat.
• Rural communities that are host to a turbine can see an increase in the tax base, as the potential for income from the land is realized.
• There is no need for…

You Go Brad...And give 'em all hell about supporting useless and corrupt wind power!

http://www.theforecaster.net/blake-hopes-to-succeed-sirocki-in-scarborough-house-district/

The mad rush to incorporate more wind and solar power into the New England electricity network is creating interesting results.

State subsidies to wind and solar power plants is providing the money these ventures need for return on investments. Their ROI is based on far shorter time periods than investments in the much sturdier gas, hydro and nuclear plants.

The market response to these policy driven intermittent, renewable investments is based on reliability and the…

Here's a 21 minute audio interview with windy Hallie Gilman dated 3/7/16. The reporter, Tory Ryden, hopefully won "Softball Pitcher of the Year" for this interview where Ms. Ryden terms wind turbines as "majestic" and pejoratively refers to opponents as NIMBY's. 

http://wgan.com/podcasts/030516-hallie-gilman/

and…

I haven't yet watched but look forward to doing so this evening. Hopefully fact checkers can review and comment if warranted.

THE MAINE EVENT

Wind Power in Maine

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Aired: 02/11/201827:.

Gov. Paul LePage recently imposed a moratorium on new wind energy projects in Maine. Discussing the issue are renewable energy…