September 2016 Blog Posts (59)

Jigsaw, a small subsidiary of Google, is working on …

As Gary Campbell wrote the other day "I can't overstate how important this meeting will be. It will shape how DEP evaluates & decides wind permits for years to come. You'd better believe every wind developer, wind lawyer, construction crew, hack, crony and wind shill will be there!"…

Time to start communicating with groups trying to protect the night sky.

The eighth Acadia Night Sky Festival will run Thursday, Sept. 22, through Sunday, Sept. 25, with a full schedule of events planned throughout Mount Desert Island.......Kicking off the popular star party this year, Chad Moore, founder of the National Park Service’s Dark Skies Team, will be giving a presentation from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24,…

A study led by wind developers, AWEA, turbine and solar panel manufacturers, and other renewable advocates paid for by our tax dollars through NREL/DOE concludes that renewables can supply up to 30% "penetration" in the Eastern US and Canada.   Not included in the study is the cost of generation, transmission, or market rule changes needed for this to happen - which would of course be immense.  The study does highlight the relatively clean ISO-NE grid compared to the other grids serving the…

Ex-Governor Baldacci, the father of the heinous Maine wind law is of course Vice-Chair of subsidy-seeker Avangrid, the second largest wind company in America. As Maine falls prey to foreign interlopers, is Mr. Baldacci patting himself on the back for his incredible fore$ight? 

John Baldacci's ascendance to Vice Chair of Iberdrola's Avangrid was announced quietly in a mid-December 2016 SEC filing (FORM…

As the National Park Service meets its neighbors in the area east of Katahdin, hopefully they become aware of those neighbors who would like to welcome in scores of mammoth 500-600' tall flashing industrial wind turbines which would surely despoil views from the new monument as well as from Baxter State Park.…

Evergreen International Boeing tail “471”owned by Wilmington Trust, photo Barbara Durkin 2/13    

I landed on the tarmac at Pease Airforce Base in Portsmith, N.H. during February of 2013.  Three Evergreen International Boeing cargo planes were there.  Evergreen is a familiar name,…

These projects are in various stages of development. In Maine, Somerset Wind is a 26-turbine proposal near Moosehead Lake that’s rated at 85 megawatts. It has no permits, but according to SunEdison’s submission in the New England Clean Energy RFP, it’s “one of the most attractive sites in the Northeast for its combination of scale and quality of wind resource.”...........

In June, Pattern Energy Group…

In an open letter to the newly created Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument (KWWNM) to the east of Katahdin and Baxter State Park, BSP Director Jensen Bissell has expressed his concerns about the new monument's effect on views from Baxter State Park. Specifically, Jensen writes he is "particularly concerned with the addition of significant structures that may be visible from Katahdin, and from the impact of night lighting in the currently very night-sky-friendly area east of the…

Public Workshop on the Wind Energy Act Standards for Scenic Character, Shadow Flicker, Public Safety, Tangible Benefits, and Decommissioning - Wednesday September 21

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MEDEP/bulletins/164394c

Green technologies are not yet proved, affordable, or deployable—but even if they were, it would still take them generations to solve our environmental problems

By Vaclav Smil

"Night lighting and buildings that interfere with Baxter’s viewshed also should be avoided, Bissell wrote". 

If a small visitor center in the national monument impacts the Baxter State Park viewshed, what about the 500' + tall wind turbines planned for just a few miles east of the monument? They would be far more visible than a small building and would impair views in both Baxter State Park and the national monument.…