"Almost daily the newspapers are filled with stories about how the region is “going green” and about to enter the delightful world of “clean energy.” It’s sheer fantasy. No one has the slightest notion of what it would entail". 

http://spectator.org/articles/60007/get-ready-new-england-power-shortage

Attorney Mark E. Beliveau, a partner at Pierce Atwood LLP in Portsmouth, told the selectmen he had brought evidence of a $34,000 decomissioning bond....

(EDP Renewables is the company that wants to mount a turbine wherever it can in Aroostook County).

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20140716/NEWS05/140719204/-1/newshampshire03

Wind turbine fire risk: Number that catch alight each year is ten times higher than the industry admits

• Nearly 120 turbines catch fire each year - the reported industry figure is 12
• Fire is second-largest cause of accidents after blade failure, research shows
• Figures compiled by Imperial College and University of Edinburgh engineers…

Infrasound emitted by wind turbines can cause deformities and stillbirths

"One can’t ignore the facts that infrasound travels as far as 40 km, and that peer-reviewed studies have shown that chronic exposure at shorter distances can cause Vibro-Acoustic Disease."

"With respect to deformities and stillbirths, it stands to reason that humans can be affected…

Being Aboveboard About Underwriters

Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s policies on disclosure generate criticism

by Al Diamon

EXCERPTS:

As MPBN’s annual report for last year shows, First Wind is one of the network’s largest underwriters, having contributed over $25,000. …

Ways to deal with natural gas price spikes in Maine, New England under advisement

EXCERPT:

In Maine, regulators are still considering whether and to what extent they should use the authority to purchase up to $1.5 billion in pipeline capacity over 20 years. That authority was granted in the so-called …

7/15/14

Subsidy Seekers Whining on Wind...and playing politics in an article where nary a citizen wind opponent was interviewed.

http://www.pressherald.com/2014/07/15/energy-company-that-pulled-out-of-maine-last-year-invests-2-5-billion-in-scotland-offshore-wind-farm/

Nice hatchet job on Governor…

Excerpt: "...the sharpest barbs came from the Natural Resources Council’s Clean Energy Director Dylan Voorhees and Environment Maine’s Director Emily Figdor. Figdor criticized Gov. Paul LePage for “obstructing the development of wind power” 

 …

Excerpt:

The companies cited more than 2,100 megawatts of proposed wind power capacity in Northern Maine as the impetus for the project.

Excerpt from Reader Comments:

So, just to be clear, CMP and Emera which operate the distribution system for just Maine electric consumers are going to coordinate their efforts to build new transmission lines in the state to ship power to southern New England. Since CMP and…

Excerpts:

Almost all the rules and regulations governing alternative energy in Maine are new, Joyce echoes. “While there are plenty of the generic old white men in the business world we work in, we’re all learning together. We all have equal footing.”

That means there are fewer of the barriers women often face in more traditional industries, says Juliet Brown, who also works on wind energy as chair of the Environmental Law Group at Portland’s…

Among those stunned by the agency’s move were residents of King Cove, Alaska. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell ruled in December that those in the remote fishing village could not build an 11-mile gravel road to a nearby airport because it would affect eelgrass that serves as a way-stop meal for migratory birds.

“We’d have much less impact on the birds with our road than these wind farms have on the eagles,” said Della Trumble, a spokeswoman for the King Cove…

Excerpt:

Any tax breaks or bribes will be quickly lost when we all have to pay for new transmission lines, and town officials go on a spending spree. It is not worth throwing one’s neighbors under a bus in support of a developer who does not even live near his proposed turbines.…

July 1, 2014

Another Billionaire Buyer for Maine Newspapers?

by Al Diamon

http://thebollard.com/2014/07/01/media-mutt-122/

First Wind's lead attorney Juliet Brown:

"The industry has some very vocal opponents who are well funded, who are very ideological, and who are motivated to show up at public hearings and legislative hearings, and that tends to be the noise that you hear," Brown says.

It's all right here:…

Let us see if we understand this correctly -- Maine Audubon acknowledges that bat colonies in Maine have been decimated and this has put human health at risk. Yet after suggesting in 2011 putting restrictions on industrial wind with regard to bat endangerment, in December 2013, Maine Audubon essentially green lighted industrial wind sprawl in Maine.

June 29, 2014…

Just say no

Clifton votes July 1 on reconstruction by the planning board of the land use ordinance. I urge voters to “just say no” to the proposed changes.

Having worked on the land use ordinance from 2005 to 2010, I am concerned that these drastic changes are for the worse. The ordinance gives many powers and responsibilities. I question the wisdom of putting so much trust in the current board. Its proposed new ordinance “fix” is seriously…

Please note that Conservation Law Foundation Ventures makes money from industrial wind, such as the developer that is trying to put tax dollar-harvesting mammoth wind turbines all over Aroostook County. See:

http://www.clfventures.org/our-results/developers/

Environmental group challenges basis for New England natural gas pipeline buildout

N.H.’s renewable energy mandates are risky

The time has come for solar and wind to compete on their own with coal and nuclear power