John Droz, Jr: Energy & Environmental Newsletter: February 8, 2021

A link to the full article (Progressive Eco-Group Admits that Renewable Energy is a Hoax) and other articles can be found in the following PDF. After downloading, scroll down to Page…

Excerpts:

..........The existing corridor must be widened before workers can set poles and string new transmission lines. Contractors Cianbro Corp. and Irby Construction are scheduled to start that task in May, NECEC has said in court documents. Meanwhile, Cianbro is set to do site development work this winter for a custom-built, $250 million converter station in Lewiston that will convert direct current into alternating current to feed into the electric grid.

All that…

Mills Administration Welcomes President Biden’s Climate Change Executive Orders

From the "Maine Climate Council".

Note that one of the photos chosen for their slick report features the Vinalhaven turbines which tortured those in nearby homes, forcing at least one couple to abandon living there. Insensitive? Incompetent? In your face?

Read the plan at…

EXCERPTS:

Dozens of ideas being promoted by lawmakers this year represent the next phase of state government's aggressive effort to address a rapidly changing climate.

"Overall, they would lead to a wholesale shift in the way power is used and generated, expanding renewable energy and electrifying the transportation and heating sectors, a process called beneficial electrification. It’s a transformation being pushed in other Northeast states, including…

In a bid to defuse opposition and avoid conflict with Maine’s fishing interests, Gov. Janet Mills proposed a series of actions Monday to advance a floating wind research project planned for far offshore in federal waters, while protecting the near-shore waters valued for lobstering and coastal tourism. 

January 15, 2021

Shortly after the New England Clean Energy Connect project to bring Quebec hydropower to New England received its final major permit Friday, expecting to begin construction on the $950 million transmission line soon, a federal appeals court hit the brakes on the most controversial part of the line.

The court granted a temporary injunction sought by opponents ordering the company to stop work on the entirely new section…

The significance of Madison County’s rejection of Big Wind goes beyond Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway, and Iowa. Since 2015, by my count, 291 government entities from California to Maine have rejected or restricted wind-energy projects. 

It’s nearly impossible to build wind projects in California. Between 2013 and 2019, the state …

In court papers Monday, the developer says access road plowing started Monday and construction is expected to begin on or about Jan. 18.

After three years of dispute and debate, and despite ongoing court challenges and a pending voter referendum, work is finally set to begin to create a 54-foot-wide path for hydroelectricity from Quebec that ultimately will be earmarked for customers in Massachusetts.

In court papers filed late Monday, the president and…

Excerpts:

Over the next few years, solar energy farms will be popping up across Maine, which has no specific rules for where such projects should be sited.

SOLAR VERSUS WIND

It’s too early to say whether large-scale solar development in Maine will bring about the broader public pushback that accompanied the expansion of commercial, land-based wind power in the 2010s. But it’s a cautionary tale.

The Maine Wind Energy Act of 2008 set up an…

NIMBY’s are making more noise than wind turbines

NIMBY’s (Not-In-My-Backyard) around the globe from Germany to Australia, California, New York, and Massachusetts are speaking loudly, and acting, to put a halt to the invasion of noisy wind farms in their backyards. Following numerous reports from Maryland to…

A 72.6-megawatt Hancock County wind energy farm, which twice failed to get developed, is now operating and online.

Fengate Asset Management, a Toronto-based investment firm and the current owner of the Weaver Wind project, made the announcement last week in a news release.

“Fengate is very pleased the Weaver Wind project is operational,” said Greg Calhoun, Fengate's managing director. “This project provides a new source of clean, reliable energy for Maine and is a significant…

PORTLAND, Maine —

The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report Tuesday raising questions about the creation of offshore wind energy.

Issues raised by the GAO, a nonpartisan federal agency that provides information to Congress, stem from the Jones Act which requires certain commercial ships to be built and registered in the U.S.

The Mills administration says…

A proposal to purchase Maine’s two investor-owned electric utilities and replace them with a state-owned power delivery authority has stalled due to lack of support.

In July, Maine State Rep. Seth Berry (D-Bowdoinham) introduced a bill in the legislature to allow for the state to transition to a consumer-owned utility, but ultimately the bill was amended to instead create a task force to study the issue. The legislation, LD 1646, was approved 8-1 by the committee, but the bill died…

Meet The Dutch Climate Refugees Fleeing ‘Unbearably Noisy’ Wind Farms

The first Dutch climate refugees are a fact. Not because of wet feet, but because citizens cannot cope with the noise of wind farms.

Residents close to biomass power stations also complain bitterly. Are health and the environment in the Netherlands subordinate to our climate goals? “I do see a similarity with the Groningen gas and the Limburg…

Mills Administration Releases Report on Strengthening Maine’s Clean Energy Economy

Maine’s bold renewable energy and climate change policies are supporting economic growth and workforce demands in thriving clean energy industry, new report finds.

A new report from the Governor’s Energy Office and Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future offers a detailed analysis of the…

Maine’s largest-ever procurement of renewable-power contracts was hailed in September as a historic step on a path to reaching ambitious climate change goals. But today, those contracts are under fire from two dissatisfied developers.

The developers question whether the selection process was flawed, whether customers will get the lowest possible rates and whether some of the winning projects could be delayed or never…

The project in Sherman would be New England’s largest wind project, right in the shadow of Katahdin.

The second developer, Clearway Renew LLC, challenged how the PUC scored the projects. It maintained that its entry, called County Wind, had a superior price and climate impact and should have won a contract. Clearway also has filed a broad Freedom of Access Act request in an effort to see confidential pricing information and learn how projects were scored,…

Heather Richards and Arianna Skibell, E&E News reporters

Published: Friday, October 30, 2020

In the new year, the first offshore wind farm in the United States will shut off its turbines, and its customers on nearby Block Island in Rhode Island will revert to diesel generation.

The rocky saeabed around Block Island has been worn away by tides and storms, sometimes exposing high-voltage cables in a popular swimming location that developers failed to bury deep…