All Blog Posts (9,985)

New data shows that the “vanishing” of polar ice is not the result of runaway global warming

The “vanishing” of polar ice (and the polar bears) has become a poster-child for warmists.

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....... that is being foisted on consumers by the politically influential companies that make the hardware and software that are required for the smart-meter conversion. – Consumers Digest

....... In this poll, about 1/3 of the people who had Smart Meters installed had an increase in energy costs, and one quarter had them double, triple, or more.…

Hydropower is the first segment of the renewable energy sector that his administration is tackling during his second term.......

Though wind developers with more than 100 megawatts of capacity can qualify, other states in southern New England offer more generous renewable energy credits, which along with federal wind power production credits have fueled development in the state......…

Following are links to select articles from the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting which provide coverage of or related to the Maine PUC. The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting is a nonpartisan, non-profit news service based in Augusta focused on in-depth reporting serving the need of the Maine's citizens to be fully informed about the actions of their government and public servants.

With regard to the Maine PUC their mission (as published on their website)…

After years of dealing with the wind issue, I can say with sadness that Maine is a very dirty little state, politically.

It is a shame how unctuous political elites have manipulated the legislative process as it concerns the wind scam. 

Governor LePage should immediately place a halt to all further wind projects until  detailed cost/benefit analysis is undertaken of the wind industry in Maine.

In addition , an ethical…

That wind farm, known as Weaver Wind, would be built in Osborn and Eastbrook, if it gains the necessary approvals. Most of the turbines — 14 of them — would be located in Osborn, while eight would be located in Eastbrook.....Asked why First Wind is going so far beyond the mandated financial minimum with regard to community benefit funds, Baldwin said the company wants to show residents......…

 Although we often hear how natural gas makes up 50% of electrical generation in Maine, EIA data reveals Maine's natural gas plants do not run anywhere near 100% of the time and, in fact, in-state hydro out-produced natural gas generation for 2013 and trends would indicate the same for…

Jeremy Payne said renewable energy could provide a valuable hedge against the volatility of fossil fuel prices, as the prices of wind and solar don't spike and are actually trending downward....basically all of our clean energy investments have happened in rural Maine," said Payne. "These are areas that are starving for investment and starved for employment. This is a billion-dollar industry that is here today, and if we're not careful, it may not be here tomorrow."…

Scenic Cornwall... or (guess)... turbines. 

Longish read but of interest near bottom describing legal struggles the area is going through.  ...

Something of great interest following a recent link on this blog is as valid for Cornwell as for Maine...…

A bold new report has been released showing how Maine can become energy independent – if, by “energy independent,” we mean heavily dependent on government subsidies.

http://www.dailybulldog.com/db/opinion/politics-other-mistakes-rodent-logic/

Since 2008, the Maine PUC has approved 4 wind projects, 1 biomass project and 0 hydro projects for long term renewable energy contracts. This is getting old and is starting to smell akin to Alfond's abuse of power to aid wind during  the last legislative session.…

So Angus King has joined a Senate committee to help Maine’s tourism, through policymaking. His posturing would be laughable if it didn’t indicate how short he thinks our memories are.…

There’s just one problem with that photo, which appears on the cover of the“adaptation roadmap” the Pentagon issued last fall: The building is not on a military base. It’s not even in Alaska.

It’s in Russia.…

Just three Republicans backed the measure — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine; Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who wrote the first PTC law in 1992; and Mark Kirk of Illinois, who is expected to face a tough re-election race next year. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who has criticized the credit in the past, was the only Democrat to vote against it.…

To quantify the dilution of wind power, consider a supermarket. Each square meter of floor space calls for about 300 watts for lights, refrigeration, heating, etc. The energy produced by a wind farm is about 5 watts per square meter — many square meters of wind farm are needed to supply one square meter of supermarket. Building larger and larger wind turbines does not help. Larger units must be spaced farther apart. The 5 watts per square meter prevails.

China has 50 nuclear…

We can only hope that as Mainers become more and more familiar with the shortcomings of intermittent wind power generation and the environmental degradation that results, they will look at future development proposals with an ever more critical eye.

http://www.mdislander.com/opinions/editorials/wind-power-co2

and…

Just a few days after The New York Times and The Washington Post both had major, widely distributed stories making that claim, one of their principal sources, NASA, was saying it was, well, not quite accurate. As in, not accurate at all.…

Those include the Weaver Wind, Bowers Wind, Molunkus Wind and Somerset Wind projects....The Bowers project is listed as in development despite permit denials by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and a pending appeal with the Board of Environmental Protection.…

Angus King's Record Hill Tourist Attraction

"Indeed, tourism is one of the cornerstones of the Maine economy, supporting thousands of important jobs and helping communities to thrive," King said in a prepared statement. "As a member of the Senate tourism caucus, I look forward to working with my colleagues to further the interests of Maine's tourism industry."…

Some Mainers still fall for the wind energy scam. This is sad because taxes have had a crushing impact on Maine’s economic lifeblood, and it consistently ranks among the states with the greatest tax burden. Yet Dorle and Chapman have the nerve to propose that still more still tax credits (read: private taxpayer subsidies) support their lobby’s pocketbooks and debunked environmental fantasies.

Paul Rudershausen is a research associate at the Center for Marine Sciences and…