Long Islander's Blog (3,023)

Kevin M. O’Connor, once sat with me in his boardroom in the middle of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2008 and said, “As long as we have that ocean out there,” – as he pointed toward the ocean— “the East End of Long Island will always be a great place to live and own a home.”

" It's an electrical system, so unless we can know that there's no electrical charge or current or supply within that system, putting water on it is probably not a good choice. The other thing is, those units are just a whole lot of plastic and poly and electric wire, it's just a big generator really. So there really isn't, even if you could reach it, a whole…

DARK SIDE OF "GREEN": WIND TURBINE NOISE, FIRES, ACCIDENTS, INJURIES, AND FATALITIES RAISE SERIOUS SAFETY CONCERNS NEAR RESIDENTIAL HOMES

Hanover, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Presque Isle, Maine have all seen dramatic wind turbine fires in the last few weeks.

The obvious challenge facing firefighters is the height involved if a fire occurs in the turbine motor.

Due to the risk of falling fire debris over a wide area, approaching a burning turbine ...is…

The state of Maine should require that every customer at a real estate agency selling properties anywhere that wind projects are allowable be given a brochure on "Wind Turbines and Property Values". I suppose it could present both sides of the argument and include the wind developers' bald faced lies, but such a brochure would at least get people thinking. In a state where the media constantly lie on behalf of this industry, we need to do everything we can do to get the truth out. By the…

You don't know what you got til it's gone, so it's worth pausing for a few minutes and reviewing the amazing strength of Maine's outdoor brand versus the rest of the United States. Don't throw it away and allow giant industrial wind turbines and their requisite nasty new and huge transmission lines to spoil what we have.

Some very compelling observations of just how strong is the Maine outdoor brand:…

Places like Texas and the Great Plains are the heartland of the nation's wind industry and accordingly, most thinking regarding wind power in the U.S. arose with states like those as context - states which are very different from Maine. Maine is 90% forest, …

Millions of dollars of public money have been thrown away on a completely bogus feel good single wind turbine at UMPI and finally the project goes down in flames. What did the people of Maine get for their investment and why won't the University and the Maine media tell the people just how badly they've been had?

And now they want to do this on a far…

Clyde MacDonald has been warning Maine about the potential for wind turbine caused forest fires for years. Please see the links below. Now that the UMPI turbine had an apparently serious fire, the state should now be compelled to ensure fire safety with regard to these ticking time bombs in the Maine Woods.

It looks as though there were no trees near the turbine. What if there were and what if we were in a drought and what if there were strong winds…

It will be interesting to learn precisely how the fire was brought under control as stated in the article given the nacelle is pretty high off the ground. Given UMPI's track record of obscuring the facts about this turbine, one might be wise to be skeptical of this claim. It looks as though there were no trees near the turbine. What if there were and what if we were in a drought and what if there were strong winds blowing? Clyde MacDonald has been warning Maine about the potential for…

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:

MIT: Relying on renewables alone significantly inflates the cost of overhauling energy

The Flawed Methodology Behind Studies Measuring the Cost of Climate Change

German Researchers Target Effects of Wind Turbine Infrasound on the Heart

Test results prove wind turbine noise modeling faulty

Six New Papers Reveal ‘Green’ Reality: Wind Turbines Destroy Habitats

How Important is…

Here's the key sentence in this Press Herald article: "The immediate risk, advocates say, is $87 million in federal funding".

Of course the Press Herald headline, like every other piece it writes about wind, attempts to minimize the cost ramifications of this folly: "Effort to build offshore wind industry in Maine may hinge on 73 cents".

And as usual, the article makes us ask yet again, what is it about…

Just curious, why is it anytime wind power opponents call out wind projects for killing birds, the so called environmental groups tell us there's nothing to worry about?

From the article, Next up, Central Maine Power - Mass. drops N. Pass, opts instead for Maine transmission line:

Greg Cunningham, a vice president at the Conservation Law Foundation said the proposed route of the…

Vermonters for a Clean Environment (VCE) provides facts and information so people can make informed

decisions. In our discussions with Vermonters it became evident that most residents do not understand the

statutory mechanisms to achieve the state’s renewable energy goals. To that end, this paper provides an overview of enacted policies, a discussion about northern Vermont’s grid constraints, and information about Vermont as part of the regional electric grid.…

The Massachusetts Clean Energy RFP issued a statement saying that the state’s electric utilities had terminated the conditional selection of the Northern Pass project and are now working to conclude negotiations with Central Maine Power for its New England Clean Energy Connect line.

The action comes after a siting committee in New Hampshire rejected the Northern Pass proposal, and the developer was unable to gain approval by a March 27 deadline set by…

There is significant evidence that our country’s enemies (esp. Russia and China)

are purposefully subverting our energy sector in a variety of ways. Of course they are

being clandestine about this, in hopes that few citizens will notice. One of their most

effective tactics is for them to support US organizations whose energy agenda is

synonymous with theirs.

For example, carefully consider these key energy questions. Who is it that wants:

1) US…

The generators further argued that, should the project go forward, “it will impede the development of alternative renewable energy projects in Maine, such as solar and onshore and offshore wind farms, for the foreseeable future. This result would be contrary to Maine’s statutory policy favoring the use of ‘renewable, efficient and indigenous resources.’”…

Right off the bat, merely looking at this report's title, who are we to determine what's high value wildlife, and therefore by implication, what's low value wildlife?

December 2013 Report: Wind Power and Wildlife in Maine: A State-wide Geographic Analysis of High-Value Wildlife Resources and Wind Power Classes

Read more here - and keep in mind that Maine's lead wind developer at the time, now defunct First…

Three companies with a stake in Maine's generating capacity fear subsidized energy from Canada could upend the electric market.

New opposition is ramping up to Central Maine Power’s proposal to build a 145-mile transmission line through western Maine, coming from interests who own fossil-fuel power plants in the state, as well as those who want to build wind and solar farms.

Continue reading here:…

But bird deaths are a byproduct of wind energy. The American Bird Conservancy estimates that “hundreds of thousands of birds and bats die every year” from accidentally running into spinning turbine blades.

The power lines and towers that carry wind electricity to the grid kill an additional 8 million to 57 million birds a year.…

FOR:

Dispatchable, on-demand power such as Hydro-Quebec is offering to New England and Maine appears to be the best big solution to Maine’s perennial search for an affordable energy supply.

     - The Ellsworth American…