Long Islander's Blog (3,026)

“Phyllis may have reported more stories about conservation issues in Maine than anyone,” St. Pierre said. “It was not just the extensive breadth of issues Phyllis wrote about, it was her approach that stood out. Always thorough in her reporting, she was respected by virtually everyone she covered, whether or not they agreed.”

An avid hiker, she trekked the Himalayas in Nepal and in the Scottish Highlands. Her last piece “On Reaching the End of the Trail” was published in the…

"The wind PTC is an enormous government handout, and it is wrong to borrow money from future generations to give away corporate favors to those who promise jobs but – as we can see now in Kansas – who cannot deliver on that promise without continued reliance on other taxpayers.

Most important, the wind PTC does not work. Proof of this is that the wind PTC has been in effect for two decades and, still, wind-generated electricity is multiples more expensive than other sources of…

By Lisa Linowes -- November 18, 2016

“After billions in public hand-outs spanning nearly four decades, big wind has never been able to stand on its own and there’s no reason to believe this will change. … If yanking the handouts causes the industry to flat line then so be it. The US has elected a businessman at the helm who understands what it means to cut your losses. It’s time we did exactly that!”

Elections matter!

Last week, untold thousands of…

“Coal is not coming back,” said Michael Brune, Sierra Club executive director. “Ask investors on Wall Street, or regulators at the state and local level who are choosing solar and wind because of basic economics.”

http://www.pressherald.com/2016/11/11/trump-likely-to-try-to-reverse-obama-environment-initiatives/

Top climate…

by ROBERT BRYCE November 15, 2016

Big Wind lost big last Tuesday. While it’s not clear what Donald Trump’s election means for federal energy policy, it’s abundantly obvious that the wind-energy sector’s agenda was crushed in Vermont.

Although it cannot be stated definitively that wind energy was the deciding factor in Scott’s win over Minter, it is abundantly obvious that wind has been one of the most divisive issues in the state. During the Democratic primary for governor, two…

“My idea is to come in from Canada. And we’ve got a proposal, we’re going to be looking to bring natural gas in from Pennsylvania up into Canada and down through Quebec,” he said.

http://bangordailynews.com/2016/11/07/politics/lepage-bring-pennsylvania-natural-gas-to-maine-through-canada/

“Simply put, Monhegan is no place to experiment with wind turbines or to establish a commercial wind farm, any more than it would be to place these massive turbines this close to Acadia National Park or Mt. Katahdin,” wrote Travis Dow, a year-round resident and outspoken critic of the project. “Surely there must be other locations in the vast Gulf of Maine that would serve your purposes without forever marring Monhegan’s unrivaled 360-degree view of the ocean and incredible night…

Travis Dow, a spokesman for the newly formed group, Protect Monhegan, said the two proposed 600-foot tall turbines would do irreparable harm to the island community.

http://bangordailynews.com/2016/11/01/news/midcoast/some-monhegan-island-residents-ask-developers-to-move-offshore-wind-project/

“Regardless of whether the partnership payments are deemed legal, I remain greatly concerned about where this may lead if we start down this road,” Condos wrote. “In a democracy, a ballot item should pass or fail on its own merits and not because of cash incentives.”…

“Any large scale development has groups that form to oppose them,” says Juliet Browne, attorney with Verrill Dana LLP. “Wind, in particular, has its own energized set of opponents. As a result, it is increasingly difficult to permit wind projects and other large scale developments.”

Browne has been practicing in the fields of energy and environmental law for more than 20 years and formerly served on the Governor’s Wind Power Task Force in Maine. 

“For example, when looking to…

My guess is the average person doesn't wake up each day and ask "how can I have more wind power"? However, I would guess there are a number of key legislators in Mass who may. Lots of money to pocket. They plan and plot for years. Nothing quite like free money.

The following, from several years ago, may be very revealing as to how much the everyday citizen in Massachusetts cares:

"Many of the large wind projects rejected in the RFP would have required huge new transmission lines to get their power to market, including Pattern Development’s King Pine and EDP Renewables’ Number Nine developments, both located in northern Maine.

“If I look at the northern part of the country, interconnection capacity and transmission capacity are significant limiting factors for wind,” Gabriel Alonso, chief executive of EDP Renewables North America, said earlier this month at an…

It sounds as though the evaluation team's decisions affecting ratepayers will be made and communicated to the wind developers, but the public will be kept in the dark until the very last minute. This allows the wind developers maximum time to spring their surprise attack while giving everyday Mainers absolute minimum time to react to the news that an out sized wind factory is now targeted for their community. The government does not work for you; it works for…

The paper writes:

"Of course, the tourism industry here will always be driven by the coast – that’s what people think of when they think of Maine. But in many ways, that is because the coast is where the investment and attention have gone for decades. Inland Maine doesn’t have the infrastructure and high-end offerings of the coast, nor does it have an identity outside the state."

I'm not sure I agree fully that inland Maine does not have an identity…

As Mainers are kept busy simply trying to keep their heads above water, manipulators in Massachusetts quietly work their plans to grow wildly rich at our expense. The game is truly rigged and none of this happens without unrelenting help from Maine's own wind & transmission cabal consisting of Maine legislators, lobbyists, lawyers, regulators, so called environmental groups and media.

Excerpt:

Throughout the…

PORTLAND, Maine — The state department that oversees tax collection in Maine has come out against extending a property tax break on the 44-turbine Kibby Mountain wind farm in Franklin County, saying the deal is a giveaway on the backs of residents outside the unorganized territory.…

It seems that the wind developers' criterion for siting a wind project is "wherever the residents let us get away with it, small details like Katahdin and Moosehead be damned".

“This is a collaborative effort with other concerned citizens in the Katahdin region to strengthen and support our community,” said Stanley. “I hope that by hearing from other community leaders in Maine we can work together to improve the overall quality of life in our area and empower…

n 2008, Maine’s Legislature passed the Wind Energy Act, which established state policy around wind farm developments. Some areas of the policy were left more open than others, and the state gave the Maine Department of Environmental Protection authority to set more specific rules in the future.

“The new rules will provide us more guidance when we review an application” for a proposed wind development, said Mark Bergeron, director of the Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau…