Long Islander's Blog – February 2018 Archive (54)

Another factor in this economic equation is that states like Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are providing subsidies to encourage renewable energy production. According to van Welie, that means that those clean energy projects will be able to “participate in the [energy] markets at artificially low prices,” giving them an advantage over fossil fuel and nuclear plants.…

People must remember that Maine’s $6 billion tourism business is of paramount importance for the long term. Mainers cannot allow the scenic character of Route 27, from Eustis to the border, be ruined.

http://www.sunjournal.com/no-to-wind-power-projects/

BDN - The Maine Public Utilities Commission said Tuesday it would look into customer complaints about skyrocketing bills and poor service by Central Maine Power.

The regulatory agency will start by gathering information about CMP’s metering, billing and customer communications. In the so-called “summary investigation,” it will collect data on whether all issues with CMP’s new billing system have…

George Smith quotes Angus King's praise of the Maine mountains, as in that land form King has trashed with his wind turbine blight for the almighty dollar:

"As Senator Angus King writes in the forward, “The vistas are so wide, the colors so subtle, the forests so deep, that the urge to see for yourself will be pretty hard to resist.” Boy, Angus got that…

Note that this list contains multiple worksheets each with a slightly different view of the information. Specific Clients were identified as "Wind Related" based on judgment. Please let us know if any were missed or miscoded. I'm sure we missed some. Also, we probably could have coded every large Portland law firm as Wind Related but we didn't for this exercise given much of their work falls into areas other than wind.

Guess which Client (whom a lobbyist works for) has the…

Guidestar - the world's largest source of information on nonprofit organizations where you can sign up for a basic account free in just a minute or two and begin reading Form 990 for non-profits and possibly get a glimpse of where they are getting their money. When you read a 990, you might not see everything but sometimes they can be quite interesting.…

By Monique Aniel, Special to the BDN * February 25, 2011

Please stop your support for NRCM, the organization which pushed hard for this disaster to happen. If you do, maybe some of Maine’s mountains can be saved. Or at least let them know how misguided they have been.

But there is a strange twist to my story. I actually posted it on Lisa Puhlman’s blog on the NRCM website, along with two other individuals who…

Even though our LUPC (Land Use Planning Commission) recently rejected Nextera’s petition to expand the expedited permitting areas of Chain of Ponds, Seven Ponds, Alder Brook, Skinner, T5R6 and BKP WKR townships, I find it hard to believe CMP (Avangrid) and Nextera, the parasitic beneficiaries of the bust-up of Maine public utilities, will give up their attempts to continue their ruination of Maine’s scenic character.

As evidenced on Feb. 1, Democrats in the Legislature voted in…

This article talks about the possibility of rolling blackouts and huge price hikes on our electricity bills. It talks about conventional electricity plant closures and inadequate natural gas pipeline.

"As the nation shifts ever more of its power production to natural gas, areas such as Maine that can’t tap directly into the shale deposits where extraction is taking place across the country are dependent on an inadequate supply…

Speaking to the Offaly Independent this week, Mrs Cunningham says that the noise pollution from the turbines, one of the highest in Ireland, has made life intolerable.

“Every day since January 5, being in our hourse and yard has been just a living hell. It’s like living in Dublin Airport or like living beside a helicopter.

“We can’t sleep. I can’t sleep. You can’t go out in the yard, you have to listen to this noise constantly.”…

The company Jim Boyle refers to is Boyle Associates. When you go to their website, you see that among the clients they list are First Wind and CMP.  I believe Boyle was one of First Wind's expert witnesses for the Bowers project which of course failed but would have had devastating impacts on the world class downeast lakes area. 

http://www.boyleassociates.net/clients-projects/

I was never comfortable when…

EXCERPT

Renewable Energy Policy Maine’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is designed to promote the development of new, local, renewable energy resources that stimulate jobs, increase tax revenues, and strengthen Maine’s economy with low-polluting energy sources.

https://www.nrcm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/2018legislativepriorities.pdf

The action would be a major pullback from state law requiring that utilities must obtain a quarter of their energy from renewable sources by 2025................. The higher standards “will cost millions of dollars,” said Rep. Michael Harrington, R-Strafford “and that costs jobs. Every time you raise the cost of electricity you lose jobs.”

But it is not just the money, he added. People could pay more to use renewable but haven’t. Instead, the state was “forcing people to…

“Maine’s moratorium is part of much bigger picture or wider movement,” said Droz. “What happened in Maine is a continuation of a broader movement of concerned citizens taking place in numerous communities across the country.

“Increasingly, citizens are raising objections to new wind turbines out of concern wind turbines can adversely affect the health of nearby citizens and reduce the value of their property,” Droz said, citing a 2011 study by the Institute for Noise Control…

“The Maine Public Utilities Commission is out of control,” the Natural Resources Council of Maine said in a prepared statement. “Today the PUC decided Maine is closed for business and intent on destroying jobs in America’s fastest-growing job market.”…

CMP’s “New England Clean Energy Connect” Transmission Line Proposal - February 21, 2018

EXCERPTS:

Maine and New England need to increase the use of renewable power to further reduce fossil fuel burning and meet our critically important greenhouse gas reduction goals. However, there are many ways to achieve that objective. First and foremost, we should look to new renewable energy…

BDN

On Friday, the Maine Renewable Energy Association, an Augusta group representing wind and other renewable energy producers, sued LePage in Kennebec County Superior Court. It followed a January suit in a state court from the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation.…

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:

Maine: A proposed law amending wind energy regulation

Maine bill would gut wind energy streamlined permitting process

Research into mountain wind projects: major risk to visitor economy

End of federal wind industry handouts is long overdue

Wind projects are disrupting our way of life

Wind project under criminal investigation for bat and eagle deaths

Nebraska: A proposal to…