Aroostook wind project should spur new public power authority | Douglas Rooks
I see this as one of the major decisions awaiting Maine’s next governor.
9/17/26
Douglas Rooks
If all goes well, Maine will host a gigantic wind farm in southeastern Aroostook County by sometime in the 2030s, producing electricity for the New England grid and advancing the shift to renewable energy the world desperately needs to stave off the worst effects of now-inevitable global warming.
Last month, Maine Public Utilities Commission Chair Phil Bartlett announced the selection of San Francisco-based Clearway Energy to build a 800-megawatt wind farm. That follows a failed 2023 effort by New York City-based LS Power for a similar contract, following legislative approval of then-Senate President Troy Jackson’s bill authorizing it in 2021.................................
This would be a mammoth transmission project, comparable to the 1,200-megawatt Hydro Quebec line. The PUC plans to deal with its demands by making it a New England-wide project.
It’s big. Avangrid bid $2.2 billion, and while Clearway’s costs haven’t been determined, they’ll easily exceed $1 billion; by comparison, the Hydro-Quebec line cost $1.5 billion. This would be among Maine’s largest-ever infrastructure projects, doubling its wind energy capacity.
Maine would pay 11% of the total costs — but receive only 11% of the benefits. And that could be a problem.
Despite their other disagreements, Mainers seem united in resentment against large corporations and bigger states directing the future. Across New England, Maine has the lion’s share of capacity for new wind and solar generation; citizen and landowner opposition is just too fierce in densely populated southern New England.
With so much at stake, it’s only common sense to study the prospects for public power, so beneficial elsewhere and so rare in New England; Maine has only one small electric cooperative in Washington County and a few municipal departments.
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Comment by Dan McKay 3 hours ago
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This is the same plot conjured up between Troy Jackson and Seth Berry. Use up Maine landscapes to extort the other states of New England with even higher priced wind and solar than it already is. They think this is a pot of gold for a Maine public power authority. The risks are far greater than they will reveal. Sooner or later, New England electric customers will come to value nuclear and natural gas far more than feeble wind and solar, and, then who will be holding the bag? Troy and Seth should follow Bartlett into his fairy tale adventure.
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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