Comments in response to draft permit for Saddleback Wind project in Carthage

Mark Margerum

17 State House Station

28 Tyson Drive

Augusta, ME

via email  mark.t.marjerum@maine.gov

 

I am submitting the following comments in response to the draft permit issued for the Saddleback Wind Project. 

Criteria 5.  Noise  

In response to testimony submitted during a lengthy public process initiated by a citizens’ petition, the BEP has approved new noise regulations for wind turbines, requiring nighttime operation to not exceed 42 decibels.  The BEP recognized the potential for more citizens' lives to be destroyed by turbines if the existing noise regulations were not amended to provide more protection for people living near turbines.  The wind industry considers those impacted by the presence of turbines to be collateral damage,  also described as “policy roadkill”.   

The Department  recognizes the “rapidly evolving”  post construction avian monitoring protocols and conditions the permit on future changes to the requirements for such monitoring, and adaptive measures if necessary to limit avian mortality risk.   In the same spirit, the Department must recognize the “rapidly evolving” science of wind turbine noise impacts.  The permit should contain a condition that if the project leads to community complaints, the new noise limit, if it receives final approval, may be imposed retroactively on this project. 

Noise Reduced Operation has not been proven to achieve claimed reductions in noise levels and is an unenforceable condition.   The DEP should not allow NRO as a means of compliance.

 

Criteria 6. Scenic Character

The scenic impact of wind turbines conflicts with every effort the state has made in the past 50 years to preserve and protect Maine’s scenic mountain assets.  While the wind law says that the presence of turbines from a scenic resource of state or national significance alone is not necessarily an unreasonable impact, the relative importance of the scenic resource must be taken into account. 

For instance, while Halfmoon Pond is a protected scenic resource,  views from Halfmoon Pond are most important in the near ground of the pond itself and nearby Carr Mountain.  Views of Saddleback are screened by trees and Saddleback is not a dominant feature on the landscape. 

On the contrary, viewers on Mount Blue and other peaks in the protected Mount Blue State Park will be drawn to the stark image of large kinetic machines in an otherwise natural, seemingly wild and undeveloped landscape.   To  quantify the view as a narrow portion of the viewshed is ludicrous.    Wind turbines are like a hairy mole on an otherwise attractive face.  One's vision is drawn to it and it is impossible to ignore it.  

Turbines do not belong in the viewshed of protected,  highly popular destination peaks such as Mount Blue and other peaks within the Mount Blue State Park.  To say the impact is low to moderate is arbitrary and capricious.  The turbines currently under construction in Roxbury, about 5 miles from Tumbledown, are a prominent feature on the landscape when viewed from the summit, regardless of the number of degrees of horizontal area they occupy.  Turbines on Saddleback will add to the cumulative effect of Maine’s western mountains becoming increasingly occupied with wind turbines. 

The attitude of hikers or others whose opinions are polled is irrelevant.  There must be a presumption that wind turbines are somehow good for the environment for people to accept their intrusion on the landscape and pronounce them acceptable or even pleasing.  There is no scientific evidence that wind turbines in Maine’s mountains will have any significant or even measureable effect on the earth’s climate, or on Maine's energy independence, which is the entire basis upon which Maine’s wind laws are based.  Views of people whose opinions are based on the false propaganda of self serving wind industry promoters should carry no weight. 

The wind law requires wind projects to preserve Maine's "Quality of Place".   How is the Quality of Place of Mount Blue preserved by this project?  No one can reasonably argue that a mountain in its natural state is not preferable, in the historic context of Maine’s conservation movement and state policies protecting the high elevations, to a mountain whose ridge is lined with the largest industrial machines currently in production on this planet.  Permitting this project in such close proximity to Mount Blue State Park and the peaks within the park is a crime against Maine’s landscape and all future generations who will be denied the opportunity to enjoy it in its natural state. 

Submitted by Steve Thurston, co-chair

Citizens’ Task Force on Wind Power

PO Box 345   Oquossoc, ME 04964

 

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Comment by alice mckay barnett on September 28, 2011 at 6:56pm
Thank You from the mountains of western maine.

 

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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