Doing right by Maine’s Energy Commons
Dear Editor:
The Ellsworth American’s Jan. 5 editorial on wind power called to mind the importance of approaching energy policy in a comprehensive and long-range manner, to strive for clarity in the issues we seek to address and the goals and aspirations that we would seek to achieve, and to be equally clear about who the ultimate stakeholders are.
The defining frame of reference for energy policy in our era (“our” meaning Maine, America, plus the rest of world) is what is happening to Earth’s climate. The numbers tell the story. The scientific explanations of what, how and why it is happening are compelling and convincing to all except the “willful” or narrowly self-interested. In the next very few decades, all across the board, the world needs to get off fossil fuels as its principal source of energy and shift to renewables. Maine and Mainers should be uniquely sensitive to the challenge because so many of us are — and stay — here because, to a far greater extent than most American states, we depend on and appreciate the blessings of nature and the wild, since the time of the Red Paint People to the very present.
Maine has abundant indigenous renewable sources of energy — solar, wind, hydro, tidal, wave, biomass, biofuel, geothermal, etc. Some of these are completely within our technical capacity; others will be technologically harnessable in the very near future, certainly within the next crucial 30 years.
Maine, as it happens, uses a lot of fossil fuel energy. Annually, out of our own individual pockets — you, me, grandpa, the new drivers in each high school class — annually send to sources outside of the state $6 billion a year for gas, oil and natural gas. That is twice the size of the state’s annual budget! That $6 billion isn’t taxdollars; it’s from our purses and wallets! More important, it is $6 billion a year that never again circulates within the state economy.
The goal of being energy independent through renewables shouldn’t be for the benefit of the power companies or Maine’s energy sector, the current focus of Maine’s energy planning. It should be for a combination of the population of Maine, now and in the future, and the place we call Maine, now and in the future. If you combine them, the prime stakeholder can be called the energy commons.
To pursue the climate-saving energy goal in a way that there are only winners, no losers, Maine will have to create pretty much from whole cloth new ways of thinking about energy. Right now the energy policy infrastructure in Maine is inadequate to the task. At the state level, it is highly fractionated and undersupported. In fact, localities (like MDI and its “Climate to Thrive” initiative pursuing energy independence for the island by 2030) and individuals (like me when last summer I contracted to become part of a solar farm) are exercising more constructive leadership than the state, which unfortunately seems to be actively fighting needed steps. The principle of magnanimity as captured in the italicized phrase above is critically important — and achievable! If we would think of how the $6 billion a year (nearly a quarter of a trillion over 40 years!) we now send elsewhere could be parlayed into assuring that the needed transitions are carefully identified and made to occur smoothly over time, without pain, and without unfairly stranding private assets that have been applied to local fossil fuel infrastructure that will no longer be viable. We might think of it as a system of compensation for a kind of crucial public-purpose eminent domain action to assure Maine people remain whole.
A tall order? No taller than getting to the moon and back or eradicating smallpox or creating our interstate highway system. It will require leadership, though.
Energy policy, in sum, is of far wider and deeper import than the editorial suggests. A brief survey conducted last summer of more than 60 Maine leaders in state energy policy made it clear respondents thought long-range comprehensive energy policy is very much needed and, conversely, very unlikely to be undertaken under current circumstances. The limited state efforts under way do not define the stakeholders broadly enough and are absent any real sense of urgency. The stakes are huge. Maine needs to do its part. No one can afford to wait for someone else to start. On behalf of the energy commons, citizens should join in making our voices heard in Augusta this legislative session.
Hendrik D. Gideonse
Brooklin
► Source ◄
Views: 73
Comment
-
Comment by Paula D Kelso on January 15, 2017 at 10:16pm
-
It seems like it always come back to the fact that the expedited law was expedited without any public debate and input. It was written and enacted with one goal, to make money for certain people and played on Maine citizens' empathy and concern for the environment. Both of these writers seem to want the best for Maine and it's people and are willing to support a process for developing a sound energy policy that recognizes Maine's strengths and resources and achieves a workable compromise of viewpoints. Some people are willing to sacrifice some aspects of Maine life for certain goals, some aren't so willing. If people get together without having a personal vested financial interest in any of the energy industries, with having a personal vested interest in making Maine a better place to live and work and play, with a commitment to open and respectful discourse, then maybe we can come up with a reasonable, doable and successful energy plan for the State. .......... But then I'm sometimes called Pollyanna........
-
Comment by Eric A. Tuttle on January 15, 2017 at 5:53pm
-
Thanks Paula, Though there may be some differences as to what this is thought to be about, however Hendrik realized back in October that the State of Maine has no Comprehensive Plan and has taken the upon himself to attempt to do so. This back and forth with each sector competing against each other in Maine vs working for the Benefit of Maine, in both ends of environmental concerns of Energy and Ecosystem preservation made him take pause and start to round up some of the dunderheads to bring them together. He has been one of the leaders in Advocating for Maine Citizens against the upcoming (3rd time) proposed BAD rules of Chapter 200 (Metallic Mining) I have worked with him closely, though we do not always agree he listens and tries to bring in some of the common sense approaches but always with the protection of Maine's communities and environment in mind. He and I are often at odds on the Industrial Wind and Solar issues.
-
-
Prevous post is copied verbatim from the comments to the Hendrik Gindenose editorial and reprinted here under fair use.
-
-
Jim_L • 8 hours ago
Hendrick;
I am all for Environmentally friendly energy, energy that is reliable, cheap, clean, steady and
can do what it is supposed to do. We in Maine can not drive our cars and trucks, run our
machinery and construction equipment, our fishing boats, heat our large buildings and homes
when the temperatures are at zero with fickle wind and solar power. It has some severe
disadvantages that don't exist with gas, oil, biomass, or hydro. Sometimes the wind does not
blow and sometimes the wind does not shine, like in winter, the coldest time, when there are
only about six hours a day of really good sun and the turbines have to use more energy than
they make to heat the machinery. The wind farms are some of the biggest customers of Emera . .
. really funny, huh? Our energy infrastructure in Maine IS perfectly adequate for the power we
need in Maine, and the power we use in Maine. All the updates have been done specifically to
enhance and allow the use of wind, and it has cost billions . . money we have had to contribute
to with OUR electric rates. Our population is NOT growing, not just because there are few good
paying jobs in Maine, but because new business has a hard time wanting to move here with the
high energy prices.
You are right, we do need to update our energy policy, but we should go back to hydro which
took care of our needs for 200+ years and update some of the plants we still have. It would be a
lot cheaper than building out new wind and solar projects. Citizens and businesses should
investigate individual, not industrial, solar. And if they find it fitting should pay for it
themselves and use the power it makes. I put solar on my property at my own expense, getting
no subsidies and keeping all the power for my own use. I should not have to pay for their
decision or the energy they return to the grid. Wind is high cost to build per kWh and expensive
to transmit. And the wind and solar in Maine goes south to other New England states, defiling
our viewsheds, raising our electricity prices, killing our wildlife, for them. If they are intent on
making their goals, let them do it in their states, not making Maine an industrial wasteland.
-
-
I did not get to see the comment, as I was denied access to the article though I figured out how to stop the blocking long enough to get it.
If you could post the comment, I would like to review. Since I know Hendrik, and the purpose of the LTE along with his work on establishing a State Comprehensive Energy Plan that could bring some Sanity to the Energy Quest, I could review the comments with him at our next meeting.
Thanks.
-
-
Jim L's comment to this article is right on.
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/
Not yet a member?
Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?
We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
"It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up."
Vince Lombardi
Task Force membership is free. Please sign up today!
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/
© 2024 Created by Webmaster.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine to add comments!
Join Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine