Enough Bad Math Already - One + One does not equal "Whatever Feels Right To You John Baldacci"
Today marks 18 months of the University of Maine’s wind turbine experiment and the percentage of capacity achieved is an abysmal 11.39%.
There is nothing wrong with the university having embarked on this experiment. What is wrong is that the university and state have not yet applied the learning. Think about it. The state’s ONLY experiment with wind turbine production shows a striking failure, but the university claims it to be a great success. You cannot do this. One plus one = two. One plus one does not = “Whatever feels right to you Johnny”.
This bad math and replacement of facts with feelgood falsehoods has implications for Mainers' health and Maine’s core essence – our natural environment.
Moreover, because wind power cannot be stored and is wholly incompatible with the grid, when wind “happens” the power that is generated (which must be purchased due to Renewable Portfolio Standards) is always an unnecessary add on to already more than sufficient electricity deriving from baseload and peaking power secured the day prior in the day ahead electricity market. In other words, for all practical purposes, wind power is always a layer of unneeded electricity. It is this that is the main reason why the march towards Governor Baldacci’s ill conceived 1,800 turbines will cause Maine electricity prices to skyrocket.
In addition we as taxpayers fund extraordinarily high and unsustainable corporate welfare for these companies and we as ratepayers will fund 8% of the $30 billion ISO-NE transmission upgrade expense required by wind - about $4,500 per Maine household, just so that Governor Baldacci's wind buddies can move their product to Mass and Ct., whose citizens are having this feelgood fake fairy dust power rammed down their throats due to RPS, RGGI, etc.)
We can ill afford to increase an already large economic obstacle to Mainers and Maine businesses. Nor can we afford to so cavalierly think nothing of marring our incredible ridgelines, the reason many stay here, the reason many visit (and bring DOLLARS).
And it's just plain wrong that the government who we elected, who we placed our trust in, has apparently decided it is perfectly fine to ignore the citizens. But when the PUC commisioner receives stock options from a wind company while in office, that's OK Attorney General Mills? Perhaps there will be a new Attorney General and the new AG will take a hard look at some of AG Mills' decisions.
Ex-PUC head enriched by utility company
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/141729.html
Group asks AG to probe official of First Wind
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/142846.html
First Wind SEC filing change questioned
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/143887.htmlPerhaps January 2011 will herald a return to "We The People".
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Comment
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Comment by Brad Blake on November 14, 2010 at 10:53pm
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The manufacture of the components uses huge amounts of energy and puts out huge amounts of carbon. Ditto for the transport from far away places. At Rollins, the blades are from Brazil and the turbines are from China. We don't know yet where the steel sections of tower are made. Then the amount of diesel being consumed and pollution being spewed while destroying these ridges to pour all those concrete bases. For all this, if those turbines last 20 years (doubtful), intermittently producing their fickle trickle of electricity in an area that is at best 20% capacity factor, the savings in carbon and savings in energy will never, ever offset the cost of energy and carbon put into it. It is such a false promise perpetrated by the wind industry.
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Comment by alice mckay barnett on November 13, 2010 at 6:01pm
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Each wind turbine concrete base creates 250,000 pounds of CO2 according to Physicist John Droz,Jr.
huh? i read 100 tons concrete = 100-200 lbs mercury leach (EPA)
Wind Turbine blades, made of resins, epoxy, plastics are not bio-degradable
what was the carbon footblade of each blade?
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Comment by Nettie Pena on November 13, 2010 at 1:44pm
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The wind turbine scam happening in Maine is happening across the USA. We must stop it. Wind Power is not Free, It is not Green, Nor is it Clean! Wind Power is the most costly Subsidized form of Electrical Energy in the USA. Over 25 years, billions of Federal and State funds, wind energy produces less than 2% of US Electrical Energy.
Wind Turbine blades, made of resins, epoxy, plastics are not bio-degradable according to a study done by Denmark Tech. Countries using wind turbines in 15 to 20 years will be left with the 125 foot blades that can't be disposed of.
Each wind turbine concrete base creates 250,000 pounds of CO2 according to Physicist John Droz,Jr. In Palm Springs, CA. where we have had wind turbines for over 25 years, 4000 of them, only supplies 2% of our electrical energy. Yet, the wind turbines have managed to change the landscape forever with disappearing species such as the bats. Please go to my website and view Episodes from my documentary, 'They're Not Green'. http://web.me.com/thrnotgreen/thrnotgreen
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This kind of folly must stop. Wind power is bad economics, from the smallest turbine for personal use to these mid size turbines to the sprawling huge industrial sites. I do not want my tax dollars to go into something that doesn't work. Homeowners living off the grid never ever see a turbine pay for itself, yet we provide a tax credit so they can brag about being "green". There seems to be a mentality among schools and town facilities that they have to show "commitment" to be "green", at taxpayers' expense, of course. We see how well that worked in places like Saco and Kittery. At least at UMPI we have an on-going farce being recorded and displayed for the public. For those who are paying attention, that is. Unfortunately, that doesn't include the complacent and complicit media.
The small and medium scale wind turbine popularity feeds into the lemmings' support for utility scale wind power, an industry that wouldn't exist without massive subsidies and preferential treatment. Hopefully, the massive political shift that happened this month in both Maine and Congress will lead to lawmakers actually rolling up their sleeves and bringing sanity to the budgets and criticisms of the way we spend taxpayer money as the nation slowly but steadily heads towards bankruptcy due to the national debt. In the "No Brainer" category has to be the subsidies and grants that support such folly as wind power. Voters threw out the politicians, now it is time to throw out the cabal of do-gooders and thieves who promote wind power.
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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