Comment
I listened to the EUT hearing on that bill and the arguments by the proponents of the bill for including hydropower over 100 MW as a renewable energy source were just stellar. Some very, very intelligent people spoke on behalf of the bill and I think the EUT got a very good education on energy as a whole and the stranded costs associated with wind energy in particular. Elizabeth Johns, no apologies necessary. I'm thrilled that this was posted. My fault I couldn't find my reading glasses. This is an excellent editorial and should be published in ALL Maine's newspapers.
I agree with Ethe editorial, and I hope it goes viral and earns the Ellsworth American a Pulitzer. Big money wind interests are milking the taxpayers, Enron-style, for short-term profits. When the subsidies run out, First Wind and other wind promoters will melt away, leaving rusting hulks abandoned on our ridges.
FERC data show that the inland Maine wind farms have a very poor record of actually generating electricity (less than 25% of installed capacity for 2012), and what power they do produce is unpredictable, irregular, wasteful, and expensive for the grid to accomodate with fueled back-up power which must always be held available.
Harry Roper Houlton/Danforth
Let me quickly clarify that I didn't write this op ed. Don't know who did, but presumably the Ellsworth American editorial staff. All the more impressive, I would say. Our message is catching hold.
Great editorial piece by Elizabeth Johns. Particularly important to be in the Ellsworth paper because First Wind has targeted interior Hancock and Washington Counties, some of the most beautiful, undeveloped parts of the state. Unfortunately, County Commissioners in both counties are way too eager to help First Wind with TIF to get $$$ for the county coffers. Selling the soul of the state to the wind devil for a pittance. How immoral and short sighted!
If FoulWind and their shell companies were added together like they should be, they would not qualify for the premium rates. I guess there is an exception for them just in case. So over 100 watts for hydro, no premium rates. Over 100 for wind and they still get the premium rate. Hydro should not be the red headed stepchild of the energy market. We all know what happens when the energy industry starts playing financial games, Enron, Lehman Bro....
To Penny Gray: Sorry it's difficult to read, but the Ellsworth American didn't post this electronically on their website. A subscriber friend scanned her copy as a PDF. Best we could do. --elizabeth
Wow. Kind of hard to read but a great editorial, was this posted by the paper itself??
U.S. Sen Angus King
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 - 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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