Comment

Comment by Sherwin Start on March 10, 2014 at 8:56pm

U go For It Mr LePAGE!! Drop Them down to ZERO!!!

Comment by Martha thacker on March 5, 2014 at 9:35am

Sen. Blumenthal might be a wealth of information. When he was against the 1.2 million dollar charge to rate payers after no power was produced, I called his office , thinking it came from our ME wind farms..since the grid was at capacity when they were built. A lawyer said the unlawful charge was out of NY...which also had a wind farm built by First Wind, Cohocton. On his website at that time, was a public statement, "I don't want to build transmission lines for a few wind farms in upper state ME."

2 of the power stations that were scheduled for closure were Brookfield and Indeck. Indeck sold because Iso New England would not pay agreed upon price for the power they produced. The new buy er was not aware of the grid congestion. Brookfield in Millinocket never gave in. But, I vaguely remember a person going to Millinocket and asking around if the people would be interested in public electricity...don't remember the details at all but it seemed to be some sort of co-op. Of course, Boston is First Wind HQ. So Brookfield could hold out because they had a lot of money for lawyers. Burlington , a township of around 300 people held out with Rollins, and got a new fire station , retirement home (still not built) and a turbine after 20 years. Stetson I and II got nothing due to being in UT and LURC negotiated the permitting. If a fire broke out at Stetson, it could spread very very quickly as our volunteer fire dept. is not first rate. We are so surrounded by forests, that First Wind could say there were no year round homes here...and the Baldaci administration said nobody lives here. There is a tiny group of people who live very close to the turbines and many more within a 2 to 3 mile radius.

The people in Carroll were promised something like 5000 each for approving a wind farm. 

First Wind was sued for anti trust violations in NY. Of course, they won. The whole business seems like rackateering to me. I think Lincoln's financial problems...1 million dollar mistake in their budget and subsequent property tax hike is suspicious. Diane  Traske, who wants an audit , had to have a recount before she won council member...selectmen ..not sure what it is called in Lincoln. During the Rollins permitting stage , another selectman in Lee who was adamantly for wind farms and had asked for a 50,000 dollar loan to the law firm of Eaton Peabody to First Wind for good TIFs ...this was done by an article in the Lincoln News.Eaton Peabody is used by First Wind. That selectmen lost his next election and had to have a recount where a lot of votes were found. He served one more term.

I wish there was more interest in the RECs and just who makes money off of them. 

Also , we have not heard complaints of noise from Rollins and Stetson I and II like other wind farms. I heard them for about two weeks in '08...could hear them in the winter right beside an air filter. I am about 2.2 miles away. A neighbor who is a little closer had migraine headaches the entire time and her dog paced day and night.

Comment by Kathy Sherman on March 5, 2014 at 12:41am

Sadly while I was writing here the order was issued by DPU, yet to read. Lisa is checking into the transmission questions and the study that supposedly said no problem now.

I think that the mill issue that you referred to was that big users like a mill would agree to stand down when the load was excessive and they would get paid big money for it. But that mill just switched to a generator, so was not avoiding pollution or releasing GHG and got heavily fined for cheating the system.

Lisa and our AGs expert agree with Mike, I think.

It is just one more case of MA really finessing timing. The order approving the contracts was issued 2/26 but not posted until the DOER architect of pushing them through is about to talk about them to a wind collaborative, and the announcement that one of the three DPU Commissioners, Cash, will replace our Department of Environmental Protetion, Ken Kimmil. Said DEP Commission oversaw the DEP-DPH panel on health impacts hearings, in response to about 50 homes being adversely impacted even before a third turbine started (that delivers excess flicker to 50 homes). They argued that it was a fluke - the turbines, the topography - except in Falmouth where it is simply attitude or nocebo. So they repeated their experiment. They rolled out that panel report at one hearing, they put turbines still closer to homes and the consequences continue to roll across the state. Environmental protection to MA DEP means relax wetland rules, ignore avian, wildlife and habitat impacts. Now Kimmel will head up Union of Concerned Scientists, a lawyer to lobby for science based policy regarding climate change. I intend to send him Bryce's testimony as a welcome, with a paper that shows the ill effects of our energy gluttony is by far transport related. I don't deny climate change and human contribution to environmental disasters, but I cannot abide hearing incorrect conclusions from the people who are denying that wind energy will not be one of them if we ignore impacts as he, Dr. Mills etc. have.

The other person who heard the testimony on health impacts was immediately rewarded with the position as head of the agency that collects all the ratepayer and GHG money and doles it out.

For sure the tax credits help the corporations and can be traded. The renewable energy certificates and RGGI is less clear to me, but I think I read that they were purchased in quantity by financial institutions. To me they are like pork bellies, and at least for MA, their price is quite volitile. It is a gamble, and to think DOER tried to sell wind energy as a way to stabilize price.

Martha, I mention your reference to Blumenthal to someone involved in CT and MA, with the suggestion that he contact him. That was before I knew that the contracts had been approved and I was only thinking PTC. With your info, I'm thinking that if he organizes a delegation to go to D.C., it should use his experience as AG to see what can be done about the usurping of our regulatory agencies' authority.

Comment by Martha thacker on March 4, 2014 at 11:38pm

Kathy

"all the while ignoring the need for more transmission lines to get their product through the forest to where it is needed"... They knew it would be a hard sell. Cohocton wind farm in NY is also not on the grid. Locals found that out themselves. Same as Mars Hill locals found out the power went to Canada.The people in Mars Hill were led to believe that the wind farm was for them . A local told me that ...and I also heard it at a real estate agency at the time. The information at the time of Cohocton and Stetson was that the transmission lines would be in place by 2011 for Cohocton and Stetson. Now First Wind states that the lack of transmission line capacity actually works out for their benefit. (go figure) To add to the surreal nature of all this state policy and collusion, the turbines are deteriorating every year...with no place for the power. That is why they are using more power than EMMC and the mills. After the mountain tops are scraped off and filled with concrete. And they have the nerve to run ads extolling wind comparing it to coal...and the damage it does to the environment. Stetson is in wetlands and I doubt very seriously all this is legal according to ME wetlands law.

Comment by Martha thacker on March 4, 2014 at 11:29pm

Kathy...I know former gov. Blumenthal is now senator...but he fought wind farms as gov. I am sorry if I wasn't clear... His office sued Iso New England for over a million dollars worth of energy not produced but charged to New England rate payers....took it all  the way to the Supreme Court and lost. 

Mike, I agree that the people should not have to bear the burden that rightly belongs in the AG office. The MPUC has not worked for us since 2008. It is time they stand up to bullying, after all First Wind has finally lost a lawsuit and now a major decision against them. I am hopeful. I just hope something can be done to save the mill jobs. The costs of renewables not only comes out of taxes but also monthly electricity bills. It is time that laws are passed for the people and not corporations like First Wind. They seem to be doing fine.  

I tried to find out who makes money off the renewables too . Best I could tell, it is the wind farm corporations. It is like Matt Taibbi says. cap and trade is like the housing boom..except the middle man is cut out and the money goes straight to Wall Street.

Comment by Mike DiCenso on March 4, 2014 at 10:17pm

Martha... the Lincoln mill is having energy issues with the remaining tissue machines. 7 runs colors so they try to keep that running as the colored tissue makes the most money. 6 and 8 have been shut down sometimes for a couple days at a time, sometimes for partial days because of the high electricity costs around 4 to 11 o'clock roughly. They will shut down one or the other but try not to shut both down. They switched back to oil from nat gas when the price went up for the CNG on TM8. They may have switched back by now i am not sure. The mill is not making as much of their own elec. either now that the rec. boiler is history which adds to their energy dilemma. It seems the big users should be pressuring the state for energy policy which favors the ratepayers and not leave it up to we the people. It is time the PUC did their job and stopped bending to the political will of the wind cabal.

Comment by Mike DiCenso on March 4, 2014 at 9:54pm

I want to find out who is buying the RECs and how much that is increasing the elec bills and for whom. Also, the big bottleneck was supposed to be in Orrington and the energy could go no further. I read the Western Mtns. had issues also. There must be a master  plan for wind sprawls so the trans lines can be designed properly. The Gov should demand to see the complete scheme. This one project at a time is aimed to create the least resistance from the affected parties.

Comment by Long Islander on March 4, 2014 at 12:09pm

Wind Energy: The ‘Greenfellas’ Connection

http://www.energytribune.com/78768/wind-energy-the-greenfellas-conn...

Comment by Kathy Sherman on March 4, 2014 at 12:01pm

Martha,
Thanks for all that information. I will not be able to get back to you for a bit, but especially about transmission and FERC it is important that we share info across the region. The Massachusetts AG did intervene on behalf of ratepayers, and I gather their expert testified about congestion, but the MA DOER said that the more current ISO-NE March 2013 study says no congestion. I will ask Lisa about that. But it does seem that the utilities ans developers and the energy policy makers do not care if the electricity goes to where the load is, needs new transmission lines to get there, stays in Maine or goes up to Canada, as long as the company that distributes it (I think that's right, but on Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard we are in a pretty odd situation in that we have an aggregator for supply, so it is a 'public' entity, the new way to promote renewables started right here) buys the mandated amount. The CT regulators had no choice but to accept the contract with the one mega wind farm near Mars Hill. CT's AG Blumenthal is now US Senator. I don't think he would have been the one to get the new transmission for Maine Wind, but maybe for Canadian Hydro which CT wants to count towards their mandate and because it is hopefully cheaper, but he sure might have bad for it if NESCOE decides to parcel costs of new transmission according to the state that has the outrageous renewable mandate that requires it. It seems illegal to me that the utility regulators and attorney generals aren't allowed to do their job, which is to regulate rates to protect the ratepayer. I know many things require FERC approval but lately plans have been submitted that even the decision makers had not agreed on. And then every state is so different. I fear it is a heck of a mess.

About the Maine Mills, that was a different story that I will also respond to as I understand it soon.

Comment by Martha thacker on March 4, 2014 at 9:11am

Kathy...

When I first started trying to find out about wind farms in 2008 , I was unfamiliar with the internet and it took a long time for me to figure things out. I live right next door to Stetson I, sites were chosen by population..poor, elderly and uneducated. I do have some education,the rest is true for me..also  didn't know how to use  the computer. Forgive my repetition here..but I ran into a document online. US govt vs FERC. There was  hearing and the transcript stated there was  a bottleneck in Orrington. No power could go past there.No room on the grid for any more power stations. All the wind farms built has been done thru politics.Orrington  is the place that ME was going to start the "upgrades". There was a big push for other states to also build upgrades. Then Gov. of Conn. Blumenthal stated he wasn't having new transmission lines going thru his state for a few wind farms in upper state ME.Vt. pushed back.also NH. It isn't just ME that needs "upgrades" . If these monstrosities are built , they will be like the wind farms ..useless...without the other New England states. Power is lost for every mile of transmission..it can't be stored .. This is why only Mars Hill wind farm is producing..the power goes to Canada. They are right on the border. And the reason upper state ME is targeted as well as upper state NY, the power purchase agreements with foreign countries do not require power to be produced. I could not find the document on the hearing when I went back several years later.I did give it to two people however.... But in my search , I saw that MPUC was not even notified of this hearing..to file intervenor status. This is a federal problem and push, I believe because Stetson I and the subsequent wind farms should never have been built. The heist could not have been pulled off by ME, First Wind and Gov. Baldaci alone. At the time , 2008, there were articles coming out of windaction.org stating that power plants would have to be shut down to make room for wind energy. Lisa Linowes was very interested in this aspect . Two power plants were sold and Brookfield in Millinocket had to hire  team of lawyers. Lisa said they were concentrating on transmission. They were very secretive about it. The CEO would not answer the phone and I even stopped by to see her when I was in Millinocket. BUT they were the only power plant that did not have to sell. Didn't know they owned the mill. 

Some of my questions remain..are some of  the mills problems related in anyway to energy. Lincoln got a heavy fine  which has not helped them to stay open . The whole business smells of racketeering to me. And now with the transmission lines being built, us paying for them even though they are not needed, it is past time for a law suit.I have mentioned this before and it was suggested to me by a comment to do it myself..but it took me five years to figure out the internet. 

There is power in numbers , however. I still believe there are people in the DEP who do not like what they have to do. The head of it would not give into political pressure and say the noise levels at vinylhaven were within the law. He quit his job. I think he was fired. But ...I also don't  think that Gov. LePage had anything to do with his having to leave. It is  a federal problem. Just look at how Rep. Michaud is avoiding answering questions or learning about what is going on in his state.

I also don't believe that western ME is the only part of the state where the grid is at capacity. ..if the plan was to send power to south, they could have at least used mid and northern transmission lines that are already in place. The plan at the very beginning was to build under water cable lines from Wicassett to Boston. MPUC had doubts that Mainer would be willing to pay for that. The plan was to charge a little more and people in Mass would just love green energy..but first they had to change some laws. The people in Mass were not willing to pay extra anyway. These people are not as smart as you would think with so much power and money..but then First Wind bought out a lot of Enron's assets and got some executives along with it. They weren't too smart.

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