Huge FIRST WIND wind turbine parts travel through Vermont
Jeffersonville, Vermont - March 16, 2011
From a distance it could be mistaken for a milk truck. But its 220,000 lb. load is actually part of a wind turbine from Maine bound for Utah.
In October the state issued a 6 month permit to a North Dakota transportation company called E.W. Wylie, allowing it to truck 85 loads across the state.
"We just try to keep people moving around them as best we can," Caledonia County Sheriff's Deputy Steven Hartwell said.
E.W. Wylie pays the Caledonia County Sheriff's Department to escort its trucks and the state gets $35 per load. A paltry sum given the headaches, says DMV Commissioner Robert Ide.
"It's been a real problem for us because we would say the carrier has been somewhat careless in their driving and they have damaged some equipment along the way," Ide said.
The turbines cross into Vermont from New Hampshire on Interstate 93, follow 91 to St. Johnsbury, Rt. 2 through Danville, Rt. 15 to Essex, south to 2A where they picks up 89 and exit on 189 south. From there they head down Rt. 7 to 22A in Vergennes, finally in Fair Haven they merge onto Rt. 4 and exit Vermont.
"That's where New York will allow them to enter New York State," Ide said.
Oversized load is an understatement. Massachusetts said no to these turbine truck loads. Their height exceeds what's allowed on the Mass Pike. Engineers deemed Vermont the next best alternative. But to protect our roads strict travel rules were established. The trucks can only travel during the day-- not on weekends, during rush hour or in inclement weather. But the restrictions couldn't prevent one turbine from striking a railroad bridge in Vergennes and two others from getting stuck on an exit ramp.
"They are gigantic super loads. I mean there are going to be issues," Hartwell said.
Sixty-one loads have made the nearly 200-mile trek across the state. Now E.W. Wylie says it needs more time. Bad weather held the company up. The DMV granted a 6-month permit extension but required the company post a half million dollar bond to pay municipalities and the state for damage done. Commissioner Ide has one end goal in mind: "That we get the 85th load out of this state and that we say sayonara to this company from North Dakota."
But that farewell could still take months given Vermont's unpredictable weather.
Jennifer Reading - WCAX News
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  use less These turbines components belong to First Wind/UPC the developer of the proposed Sheffield, Vt project. The blades proposed for Sheffield are 158 ft long. First Wind has received over $254 million in federal gov't grants in the past 18 months. Why is the bankrupt state of VT letting them damage bridges and probably the road itself, for a measly $35 per load?? Why are they asking for only a $500,000 bond? First Wind couldn't care less about the environment. And they don't care about costs because the US taxpayers are paying. Use Less |
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=14265930
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Comment
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Comment by alice mckay barnett on March 20, 2011 at 9:09am
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see them guys? way too big for the horizon line. New Englands beauty is being nullified by industrial wind. Our stimulis dollars gone overseas to buy these things. They make 12% of the capacity touted. Now Wind industry will tout these jobs?? they created by transporting across america. Good Jobs???
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Comment by Brad Blake on March 19, 2011 at 11:49am
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I posted this on the TV station,s website:
This report should have come out a lot earlier, not two thirds of the way through. VT is letting their roads be destroyed by these loads even as roads get their traditional postings for heavy loads. What a travesty. Vermonters better get used to these swarming all over your beautiful state as the thieves who develop sprawling industrial wind sites are stopped. Just take a look at the environmental destruction at Sheffield for unpredictable, unreliable power source that wouldn't exist without heavy taxpayer subsidies, the ability to rake in millions from selling REC's (a hidden tax), and preferential treatment. These components were originally scheduled for Oakfield, Maine but the Utah project is underway while Oakfield is being appealed to the Maine Supreme Court. Meanwhile, in Oakfield, First Wind has re-configured the turbine array to reduce the number but install larger ones, which made these turbines traveling through VT surplus inventory. Northern New England will ruin its scenic beauty and charm by blasting away its mountains for this folly.
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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