Maine lawmakers want to restore rights to residents in wind tower zones (Naomi Schalit & John Christie)
Lawmakers want to restore rights to residents in wind tower zones
A legislative committee Thursday sided with residents in some of the state’s western mountain communities in their fight to have more say over the construction of industrial wind towers in their backyards. If the full legislature approves the bill, it would be the first significant blow to the state’s ambitious Wind Energy Act.
Naomi Schalit
Legislators on the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee discussing LD 616 during a break in a work session on June 4, 2013
Residents in townships and plantations such as Concord, Lexington and Highland have complained that the Act took away some of their rights to oppose the towers, which they said ruined the beauty and serenity of their communities.
“I think it’s a positive step,” said Alan Michka, a resident of Lexington Township and head of a group of citizens from the area. “It can only be better than what we have right now.”
The legislation approved by the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee mandates that the state’s Land Use Planning Commission establish a process to allow those communities and dozens of others to once again have a say in the rezoning that was required for wind tower construction.
They lost that right when the Wind Energy Act of 2008 put them in the so-called “expedited permitting area,” where wind development was fast-tracked.
Please read the rest here:
http://pinetreewatchdog.org/lawmakers-want-to-restore-rights-to-res...
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Comment
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Comment by Whetstone_Willy on June 7, 2013 at 7:03pm
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Wet-behind-the-ears Wind lobbyist Jeremy Payne keeps chanting how business requires "certainty". Geez, I always thought good businessmen thrived during conditions of uncertainty. What Payne is talking about is not business but rather "rent-seeking". What he means by "certainty" should go by its real name "the fix is in" or "the game is rigged". Rigged against the citizen. And the reason it's rigged as such is the wind industry and their whoring enviro-group sock puppets wrote the expedited wind law and the legislature at the time of passage never even looked at it. Let's hope this step in the right direction is the beginning of a return to sanity.
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Comment by Karen Bessey Pease on June 7, 2013 at 6:53pm
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It is important to note that 9 members of the EUT Commitee--members from BOTH parties-- voted in favor of the 'Russell Amendment'. This amendment not only charges LUPC with creating a mechanism for communities in the Unorganized Territories to be removed from the EPA, but it also has a 'safe harbor' clause for those 5 communities which wrote and brought forward the bill, LD616. Thanks are due to those nine brave souls who voted for citizens' rights over corporate interests and in spite of enormous pressure from the wind lobby and its supporters, like the NRCM. Despite the wind industry's attempt to paint LD616 as an 'anti-wind' bill, these Legislators 'got it'. LD616 is about 'rights'. Equal rights. Period. Thank goodness (and thank THEM).. they got it.
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Comment by Penny Gray on June 7, 2013 at 5:14pm
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This is a big step in the right direction. Let's hope the full legislature supports equal rights for all Maine residents!
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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