Maine lawmakers will consider banning eminent domain for Aroostook wind project
by Billy Kobin
November 16, 2023
EXCERPTS
AUGUSTA, Maine — Top Maine lawmakers agreed Thursday to advance a bill to the 2024 session that would prohibit the use of eminent domain to build a controversial transmission line between Aroostook County and the Augusta area.
The 10-member Legislative Council initially did not approve the proposal from Sen. Chip Curry, D-Belfast, while voting last week on 283 bill requests for 2024. However, the panel returned on Thursday to hear appeals from lawmakers who sponsored measures that were rejected, voting 9-1 to advance the bill pertaining to the Aroostook Renewable Gateway project.
That vote was an indication that the politics around the proposal could be shifting after protests in affected communities over the summer. Both Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, and Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, were early backers of the plan. Jackson voted to consider the eminent domain ban, while Stewart opposed doing so.
The $2.8 billion project would link a new Aroostook County wind farm with up to 179 turbines to the regional power grid. The more controversial element is a transmission line that would run between 140 to 160 miles long between Glenwood Plantation and Windsor.
Supporters argue the King Pine Wind project from developer Longroad Energy is a vital energy and economic development project for the region. The power would come from the largest land-based wind farm east of the Mississippi River and produce 3.18 billion kilowatt-hours per year, enough to power up to 450,000 homes.
After the Legislature and Gov. Janet Mills initially approved the project this summer, several towns, residents and farmers have argued it would encroach on private property and have railed against lawmakers for approving the line before developers shared its potential route.....................
......................The Legislative Council declined to advance other bills relating to the transmission line, including one from Assistant Senate Minority Leader Lisa Keim, R-Dixfield, that would require lawmakers approve any increased costs to ratepayers resulting from the northern Maine project.
The full article can be read at https://www.bangordailynews.com/2023/11/16/politics/maine-lawmakers...
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Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain on November 18, 2023 at 3:18pm
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Trying not to offend the average, often well-intentioned Democrat voter, but please recognize that party leadership is these days doing one thing after the other to eviscerate America. It is very clear to me that they are compromised and working for globalists and Communists. Do you want to keep going down the road to serfdom? Do you think totalitarianism is good for you? You haven't seen anything yet. Please use your vote responsibly and evict these criminal betrayers from power.
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Comment by Stephen Littlefield on November 18, 2023 at 12:36pm
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Time to bring this 'fake' energy production to an end. It will never produce enough energy to cover the amount of energy it takes to make these wind turbines. and where are they built? In China like most? Do we really want to finance China more than we already do?
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Comment by Dan McKay on November 18, 2023 at 5:21am
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Land in Maine is currently being used to accommodate over 1000 megawatts of nameplate capacity wind, most of it going to keep Southern New England "Green". This project would add 1000 megawatts plus which would mean Maine land-based wind nameplate capacity would exceed Maine's total electrical requirements and drive down and drive out production from reliable generators in Maine. The interpretation of sustainability would be our livelihoods without dependable electricity.
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There is no question that this project should never be able to take land by eminent domain, so the question becomes, are Maine people willing to pay up the ass to acquire land to enable a project that will cost over $2,8 Billion dollars, raise electric rates and drastically imperil reliability of the grid?
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Maine must stop kowtowing to Massachusetts, we are a sovereign state with better things to do than enable Massachusetts to ruin our lands for no good wind and solar developments
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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