Maine PUC approves siting renewable power on contaminated farms
Maine Public | By Peter McGuire
Published July 23, 2024 at 5:13 PM EDT
Maine regulators have approved new rules advocates said could offer a financial lifeline to Maine farms contaminated with toxic chemicals.
Under a measure authorized by the Maine Public Utilities Commission, the state will open a competitive bidding process to develop nearly 600,000 megawatts of new clean power, equal to 5% of Maine retail electricity sales in 2021.
The process will prioritized proposed developments sited on agricultural land tainted by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. The industrial chemicals have long been used in a wide range of products but have been linked to human health problems including cancer, kidney malfunction and low birth weight.
More than 50 Maine farms have been found to have unsafe levels of PFAS in water and soil. Some farms have had to stop selling produce, milk, eggs and meat from their land.
The commission rule emerged from a law the Legislature passed last year.
Eliza Donoghue, executive director of the Maine Renewable Energy Association said the new rule could help those farmers with a new source of revenue while also moving the state towards its greenhouse gas emissions targets.
"We’ve heard of course that we need more renewable energy projects in order to meet our climate goals but also we know that there are many farmers in Maine who have been devastated with PFAS contamination and now have lands they cannot reap economic benefit from," Donoghue said.
Continue reading at https://www.mainepublic.org/environment-and-outdoors/2024-07-23/mai...
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Comment
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Comment by Dan McKay on July 24, 2024 at 5:30pm
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Can't imagine any solar panels from China would have PFAS in them?
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Comment by Penny Gray on July 24, 2024 at 10:38am
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So the state/fed gov is providing 70 mil to the "more than 50 farmers" whose lands were poisoned by the spreading of contaminated sewage "fertilizer" enthusiastically promoted by the state/fed gov, and now they've come up up new regs to allow these contaminated farmlands to be carpeted with silicone. Why am I not surprised?
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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