Unity College Prof: Aroostook Renewable Gateway will be bad for people and the planet

Nice to see someone from Unity Environmental University (formerly Unity College) recognize the vile malignancy that is wind power transmission, (and hopefully/literally by extension, wind power) when one considers that the university advertises itself as a route to getting jobs in the wind industry. https://unity.edu/careers/is-energy-good-career/

I resist the temptation to disparage any possible appearance of hypocrisy or nimbyism that may be at play here. Why is "Not In My Backyard" a problem? If one doesn't defend their own backyard, who will?

Perhaps Mr. Kercsmar, a historian, would like to study some of the history of Maine's renewables goals. There is quite a bit of such history on this website, almost 14 years of it.

Good luck in your fight Mr. Kerscmar. We'd like to see you stop this horrendous project which is a truly bad deal on numerous levels.

Joshua Abram Kercsmar is a historian who studies slavery, capitalism and human-animal relationships in early America. He teaches at Unity Environmental University.

BY JOSHUA ABRAM KERCSMAR SPECIAL TO THE PRESS HERALD

A few weeks ago, we received a plain-looking parcel that looked like junk mail. But we opened it anyway. Inside was a letter informing us that LS Power Grid Maine, a private investment firm based in New York, was planning to run a massive 345-kilovolt transmission line a few hundred feet behind our newly built home, obliterating the field and woods in which we work, walk and educate our two home-schooled kids.

The proposed power lines would form part of the Aroostook Renewable Gateway, a 1,200-megawatt corridor that begins at King Pine Wind (scheduled to be built by Longroad Energy in Aroostook), then carves its way through 140 to 160 miles of privately owned farms and woods before terminating at Coopers Mills and tying into the ISO New England energy grid.

LS Power Grid, which has yet to show the Maine Public Utilities Commission an actual route, has touted the project as a major investment that will “support … Maine’s renewable energy and emissions reductions goals.” Despite not knowing what the route will be, Gov. Mills has said “yes” to the project, and the Maine Legislature has given it bipartisan approval.

But like many large-scale projects that states have undertaken – notably for our state, Central Maine Power’s transmission corridor, which will supposedly usher in all sorts of environmental and economic benefits – things that look good on paper aren’t always good for people or the planet.

Take, for example, LS Power Grid’s proposed path through Unity, about 70% of which (18.9 out of 26.1 square miles) the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has designated as an area of special ecological importance. As currently planned, the route runs through two homes that the firm did not know were there, as well as numerous planned building projects that would benefit families and the local economy; 0.6 miles of protected aquifer district; 1.4 miles of conserved land at the Unity Agricultural Center, where at-risk youth learn biodynamic farming skills; the hills of Overland Farm, where great, shaggy Highland cattle spend their lives before feeding locals in the form of beef; almost half a mile of endangered and threatened species habitat within the Sandy Stream watershed, and 2.3 miles of deer wintering area.

It also bisects Amish fields north of Route 139. What are the ethical implications of running a 345-kV system through a community that doesn’t use electricity?

Indeed, what are the environmental implications of carving 150-foot easements through ecologically sensitive places? Of maintaining corridors, as utility companies often do, by spraying herbicides that leach into the ground, poisoning the soil and threatening farmers’ livelihoods? Of core-drilling 10 feet to 20 feet through ledge, creating pathways for PFAS to enter aquifers and contaminate more wells? Of fragmenting pristine woods and farmland?

Continue reading at:

https://www.pressherald.com/2023/08/11/maine-voices-aroostook-renew...

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