Juliet Browne: Get to the local community leaders early on
“Any large scale development has groups that form to oppose them,” says Juliet Browne, attorney with Verrill Dana LLP. “Wind, in particular, has its own energized set of opponents. As a result, it is increasingly difficult to permit wind projects and other large scale developments.”
Browne has been practicing in the fields of energy and environmental law for more than 20 years and formerly served on the Governor’s Wind Power Task Force in Maine.
“For example, when looking to permit a First Wind project in Oakfield, Maine, the town was considering creating its own ordinance to regulate wind projects. First Wind and the town engaged in a series of public meetings. The town retained legal, engineering, and sound experts paid for by the developer, and there was a substantive dialogue on key issues including, most significantly, sound which had been a contentious issue.” At the conclusion of the process, the town adopted several recommendations that the developer voluntarily incorporated into its state application.
The whole article is here:
http://www.windpowerengineering.com/construction/projects/best-ways...
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Comment
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Comment by Paula D Kelso on October 29, 2016 at 6:42pm
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Eric, you're not getting the picture. We could get up a petition for the Town to endorse the Bill of Rights and we'd still be the bad guys and they'd find some way to make sure that we couldn't succeed with that. We are persona non grata, we are white trash, we are the deplorables.
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Comment by Eric A. Tuttle on October 29, 2016 at 6:14pm
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Actually, as citizens of the community, you may create an ordinance governing this whole assorted affair so long as it complies with the current statute and is updated as the statute changes. This may also be part of the ordinance. As to paying for copies, the law does NOT require them to produce records or copies that do not exist. Though you have a right to reproduce them using a camera if need be. A well drafted Ordinance can also create definitions as to what is reasonable time and how much to charge for a fee if copies are made and so on.
Sangerville has such a policy and is within the law of the state of Maine. However since they chose to use a policy method, the citizens were not compelled to enact an ordinance.
This like any other ordinance must follow process as prescribed by statute in that a petition, signatures, presentation to the board, and bypassing the board if they unreasonably refuse to place it on a ballot by using any Notary in Maine.
This is a minor step, for one issue, however it may become important to any citizen for another reason someday.
Yes it may take a lot of pushing toward achieving the goal, but It will not take many small victories to put forth a message that they are seated to work for the citizens needs and desires that are still allowed by law.
The state telling them to establish a FOAA policy meant for them to make it public as to what they COULD do and still get their other duties accomplished. It did NOT mean they could Avoid that responsibility and work at their leisure.
If push comes to shove, a legal challenge to the state supreme court even without a person being represented could cause them to have to defend themselves in court, costing the town some legal fees. As a citizen of a community questioning governance over their community, it is possible to recover court costs and legal expenses on behalf of complaining person. A Non-citizen probably not so.
Do not threaten.......... Promise...........
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Oh Eric, we've studied the foaa up down and sideways. Two or three years ago, the State started requiring towns to adopt their own foaa policies and procedures, so in it's draconian ways, our town managed to make it very hard for citizens to access information. For instance, previously all you had to do was go in the town office and ask to see the minutes book [well, even more previous under a more public oriented admin, the copies of the current year's minutes for the Boards were kept in a notebook on a shelf open to the public]. For the last few years with the selectmen's new foaa policy, you have to make out an foaa request to see the minutes. Actually, that's probably only if you were on the outs with the town over the wind shit. I'm sure the Pisgah partners don't have to jump the hoops we do. And you have to be careful to tell them what you will and what you won't pay for, cause they'll copy 100 pages and charge you for it. If that's what you need to do to see the minutes (as inadequate as they are) you can imagine what you have to do to find out more buried information. You scratch your head and wonder, devious or stupid? or both? I'm sure the State meant for it to be a more transparent process but all it did was to set up more roadblocks and your request goes in the foaa notebook, so everyone knows what you were looking for. And they plead too busy and always go the maximum time before giving you the info. And they ruled out audio recording of meetings as too hard to transcribe from and too much bother to keep. They only video taped a few meetings after we established the practice of doing so and posting on You Tube.
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http://www.maine.gov/foaa/faq/index.shtml provides the rundown
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The Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) is a state statute that is intended to open the government of Maine by guaranteeing access to the "public records" and "public proceedings" of state and local government bodies and agencies.
A state government agency or local government entity whose officer or employee commits a willful violation of the FOAA commits a civil violation for which a forfeiture of not more than $500 may be adjudged. 1 M.R.S. § 410 Under the current law, there are no criminal penalties for failure to comply with a request for public records. It is a Class D crime to intentionally remove, alter, or destroy documents belonging to a state office. 1 M.R.S. § 452
Start at http://www.maine.gov/foaa/ Paula
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Arthur, I understand your feeling. I would like to find a pro bono legal society that would take on the civil rights violations that were committed in our town. Due process being the most grievous. The Freedom of Information Act has been turned upside down, putting the onus on the person seeking information and the protection on the side of the town officials holding that information. It seems most people in this town now have decided to keep to themselves and not try to find out what is going on. They - we - are powerless in the face of the big money attorneys and the stone wall of the officials. Conceding defeat or living to fight another day? I don't know.
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In my humble opinion and based on first hand exposure to the likes of Juliot Hinck and her affiliated Wind Mafia operators in Maine, I would state that to prevent overt and covert intimidation and outright threats and personal attacks as well as property damage , that opponents seriously consider utilization of all of their Bill of Rights , including that of their Second Amendment rights in Maine.
These are not nice people, never forget that.
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Comment by Pineo Girl on October 29, 2016 at 10:32am
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Lie and bribe! Sound familiar?
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The key sentence for me:
You cannot win over every opponent, but you can implement measures to prevent them from derailing the project.See the photo I just posted to show the 'implementation measures' used here in Clifton to try to derail the project. Guess it worked cause I'm looking at turbines growing on the south side of the road every day now.
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Wind industry purchase of false sciences may have happened, but also the National Energy Research Lab, paid for by our tax dollars has a bunch of (lazy or stupid in my pages of the book) working for it. They, have instead of doing an independent study based on factual science with several studies to draw a conclusion, have relied on the Industry's reports which are often skewed by false or near close data. This is evident when they put a disclaimer on many of their documents related to specific issues such as wind, solar, hydro, thermal etc. Sometimes it is at the top of the document, sometimes hidden at the very last page of the document.
Like the FBI they are suppose to be working for the PEOPLE of this nation, not directed or lax in their duties in favor of an industry.
All Subsidies need to GO.......... ALL............ So market competition can return providing all citizens equal ability to create local jobs and economies rather than rely upon the government as a dependent of a Nanny State.
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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