Gov Mills lifts LePage ban on new wind power permits in Maine

....................Mills’ order means that state agencies with the “legal authority to issue permits can once again do their work with Maine’s local communities and stakeholders to determine which projects should go forward,” according to a Friday prepared statement.

Groups with legal authority include the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the state’s Land Use Planning Commission and the Public Utilities Commission.

Her order will allow the state to “conduct a transparent vetting of all wind projects, onshore and offshore, to ensure they respect Maine communities and our environment while helping to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.”

Read the full article (which will be updated) at:

https://bangordailynews.com/2019/02/15/politics/mills-lifts-lepage-...

 

PPH - Mills signs executive order reversing LePage moratorium on wind energy

Voorhees said action on solar energy reforms, rejected by LePage, was also in the works. “Passage of the bill to repeal the anti-solar gross metering tax, which was just voted out of legislative committee this week, would be another positive step forward in regaining our energy independence by moving forward with home-grown clean energy projects,” Voorhees said in a statement issued by NRCM Friday.

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/02/15/mills-signs-executive-order-...

Mass wind turbine to sit idle before likely removal … but project was never bonded

IPSWICH — After sustaining damage from a fire last fall, the town’s second wind turbine is set to sit idle for the foreseeable future.

Or it may be taken down by the operator, town manager Tony Marino told the select board this week.

But the board also got unwelcome news when Marino told them the project was never bonded. This is a type of insurance developers take out to prevent municipalities paying for work associated with private projects.

http://www.windaction.org/posts/49435-wind-turbine-to-sit-idle-befo...

P.S. - why is it that none of Maine's major newspapers have ever reported on the fire that destroyed the University of Maine's onshore wind turbine? April 1, 2019 is the one year anniversary of the fire and there has been complete silence. Why is that?

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Comment by Willem Post on February 16, 2019 at 7:44pm

Mills is bending over backwards to give the pro wind folks what they want and then some.

All would be much less costly with gas fired, 60% efficient combined cycle gas turbine power plants.

The cost of electricity would be much less and the CO2 per kWh would be 1/4 that of wood, which is wasted in 25% efficient wood burning power plants.

Those wood burners have far more pollution/kW than clean burning, low cost, domestic gas

Comment by Dan McKay on February 16, 2019 at 10:37am

Part of settlement offer from CMP for the NECEC project :

" Once the NECEC receives all State of Maine permits and approvals, NECEC LLC will contribute $1,000,000 to Maine Prime Technologies LLC at the University of Maine to fund research and development activities associated with marine wind generation technology commercialization. "

Comment by Penny Gray on February 15, 2019 at 4:21pm

Not only was the UMPI turbine fire never reported, the media is still using shots of that turbine whirling away to promote how green and progressive Maine is.  I saw one of these shots on my mother's TV while downstate this past week.  Of course, the Kibby fire was kept pretty quiet, too.  Baffling and not at all transparent.

Comment by Willem Post on February 15, 2019 at 11:16am

WIND AND SOLAR SUBSIDIES WOULD PROVIDE A BONANZA FOR WALL STREET

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/partial-capital-cost-of...

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/nuclear-a-more-rational...

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/iso-ne-study-of-1600-mw...

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/synapse-study-of-new-en...

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/land-and-sea-area-for-v...

 

This URL shows wind and solar prices per kWh would be at least 45% to 55% higher without subsidies, and they would be even higher, if the costs of other items were properly allocated to the owners of wind and solar projects.

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/economics-of-tesla-powe...

 

This URL shows about 2/3 of the financial value of a wind project is due to direct and indirectsubsidies, and the other 1/3 is due to electricity sales.

http://johnrsweet.com/Personal/Wind/PDF/Schleede-BigMoney-20050414.pdf

 

An owner of a wind and solar project, looking to shelter taxable income from other businesses, is allowed to depreciate in 6 years almost the entire cost of a wind and solar project under the IRS scheme called Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System, MARCS; the normal period for other forms of utility depreciation is about 20 years.

 

Then, with help of Wall Street financial wizardry from financial tax shelter advisors, such as BNEF*, JPMorgan, etc., the owner sells the project to a new owner who is allowed to depreciate almost his entire cost all over again.

 

* BNEF is Bloomberg New Energy Finance, owned by former Mayor Bloomberg of New York.

 

The loss of tax revenues to federal and state governments due to MARCS is estimated by the IRS at $266 billion for the 5-y period of 2017 - 2021. This largesse is in addition to directfederal and state subsidies to such projects of about $25 billion per year.

 

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy17osti/68227.pdf

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/tax-equity-investors-b...

 

Warren Buffett quote: "I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire's tax rate," Buffet told an audience in Omaha, Nebraska recently. "For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit." 

 

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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