Outstanding Comment Opportunity!!!
Pre-rulemaking Draft of Wind Energy Act Standards for Scenic Character, Shadow Flicker, Public Safety, Tangible Benefits, and Decommissioning
Comment deadline: August 8, 2016
The Department of Environmental Protection is seeking comments on a pre-rulemaking draft of a rule that will address certain standards in the Wind Energy Act which are not otherwise addressed in current rules. This will be a new rule, and the Department would like the benefit of input from the many experts and interested parties with knowledge of these issues prior to issuing a formal draft and commencing the rulemaking process later this year.
The draft rule will be pursuant to the rulemaking authority established in Public Law 2007, Chapter 661, Section E-2, and will address scenic character, shadow flicker, public safety, tangible benefits, and decommissioning. The draft rule will not address best practical mitigation measures, as this will be the subject of a future rulemaking pursuant to 35-A MRSA � 3459.
Comments must be received no later than 5:00 pm, Monday, August 8, 2016.
Please send comments in writing to Mark Margerum at:
Email: mark.t.margerum@maine.gov
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
17 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0017
Phone: 207-287-7842
Fax: 207-287-7191
Views: 279
Comment
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Comment by Kathy Sherman on July 15, 2016 at 1:14am
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Arthur, dBC is not infrasound nor is even dBG which cuts above blade pass rate and the many harmonics. I am not saying low frequency as measured by dBC is irrelevant. But not IFN guidelines. And maybe what Maine citizens petitioned would have been OK if actually enforced.
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Mr. Daley your letter has to resonate with any one who loves Maine. You highlighted the most salient points against the policies that have allowed this devastation. How any person can any longer defend bringing more of this destruction to our Maine environment and Maine people is unbelievable. This has got to stop now, no more. Thank you for your letter.
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Comment by Hart Daley on July 14, 2016 at 9:37pm
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Here is my comment submitted to Mark Margerum; DEP.
My name is Hart Daley and I am a 5th generation resident of Dixfield, Maine which is nestled in the beautiful western mountains.
Residents live in our state and tourists travel to our state to soak up the vast wilderness and experience the ever vanishing natural beauty that our state has to offer. I believe DEP's rules governing industrial wind project siting were initially created for remote areas, not for rural areas with concentrations of people, and are far too lenient. They MUST be changed to protect these people’s rights, health and safety and to protect what remains of our beautiful state.
This massive expansion (and now saturation) of wind projects across our state is threatening our most precious industry…..tourism. Who is going to want to come and hike the Appalachian trail, climb or ski our mountains, camp, hunt, fish, snowmobile, ATV or view our foliage when all you will see in any direction are 500' foot tall industrial wind turbines and bright flashing red lights in the night sky? This will have a catastrophic impact on our tourism industry.
Maine is one of a very few places left that can offer this unspoiled beauty but it is disappearing before our eyes. These projects require the destruction of hundreds of acres of pristine wilderness to accommodate the turbines and the associated miles of expensive transmission lines crisscrossing our ridges. Their massive unnecessary footprint, horribly disfigures our landscape, destroys essential wildlife habitat, and threatens migrating bird species and endangered bats.
Currently, from Colonel Mountain behind my house, if you look North you see the Saddleback Ridge project in Carthage (12 turbines). If you look West you see the Record Wind project in Roxbury (22 turbines). If you look South you see the Spruce Mountain project in Woodstock (10 turbines). Soon, if you look East you will see the Canton Mountain project (8 turbines), which has already been permitted for construction. There is a proposed project in Milton Plantation as well as a MET tower erected on the South side of the Record Wind project in Roxbury where more turbines are being contemplated.
(This will result in OVER 60+ / 500' foot tall turbines and flashing red lights in our small area) Currently Patriot Renewables is pursuing a project in Dixfield of (6-7 turbines). ALL of these projects are within a very small (13) mile view shed and can be seen from the Appalachian trail, Tumbledown Mountain, Mount Blue State Park, Webb Lake (Weld), Wilson Lake (Wilton) and Forest Pond (Canton) and all of our local ski resorts. Roxbury Pond’s view has been destroyed. Forest Pond’s view will be destroyed. This obviously creates a negative “cumulative impact” due to the concentrated saturation of a very small area. This small area of the Western Mountains of Maine has reached a critical saturation point but this does NOT meet the standards being followed by the DEP. This MUST change. People’s lives are being ruined, their retirement dreams are being crushed, their quality of life is being destroyed, their property values and marketability of homes is diminishing and they will continue to be burdened with ever increasing energy costs. The very fabric of quintessential Maine communities is being destroyed as neighbor is pitted against neighbor due to the wind industries financial influence over landowners and small town government.
I implore you, as a representative of the Maine DEP, to do everything within your authority to end this senseless destruction of the scenic beauty of the great State of Maine and salvage what remains of our priceless natural resources by addressing the negative scenic impact, cumulative destruction, and industrial blight on our most cherished resource, our wilderness, and addressing the protection of the health , safety and quality of life of our citizens!
Thank you again for your time and hard work for the people of Maine.
Respectfully,
Hart Daley
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I've probably said this before but if you put your back to the wind towers on Record Hill in Roxbury and look to the west, the folks in New Hampshire will be looking back at you. Likewise if you drive Route 2 toward Dixfield you see how they ruined Saddleback Ridge, then driving back up Rt 17 you see the ruins of Record Hill Ridge. Comments to the DEP is an excellent idea -- Death by a thousand cuts, rather than the pursuit of repeal of the Expedited Wind law itself. D.G. Gray
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Comment by Long Islander on July 14, 2016 at 1:34pm
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The current law, Baldacci's heinous expedited wind law, looks through the wrong end of the telescope. The views OF places like Katahdin are far more used (annual person hours) than the views FROM places like Katahdin. Put a turbine in Katahdin's shadows and it blocks the view of Katahdin, even though majestic Katahdin is well beyond eight or even 15 miles. The folks in these communities have their lives invested in the view of the mountain. The people atop the mountain have only invested a few hours of exertion. You can't see the mountain from the mountain top. An industrial wind development is totally dominant in the foreground, destroying billion dollar views. That the windustry and its hacks always look FROM the mountain simply reflects the fact they wrote the law. At a minimum, the rules cannot remain summit-centric.
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Please folks,institute DbC infrasound siting requirements as per Kamperman James research on proper siting for noise,circa 2008 research. Present noise standards are a farce for turbine noise an public health.
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So far I'm liking it. Of course, I want more but everyone let's let the DEP know they're going in the right direction and give them some more suggestions.
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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