Phil Conkling: Timber, Coal, Oil, and Wind (Downeast Magazine)
From our July 2023 issue
...............Now, along comes wind — in particular, the effort to bring “big wind” to the Gulf of Maine, with arrays proposed for 40 or more miles offshore, where the winds are highest and most sustained. After two privileged years occupying this Room With a View, I will be winding down my tenure next month, and my final column will consider what wind power may mean for the view from my room — and some of the trade-offs Mainers will need to weigh. In 2009, Maine set a goal of installing 5,000 megawatts of wind power in the Gulf of Maine by 2030. To date, not a single watt has been sited offshore. The governor has proposed a research array, with a dozen or so large floating turbines, anchored with long cables to the seabed. Having consulted on similar demonstration projects, I’ve had a chance to hear a range of reactions. It’s the kind of large-scale undertaking on which meeting the state’s emissions goals depends — and which plenty of Mainers oppose. If Maine’s energy history shows us anything, it is this: transitions are usually wrenching.
Read the full article at:
https://downeast.com/land-wildlife/timber-coal-oil-and-wind/
Also see:
Conkling's OP-ed in BDN
Phil Conkling: Governor LePage elevates wind NIMBY-ism into a state...
Mike DiCenso in BDN: A Need for Empirical Data on Wind
Ragged Mountain could get three to 7 turbines if Camden, other town...
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Comment
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Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain on July 22, 2023 at 11:38am
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Similarly:
Here is a simple question about EVs that deserves an answer: Why is it that they were replaced – by the free market – the first time around?
https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2023/07/21/an-ev-question-that-ough...
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Comment by Dan McKay on July 22, 2023 at 6:37am
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Wind is the first transition of the energy sector that moves everything backwards. Conkling missed including the wind era in his chronological list of improving energy resources. Wind was replaced with better energy producing, earthly resources many decades ago.
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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