Powerline should not cut through central Maine farms
Good that there is opposition but my sense is that some of the folks opposing this line are early in the learning curve with respect to the complete useless energy source that is wind power on virtually every level. I'm not sure exactly why they feel a need to make statements lauding renewables while renewables are not just feckless and grossly expensive, but scarring the state of Maine in some of its most beautiful places. I sincerely hope they do not think that ceding ground in the incredibly solid case against renewables is going to influence the decision makers. Not only would the decision makers not care, but they would likely interpret this as weakness and there is nothing like weakness to embolden the ruthless.
August 8. 2023
Mark Guzzi is a vegetable grower at Peacemeal Farm in Dixmont. Jesse Haskell is a dairy farmer in Palermo.
About a month ago we, along with hundreds of other Mainers, received a letter informing us that our land would be impacted by a proposed transmission line project. The Aroostook Renewable Gateway project being developed by LS Power Grid Maine will deliver electricity from a new wind farm in Aroostook County to the New England power grid. The Northern Maine Renewable Energy Development Program, which created this project, calls for proposals that favor the use of existing right of ways and transmission corridors.
There are two alternative routes being proposed. Some sections follow existing corridors or may be appropriate for development, but we believe other sections will negatively impact the natural and working landscape of central Maine, especially where they cut through small farms and agricultural lands that form the backbone of central Maine’s local organic vegetable and dairy farming economy.
As farmers, we understand the importance of stable weather patterns and know the risk posed to agriculture as these patterns are being disrupted by climate change. To the extent this project will produce renewable energy, reduce CO2 emissions and benefit the citizens of Maine, we support it. But we do not support creating a new transmission corridor through beautiful and productive farmland that is a valuable community resource in many different ways.
This land produces vegetables for our local community and grass for dairy cows, beef and other livestock. It is also a workplace for the farmers and longtime local farmhands who have devoted their lives to farming the land. Young adults work here to learn about the business of farming, and teenagers get their first jobs while developing a work ethic and learning about agriculture. These fields also serve as wildlife habitats, open spaces where people connect with nature and enjoy the beautiful scenic vistas overlooking lakes, rivers, forests and mountains. All of this could be negatively affected by the construction of a new transmission corridor.
LS Power considered a number of factors that led them to select their proposed routes. However, there are other routes they could use that follow existing right of ways and transmission line corridors that will have a less negative impact on working farms and the agricultural landscape of Central Maine.
Read the full opinion piece at:
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2023/08/08/opinion/opinion-contribu...
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If anyone believes the wind power cost savings cited by King Pine developer Longroad (formerly First Wind), and the Maine PUC, we have several bridges we'd like to sell you. This is nothing but "Let's destroy Maine for Wall Street elites and stomp the faces of trusting Mainers."
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/skepticism-threatens-t...
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Comment by Willem Post on August 9, 2023 at 8:16am
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Maine farmers and fishermen will be so screwed to upend their livelihoods for space-gorging wind and solar systems.
Their highly subsidized, but still expensive, variable/intermittent output cannot be fed into the grid without a fleet of quick-reacting power plants to counteract to ups and downs and absences of their electricity output, on a less than minute-by-minute basis, 24/7/365, to meet electricity demand under all circumstances, even when the wind is not sufficiently blowing and the sun is not sufficiently shining. That adds at least 2 c/kWh to the cost of electricity
Another cost adder is the very large, expensive, expansion/augmentation of the electric grid, to connect the output of wind and solar from remote areas to the already existing high voltage grid, and they augmentation of the existing HV grid to take the additional loads. That adds at least 2 c/kWh to the cost of electricity
The only beneficiaries are the Wall Street coddled, multi millionaires, with guaranteed, lucrative tax shelters, for 20 to 25 years, who live not in Maine, but in the poshest places elsewhere, including Europe.
ORDINARY MAINERS WILL BE SO SCREWED, WHILE MAKING NO REDUCTION IN GLOBAL WARMING, EVEN BY 2050
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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