PPH : AROOSTOOK COUNTY , big ambition for big wind !
THE LITTERING OF NORTHERN MAINE IS ON ITS WAY ,,,, ITS PASTORAL CHARM ,QUIETUDE ,PRISTINE NIGHT SKY ARE BEING NEEDLESSLY SACRIFICED FOR THE RICHES OF A TINY HANDFUL AS THE CITIZENRY HAS BEEN SOLD A BILL OF GOODS .
JOHN BALDACCI AND BEFORE HIM ANGUS KING BROKE MAINE'S FISCAL COFFERS AND NOW WITH THEIR GRAND DESIGN OF LEGISLATION WHICH MANDATES WIND TURBINES , ACCOMPLISHED BY THE CREATION OF LD 2283 IN 2008 ...THEY ARE DESTROYING THE VERY ESSENCE OF MAINE..ITS LANDSCAPE, FUTILY HOPING TO HELP PAY FOR THE ESCALATING COST OF GOVERNMENT THEY FAILED TO CONTAIN AND IN THE CASE OF ANGUS KING HAVING TRIED TO ADD TO HIS PERSONAL RICHES .
YOU MAY EXPRESS YOUR OUTRAGE ABOUT THIS BY WRITING TO CURRENT GOVERNOR LEPAGE , WHO HAS INHERITED THIS DESPICABLE LAW BUT WHO HAS ALSO UNDERSTOOD THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS WIND POWER WILL HAVE ON THE COST OF PURCHASING ELECTRICITY IN MAINE AND ON ITS DEVASTATING EFFECT ON MAINE 'S BEAUTY AND CITIZENS.
http://www.pressherald.com/news/Big_county__big_ambitions_for_wind_...
By Tux Turkel tturkel@pressherald.com Staff Writer
E TOWNSHIP — Only 1,638 feet above sea level, Number Nine Mountain isn’t on any list of notable Maine peaks. Like adjacent Maple, Saddleback and Hedgehog mountains, Number Nine is a modest bump in the vast woodlands that stretch as far as the eye can see in this corner of central Aroostook County.
PLEASE READ ENTIRE ARTICLE ON LINK ABOVE
The Mars Hill wind farm, seen Wednesday, October 16, 2013, stretches the length of Mars Hill Mountain.
Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer
From the back steps of her father’s camp on Number Nine Lake in Township 9, Range 3, Diane Libby looks out over the landscape that she worries will be adversely affected by a $500 million wind turbine project – the largest in New England – proposed by EDP Renewables. At top, turbines populate the ridges of Mars Hill Mountain in eastern Aroostook County, where First Wind built a large-scale project in 2007.
Photos by Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer
Additional Photos Below
In autumn, the hills form a golden backdrop for tiny Number Nine Lake and the two dozen camps that ring its shores.
Over time, the 12-mile gravel road from Bridgewater to the lake has been widened for logging trucks. Electricity – which comes from nearby Canada because Aroostook County isn’t connected to the U.S. power grid – arrives on a single pole run.
This seems an unlikely place to build New England’s largest wind energy project. But this is where EDP Renewables, part of a global energy company, plans to erect a $500 million wind farm to generate power for consumers in Connecticut. The project, featuring 125 towers with blade tips that could reach 400 feet in the air, would be scattered for miles across the hills and have a capacity of 250 megawatts of power – enough to run 74,000 homes for a year.
EDP Renewables is not alone here. Twenty-five miles to the south, on wooded hills that surround the pasture and cropland of Oakfield, Boston-based First Wind is poised to start construction on a $400 million wind farm. The 50 turbines there will have the capacity to generate 150 megawatts, and fulfill contract agreements with utilities in Massachusetts
Views: 384
Comment
-
Comment by Kathy Sherman on November 2, 2013 at 8:31pm
-
Does anyone have decommissioning costs and/or precedent amounts fully bonded? How about independent thirty-party evaluation of the full-spectrum economics?
Decommissioning costs were evaluated for the two municipal turbines in Falmouth MA when options, including taking them down with or without relocation, were being evaluated. The costs were largely labor and shockingly similar to the costs for construction/installation. The costs of installation are largely unaccounted for in Massachusetts because the state agency (Mass Clean Energy Center, funded by a ratepayer surcharge collected since '98) offers a "design and construct" loan against the future generation of renewable energy certificates (valued at 4.5¢/kWh where we know of). These D&C loans are offered, unsecured, to private wind developers as well as the public entities like Falmouth.
Ultimately, Falmouth taxpayers did not chose to pony up to pay for the mistakes they voted for. MCEC was only willing to forgive part of the loan based on RECs if the turbines remained up and operational at least during the day, and the ARRA-funded turbine is considered a "loan" not a grant. So the turbines are curtailed from 9 PM to 5 AM, and the 54 homes impacted by excess flicker get no respite from it. The MCEC staff recommended partial forgiveness of the D&C loan only because these older model Vestas V82 turbines, which the preceding agency bought and stored, are not amenable to noise-reduced operation.
Not only was the scrap value very low, but the resale value intact or as parts was low even though the turbines were "barely" used and V82s are installed in quantity in facilities in eastern North America (where they seem to result in exceptionally frequent noise/health complaints (e.g., see Wm. Palmer's careful studies)). Municipalities seem to be exempt from posting decommissioning bonds and I do not believe Falmouth has calculated how much greater the costs will be 20 years from now for labor, carting the stuff away (transport) and waste storage, etc.
Massachusetts aims to be a zero-waste state and it is unlikely that the 134 ft. blades can be used in our waste-to-energy facility (can they be recycled?).
Falmouth's two turbines are not in remote regions and restoration of previous land use is not the issue it is for decommissioning large wind facilities on the Northeast's forested ridgelines.
I would like to know the costs in terms of dollars and carbon footprint, both, because I don't think that is included in any LCAs quoted by wind proponents. Are carbon costs of rare earth extraction (a lot Chinese human labor too) and refining; copper etc and transport from foreign lands included? Or are LCAs just for construction on flat farm- or range-land? Do they include the clear cutting, new roads, blasting, dealing with blasted material? I did not mean to digress, and I believe that many of the Falmouth neighbors would prefer to have the visual legacy only, rather than a 5 AM wake up call and daytime operation in often turbulent strong winds, and some would like quiet for their kids to do homework and hear bedtime stories before 9 PM. And the moral of that story is that a Town or County fooling itself is as bad, or worse, as its being fooled by an LLC. More and more, folks are waking up to questioning the outsiders, if large landowners and politicians had not already been bought first.
Nonetheless, there are a number of considerations that make wind energy far more costly in the northeast. Even for avian and wildlife impacts, the independent, transparent research that the NRC (and GAO) called for in 2007 as wind energy penetrated the mid-Atlantic states, has not been done there or in New England. The capacity factors are far lower than promised, the environmental damage far greater, the generation far costlier and many of the demands for new transmission, price timing and negative pricing all to accomodate the unpredictability of New England wind have only just
-
-
Response to Mike DiCenso
Nothing specific. Best to read and search the internet to find out the players. Who is financing how they are being financed. But having looked at this now for five years, you will see developers come and go. Companies have sold their rights, other companies will buy them out. I think many projects announce new partnership so it attracts investors. It looks solid on paper. Not in reality.
For our area, the developers (US Wind Force) were fronted the $$ to create the project. The developers did all the leg work, study, community public relations, lies, promises etc. Edison Mission Energy (EME), owned 5% their project on paper. It was reported by EME in their quarterly stock market reports required by SEC. EME created one shell company, LLC and into another LLC. At the end is a single LLC standing alone. For the roads, EME created a another company that would deal with road widen,hauling the units, posted a small bond, after the project was built, the roads torn apart, this LLC was dissolved. The state could not make a claim against LLC that EME created because it was gone. Reported to the SEC. After the road was constructed to move the unites to the project, the company was dissolved. NO longer
After PSC of WV approved the project, the developer sold their rights to EME. US Wind Force, LLC was dissolved. The same directors were back in business, a new company name.
Advice check company past records, read their history, how they respond to community, other states, SEC records, names of individuals that is representing a company or developer, legal actions, other projects built. Subscribe to the industries daily updates. Be creative in your Google Search.
NO project is perfect...the developers and operators leave a trail. We found EME covered up project where there was noise, TV interference, law suits, etc.
The real issue will be in 10-12 years. When the project maintenance is low, warranty contracts wear out, there will be less incentives to efficiently operate. Without adequate full decommission (not scrap value) bonded for the full amount (it will be millions of dollars per unit) to remove...these companies will not be responsible and not present. Look at California. If there was value to remove...it would have taken place. To this date, Edison Mission has never met with any elected officials in our county. EME did not want to appear to be the big corporation, let the small guys (developer) they can win the hearts and minds of the local people. We did ruin EME party, there was no ground breaking ribbon cutting ceremony for the project, unlike others EME projects.
-
-
AFA...do you have any more data on windsprawls going into bankruptcy? It would be nice to have a list to show people when these snakes roll into town with promises and their fingers crossed behind their backs.
-
-
The reporter needs to be checking the facts / tax policies. There are many promises $25 million dollars for 20 years.Who actually determines the tax structures? Has this been fact check by the State Tax / County / Local Board? Expect the state legislator to change the rules down the road for exemptions as the project starts to wear out.
A one time $600,000 grant promised to Oakfield 737 residents ( 325 households representing 215 families) Removed that US Corporate Welfare tax to subsidize these projects and they will leave town.
The reality is very different. Speaking from Allegheny Front Alliance experience Pinnacle Wind (an Edison Mission Energy Project) located in Mineral County, WV. Edison Mission is now in bankruptcy. EME declared that in December 2012, after they received $44 million dollars from the US Treasury in August 2012. This was for a 55 MW, 23 turbine unit. What the county will be receiving is their own tax dollars back they paid to the government. Over $500,000 taxes are owned to the county that have not been paid. Not likely to be paid while in bankruptcy. EME is seek a new company to purchase the project. What did we get, no jobs, bat / bird kills, noise, destroyed roads, a cultural and historical landscape destroyed, a project that lacks effective decommissioning and bonding.
The developers promised a $20,000 grant for the life of the project. Wow...Big money, divide , 5,000 residents that view this project daily. A project that is less than 3 miles from the center of town. A project that operates at less than 30%. 5,000 residents / $20,000 = $4.00 per person, or a slightly more than a penny per day. Wow at $4.00 a year, the entire community can have a McDonald's Happy Meal. After the second year, the Community Foundation, the developer established was dissolved. The developer dissolved the US Wind Force, and started a new LLC. Really great. No obligations, just promises.
-
Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain on October 27, 2013 at 1:27pm
-
This may be the most blatantly biased "candy coated outright incorrect reporting" to date from Mr. Turkel.
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/
Not yet a member?
Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?
We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
"It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up."
Vince Lombardi
Task Force membership is free. Please sign up today!
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/
© 2025 Created by Webmaster.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine to add comments!
Join Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine