Rep. Larry Dunphy: Adding more large-scale hydro would lower bills

Another View: Adding more large-scale hydro would lower bills in Maine

The Press Herald's July 23 editorial, "Our View: Maine can have both hydro and wind power," criticizes the governor's effort to expand hydroelectric resources and states that Maine should be supportive of both hydroelectric and wind. Ironically, that has been the policy of the administration: encourage the development of all renewables, not just wind.

Instead, state policies inherited by the governor discriminate against large hydroelectric resources by making this power source ineligible to comply with our renewable portfolio standard.

Moreover, the governor has supported the development of wind when it has local support and when this comparatively expensive electricity source is exported to other states and not borne by Mainers.

Finally, what is lost in the editorial is the fact that bringing additional competition through a partnership with Canada inherently drives prices down. Are the Canadians going to provide a free lunch? Of course not, but building interconnections with a neighbor with tremendous clean energy can supply us with a stable, low-carbon energy supply that will insulate us from the energy prices that the editorial points out are driving prices higher in New England.

Just recently, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island have all joined in Gov. LePage's vision for a better partnership for large-scale hydro. The Portland Press Herald should reassess its opposition to expanding a large-scale hydro partnership and join in this vision of cross-border collaboration to lower greenhouse-gas emissions and provide stable pricing to Maine families and businesses.

Rep. Larry Dunphy, R-Embden, is a member of the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee.

http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/adding-more-large-scale-hydro-wo...

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Comment by Mike DiCenso on July 29, 2013 at 11:07am

60 minutes had a story about a 14 year old kid who built a nuclear reactor in his parents garage. He is self taught and has decided to skip college and go directly to work designing and consulting for nuke interests. He states what I have been saying all along. The NEW NUKE designs are very different from designs of half a century ago. (3 Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukoshima) He wants to and probably has by now, design fail safe reactors which are impossible to melt down. They simply shut off automatically. Let's look at other sources and not throw all our eggs in the wind basket when the impacts are so excessive and the tiny amounts of energy are so expensive.

 

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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