Shill Baby Shill - Typical Maine Wind Propaganda Enabling Theft From Ratepayers and Taxpayers

March 2, 2023

by Dana Connors

For nearly 30 years, I have had the privilege of serving as president of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. I've worked with thousands of Maine businesses and thousands of local industry leaders to improve prosperity for all Maine people. Our common goals have been to strengthen and grow our economy, to build enthusiasm for Maine entrepreneurship and ingenuity, to collaborate and problem-solve in overcoming challenges and to create opportunities for our young people, veterans and all Mainers to have good-paying jobs right here in the state they call home.

As I prepare to pass the torch, I want to highlight an incredible economic opportunity that uniquely combines all the goals we've advanced as business advocates: Maine-made offshore wind.

Offshore wind research and development in Maine started more than 15 years ago as a response to the critical challenges of climate change and overreliance on fossil fuels burdening Maine businesses and communities. Researchers at the University of Maine wanted to find a way to locally produce renewable energy that would preserve Maine's environment and protect Mainers from the volatile price spikes caused by dependence on heating oil and natural gas.

The result of UMaine's foresight and innovation is VolturnUS, patented floating offshore wind technology designed to be built in Maine by Maine workers. This Maine-made technology presents the opportunity of a century for Maine, and it's been guided by more than a decade of collaboration among a diverse group of stakeholders including environmental, labor and business groups; scientists, energy and marine experts, and local and state government officials. In my 30 years at the Maine Chamber, I've rarely seen as many different groups and interests come together in agreement on a policy or issue as much as they have united on Maine-made offshore wind.

The common thread in this broad, enthusiastic support for Maine-made offshore wind is a commitment to the state of Maine's responsible, science-based approach. Maine believes that offshore wind must coexist with all traditional ocean users, especially our iconic lobster and fishing communities. The Maine Research Array advances this purpose and vision. It's a small-scale, research-focused offshore wind initiative that optimizes economic and environmental benefits of offshore wind while protecting the ecosystem and heritage industries of the Gulf of Maine.

Using UMaine's patented VolturnUS floating offshore wind technology, the Maine Research Array will commercialize local innovation and put Maine at the forefront of a $1 trillion global industry. It will also cultivate a thriving new Maine manufacturing industry comparable to the shipbuilding and paper industries that put Maine in a position of prominence in the 19th and 20th centuries. Maine-made offshore wind is our answer for the 21st century.

The Maine Research Array is expected to bring more than $375 million in direct construction spending to Maine and generate more than $1 billion in economic activity for the state. It will create an estimated 3,250 direct, good-paying jobs for Maine people, as well as workforce training and apprenticeship programs to build our future workforce. The project will produce clean, renewable energy for nearly 100,000 Maine homes and businesses, and will remove more than 985 million pounds of harmful carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The large amounts of renewable power generated by the Maine Research Array will allow Maine to achieve its climate goals at the lowest cost - working with solar and onshore wind - and protect Maine people and businesses from the volatile price spikes of fossil fuels. These economic, energy and environmental benefits are monumental, and because of the state of Maine's prudent, science-based approach to offshore wind development, we can achieve all these benefits while minimizing potential impacts to the ecosystem and wildlife and maximizing coexistence with our vital fishing industry......................

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Commentary: Offshore wind is Maine’s opportunity of a century - Por...

Many voices weigh in on offshore wind plan

 
    • Feb 28, 2023 Updated Mar 1, 2023
 

TRENTON — Three days after Governor Janet Mills unveiled an offshore wind roadmap, a “comprehensive plan that offers detailed strategies” for offshore wind power in the Gulf of Maine, a handful of unconvinced citizens gathered at the Sustainable Maine Fishing Foundation Feb. 26 on Bar Harbor Road in Trenton.

The idea was to inform lobstermen and interested people on offshore wind development before a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) presentation that opens the Fishermen’s Forum March 2 in Rockport, board member Ginny Olsen said. Energy operations consultant George Stover of Freeport, who has worked in the state’s energy industry for decades, discussed the Maine power grid and its energy sources and why, to his mind, offshore wind power is not a good fit or needed here.

“If they continue down this road, it scares me,” he said.

He is not alone. The idea of floating offshore wind installations in the Gulf of Maine has raised fears and concerns from environmentalists and fishermen alike. When 11 endangered humpback whales washed up dead on the New Jersey and New York coast last month, many people connected what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) calls an “unusual mortality event” to underwater drilling to install wind turbines. But NOAA scientists hold that there is no evidence linking the whale deaths to noise and vibrations from the underwater construction.

And Maine lobstermen have been protesting offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine since the Mills administration rolled out plans early in 2021 for an offshore wind research array 2 miles south of Monhegan.

Lobsterman and legislator Rep. William “Billy Bob” Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) submitted a bill the same year to ban offshore wind energy along the coast. The bill never made it out of the Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology but a compromise was reached, with no other installation to be permitted in state waters. But the federal push for offshore wind energy is focused on Gulf of Maine federal waters.

“Everybody says you’re not going to stop [offshore wind development], it’s happening no matter what,” Faulkingham said at the Trenton meeting. Afterward, he told the Islander, “I just think there just needs to be a lot more education on this, and if people are looking at it objectively they’ll see that this is moving too fast.”

Faulkingham and Republican members of the Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology issued a statement Feb. 24 against the offshore wind roadmap, calling it “a blueprint for destroying Maine’s way of life by polluting the marine environment, endangering whales, harming the fishing industry, and increasing our electric bills.”

Gov. Mills has positioned offshore wind development as a big step toward meeting state climate goals of 80 percent of Maine electricity coming from renewable sources by 2030. A new bill currently in draft form stipulates 100 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by 2040.

And the White House is potentially partnering on offshore wind development in 11 states, including Maine. Last week, the Department of Interior announced the first proposed offshore wind sale of three lease areas in the Gulf of Mexico. Maine’s offshore wind roadmap includes a federal lease sale in the Gulf of Maine by the end of 2024.

“We are all in for wind energy, and floating offshore wind development is part of that,” Robert Golden, the White Houses’ senior advisor for clean energy infrastructure, said at a Feb. 22-23 offshore wind summit, where Mills gave a keynote address.

“The Gulf of Maine has some of the strongest wind speeds in the world,” Mills said, “representing a large source of potential energy for Maine and New England.”

But how strong is too strong? Wind turbines can withstand wind up to 55 mph before automatically shutting off, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. At the Trenton meeting, Stover said the shut-off wind speed was 25 mph. Speed depends on the length of the turbine blades, with longer blades snapping off at lower wind speeds, but the technology is advancing.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has been reaching out to Maine fishermen and fixed gear fishermen on offshore wind, with meetings held last month in Portland and online, where 111 people logged on.

Please read the full article here:

https://www.mdislander.com/news/maritime/many-voices-weigh-in-on-of...

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Comment by Willem Post on March 3, 2023 at 6:21pm

You mean Norway's offer was a bargain in comparison?

Comment by Dan McKay on March 3, 2023 at 2:28pm

With Dana Connors supporting offshore wind power that will launch Maine into the development of the most expensive electricity produced in the history of the state, who needs enemies. 

Aqua Ventus is so expensive, the PUC doesn't dare disclose their price offer in fear of looking like fools.

Comment by Willem Post on March 3, 2023 at 8:12am

The Dana Connery piece is a total shill, total bullshit, extremely expensive, even the rich Norwegians have shied away from floating wind turbines, because it is unaffordable, and they could not get any significant orders.

Connors would load that white elephant on top of the shoulders of already-struggling Mainers.

Enjoy your retirement

Take up a hobby, such as painting in the fresh air to clear your head of nonsense.

U.S. Sen Angus King

THE UNTOLD STORY OF RECORD HILL WIND

The Untold Story of Record Hill Wind, continued

 

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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