Some say proposed wind farms would yield too little power to justify the harm they would cause.

by John Richardson, staff writer

Portland Press Herald news story

There’s no doubt that Mainers want more windmills.

A poll of 400 Maine voters last May found 85 percent favored the development of wind power in Maine, according to the Portland-based Pan Atlantic SMS Group. The poll had a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.

You wouldn’t know it, however, from the debate that gets whipped up nearly every time a wind farm is proposed here. While the projects are pitched as a step toward energy independence and slowing global warming, opponents answer back that the turbines, roads and transmission equipment would do too much harm.

It’s a struggle between global benefits and local costs and between competing environmental priorities. It’s also one that will culminate around the state over the coming weeks.

A public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday on the proposed Black Nubble wind farm near Sugarloaf, a plan that has divided the state’s largest environmental groups. Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission will hold another hearing Oct. 2 and 3 on a proposed Kibby Mountain wind farm, also in Franklin County. The commission is expected to issue its decision on a third project, on Stetson Mountain in Washington County, this fall.

Developers are exploring other projects, including putting turbines in Aroostook County potato fields. Former Gov. Angus King and a partner are eying a ridgeline in Roxbury and Byron in Oxford County.

Wind energy is the fastest-growing energy sector in the United States and the world, with capacity expanding at a rate of about 25 percent a year.

Maine has the strongest and steadiest winds of all New England states, and is one of the top 20 states in terms of wind potential nationwide, according to the industry. It already is home to New England’s first large-scale modern wind farm — 28 turbines lined up along the sloping ridge of Mars Hill in Aroostook County.

Advocates say Maine ultimately could generate 10 percent or more of its energy from the wind, but that won’t be easy, judging by the opposition to specific proposals here.

A study completed this year by the National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences, found conflicts like those in Maine are widespread because of a fundamental reality of wind power. The environmental costs — visual impacts, noise, landscape and wildlife disturbances — are primarily felt by those near the wind farm. The benefits, however — reduced global warming emissions and other air pollution, less dependence on foreign oil and less mining and drilling — are felt more on the global scale.

“Benefits and (costs) don’t necessarily affect the same people,” said David Policansky, who directed the study. “If you talk to a national representative of an environmental organization, it’s quite likely that person will be in favor. Whereas, when you talk to a local representative, it is more likely that person will be opposed to some local project.”

It’s a dynamic that is clearly playing out in Maine.

“Essentially, the benefits go to other states, where we now have to put up with all these wind developments on our landscape,” said Stephen Clark of Shapleigh, an opponent of the 18-turbine Black Nubble project near Sugarloaf. “I don’t see that Maine people are going to get that much out of it.”

Clark leads the wind power committee of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club, which opposes the wind farm because the 400-foot- tall towers would spoil views from one of the most pristine sections of the trail.

“They’ll be visible from points all the way from Bigelow to Saddleback. That’s about 30 miles. At every outlook, you’ll have those in your face,” Clark said.

Other opponents of Black Nubble, including Maine Audubon, are more focused on preserving rare wildlife habitat atop Black Nubble. The mountain’s peak is above 3,500 feet in elevation.

“There are much larger projects that will produce more power that w