This Must NOT Be the Future of the Appalachian Trail in Maine!

IS THIS VISTA FROM THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL

ON BALDPATE THE FUTURE???

 

 

I was privileged over several years time when I was much younger to hike the entire length of the Appalachian Trail in Maine, from Carlo Col on the Maine/NH border to Baxter Peak on iconic Mt. Katahdin.  It was with great interest to me, now that health challenges keep me from climbing to these magnificent summits, to see the Maine Appalachian Trail Club was having a photo contest commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the completion of the AT in Maine.  Many photos brought back fond memories--I vividly remembered those vistas!  Then I came to this photo.  Posted by Alex Sherbrook, with the comment "Some of the realities of a changing landscape.."

This is the view from 3812 ft. Baldpate, East Peak.  Looking to the East across gorgeous Roxbury Pond, toward Mt. Blue.  These are the 459 ft. tall wind turbines of Angus King/Independence Wind's Record Hill project.  The project that produced only 22.57% capacity factor in the 2nd quarter of this year.  The project that King manipulated the Federal government into providing $102 million loan guarantee and with that miserable output, the taxpayers may indeed end up paying for it.

There is a real problem with people like Alex having such acceptance with a statement like "Some of the realities of a changing landscape.."  Alex, this is a scam.  Do NOT accept this as a reality.  Do NOT allow the landscape to be changed in this way.  Record Hill, Flathead Mt., and Partridge have been blasted, leveled, and scalped to put in turbines that are out of place in the Maine mountains.  See the photos of Record Hill Wind at this link:  https://picasaweb.google.com/101554457531034815464/RecordHillWindPr...

The Maine Appalachian Trail Club, Appalachian Mountain Club, Maine Audubon, Natural Resources Council of Maine, and the Maine Nature Conservancy chapter are the lead environmental groups that should be opposed to destroying Maine's mountains for the folly of wind.  But several accept donations from wind developers and their cronies.  Example:  on Maine Audubon's website, they list First Wind as an "Eagle" donor!  NRCM has their "Clean Energy" project that promotes wind power, testifying on behalf of the industry. 

But what about the two organizations that promote and provide stewardship to the Appalachian Trail?  Should they not be protecting the grand vistas and subtler views from our uniquely beautiful mountains from the blight of wind power sites?  Do people who hike long distances through the forests to earn those views deserve views of wind turbines instead?  Do they not realize that the line of turbines seen in this photo could some day be lining every ridge parallel to the AT from NH to Katahdin?  Do they kowtow to the political correctness of "being green" to passively accept wind turbines rather than staking out boldly their self interest in preserving the integrity of the AT experience through Maine?

To it's credit, MATC opposed the Highlands Wind project and the ill-conceived Redington-Black Nubble project.  If you hunt enough on their website, you will find their policy statement regarding wind.  Link:  http://matc.org/Documents/Windpower%20Policy%20MATC%20Final.pdf  Carefully crafted to not oppose wind power development, "MATC recognizes the need to develop wind power as a renewable energy source" but to advocate "Careful siting of wind energy facilities."  There was some thought put into this document, but it doesn't go far enough.  It hasn't stopped Record Hill or Spruce Mt projects, which are clearly viewed from the AT.  MATC is not actively opposing wind project proposals for places like Bingham and Moscow and not being proactive to oppose projects that may be built within a scant few miles of the borders of Baxter Park.  Nor does the MATC fight for other threatened areas like Tumbledown or Mt. Blue.  The organization was nowhere to be found when bills were presented to the Legislature to amend the heinous "Wind Law", LD 2283.  To me, MATC needs to educate and energize its membership regarding the single biggest threat to the AT in Maine.  They need to boldly state that no wind turbines are acceptable within an AT vista.

Regarding the AMC, here is a quote from their energy policy "human actions are accelerating the rate of climate change, and this change poses a serious risk to society and the region's ecosystems. AMC recognizes that wind power and other renewable energy sources must have a substantive role in reducing greenhouse gas and air pollution emissions in our region."   They are more about climate change and promoting wind power than protecting the incredible resource.  Shame on them!

If you know someone who is a member of MATC or AMC, get them the facts about the wind power scam and fire them up to advocate within those organizations for strong opposition to the proliferation of industrial wind turbines in Maine.

 

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Comment by Donna Amrita Davidge on August 20, 2012 at 10:28pm

so well put..scars on our wilderness and people are so brain washed..

Comment by Jim Lutz on August 20, 2012 at 10:26pm

Sad to say, these "environmentalists", very few of whom are scientists, are totally ignoring the real science and are falling into the trap that global climate change is settled.  It is NOT!  Certain "facts" have been created to make their case, and where facts don't fit their criteria, they simply ignore them or make up new data to support their cause.  It is about time we call them on it, and demand they look at the facts that wind power is a scam.  The scars on our wilderness will never be healed if we continue to let Angus King and his money grabbing cronies make policy.  We must defeat them in November.

 

Comment by Donna Amrita Davidge on August 20, 2012 at 9:43pm

yes we need the truth to these organizations and anything to further the cause...

Comment by Long Islander on August 20, 2012 at 5:30pm

I went to the Picasa link and found the following photo and caption. My comments follow.

This view of Flathead Mt turbines from Partidge Peak shows the wide clearcut for the road. The clearcut width is necessary for the huge size of the components. It would be interesting to calculate the "carbon footprint" of all the low efficiency, sooty diesel construction equipment and the trucks crawling up the steep roads at about 5 mph.

 

My comments

To this carbon footprint I might add the multiple large homes and giant RV's owned by Angus King.

Perhaps one of the most despicable things about this is that for the longest time, Angus King's partner in his wind projects mysteriously hid behind the Delaware shell company name of Bayroot. We had long speculated that Bayroot (the name of a college drinking game) was in fact Yale University. Our questions in this regard were ignored by King and Yale.

 

We then got our answer when King and Bayroot received the $102 million Department of Energy loan guarantee for this wind project - the cat was out of the bag and indeed, King's partner all along was the Yale University Endowment.

 

This is significant for two reasons. First off, this is one of the richest university endowments in the world - worth upwards of $20 billion and like Bernie Madoff, known for its gravity-defying returns. Very simply, there is no reason in the world that such a deep pocketed investor should have been awarded a public loan guarantee. But they were, (thanks in part to the intervention of U.S. Congresswoman Chellie Pingree), meaning the public takes all the $102 million of risk while the profits are all private.

 

But second, and what makes this so nauseating is that BAYROOT is known to be responsible for some of the most savage liquidation harvesting in the state. They leave veritable moonscapes in their wake. Yet Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies preaches to us about how they are one of the foremost forest stewards and planetary protectors in all of creation. So while the Yale Endowment would have us all believe their investment success is due to some monopoly they have with IQ points, their hypocritical worst-in-class liquidation harvesting tells us at least some of those profits are the result of their scorched earth approach to the environment.

 

Not unlike hypocritical Mr. King telling us we need his wind farm to curb our carbon while at the same time his multiple homes, vehicles and other toys burn up carbon with abandon. Do as the King says, not as he does pitiful subjects.

 

With regard to CO2, there are several studies that show that wind turbines avoid virtually no CO2 emissions. These are of course all vigorously discredited by the wind industry and their paid off shills.

 

But there is one set of data that the likes of Angus King and the wind cheerleaders like NRCM cannot argue with - because NRCM is the source of the figures. NRCM used these figures for the purpose of dimensionalizing how much CO2 wind "farms" avoid. Yet in doing so they have unwittingly handed over to us information which when put in proper perspective demonstrates that the 360 miles of ridgeline destruction they envision for Maine via wind turbines will have an effect on global warming/cooling equal to that produced by a mere 1% of the Maine woods. In other words, the wholesale transmogrification of Maine's core essence, its natural beauty and tranquility, is being done in exchange for virtually nothing. Unless one is of course Angus King or a braggart at the Yale Endowment.

Our analysis of NRCM's CO2 figures and this most lopsided ill conceived tradeoff may be read here:

NRCM_CO2_From_a_Different_Point_of_View.pdf

 

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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