Vinalhaven - State high court overturns ruling, clears DEP in island wind case
The state high court overturned a lower court ruling Thursday that had chastised the Department of Environmental Protection’s commissioner for loosening noise requirements for the island’s wind turbines.
http://bangordailynews.com/2015/05/08/news/midcoast/state-high-cour...
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Comment by alice mckay barnett on May 12, 2015 at 8:13am
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access to federal monies........like FEMA in Canton, Maine's case. If you accept FEMA money you must have a local health officer responding to health complaints. An argument against the developer using it's own hotline for complaints.
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Comment by Kathy Sherman on May 11, 2015 at 8:56am
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Sorry- on muni light plants - special rights and exemptions, and maybe certain access to federal monies that allowed FIW get huge money for cable to connect to grid/net meter/sell RECs.
When reading comments on Supreme's decision, there was all too much of the 'away' folks who actually bought and developed in Vinalhaven interior. Down here on Cape Cod we call them (us) wash-ashores. And again, it is in the feasibilty study for those turbines, paid for in part by MA Renewable Energy Trust and CT clean energy council, the majority on Vinalhaven live on shoreline facing out- they were not going to see (false issue at the time) or hear the turbines. So who is the wash-ashore/from 'away'/outsider?? Alan F or Harvard's George Baker??
The Island Institute folks who come down to Mass and preach all is good re wind energy, or happy ratepayers in Vinalhaven who convince my local 'decision-maker'/conservation trust president who used a year's worth of my carbon footprint to go there - all outsiders, and none saying what it is like to have this acoustic pollution.
Since Vinalhaven was subject of DOE study by Hoen and is a significant part of Nissenbaum's published research, it is vital!!
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This is still the most hugely important case, not just for Maine. Alice identifies a very important element of the Supreme's decision - the judiciary does have the right to adjudicate an executive branch regulatory agency. Here's why that is big:
http://bangordailynews.com/2014/12/09/news/midcoast/dep-argues-cour...
But DEP also argued that the FIW neighbors had recourse through their town, and in fact to my ears, suggested that enforcement responsibility lies locally with Vinalhaven. This is huge because DEP's consultant had predicted exceedance of Maine's very loose standards and DEP put conditions on the permit. Fox Island Wind interprets the condition as meaning what was a large issue at the time and since the dawn of 21st century - conditions of high wind shear with light ground winds/low ambient noise. The case of the neighbors and DEP consultant and DEP staff is that summer night stable atmosphere is not the only or worst. High wind shear and vear (directional discrepancy from ground to height, e.g. 500 ft., prevails in that coastal location all times of year and all wind directions and worst case seems actually to be strong winds. So the case is all about whether the monitoring for compliance needed only to be that summer night in 2010, or ALL CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH the conditions do not meet what the manufacturer guarantees.
DEP set the conditions of the permit, so it seems appropriate that they should enforce.
Looking for text of decision I learned that Vinalhaven is a municipal light plant. That is very important too because muni's have special rights dating a centurr
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The court did conclude, however, that the court had the authority to review the DEP’s enforcement actions. So, take your objections to the higher court. DEP is not the end all.
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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