Letters
Follow the money
Let me get this straight. Central Maine Power is requesting a $1.4 billion upgrade of the transmission system from the Maine Public Utilities Commission. (Sun Journal, Sept. 30). This transmission system will not benefit Maine because it is to increase transmission capacity between Orrington to the New Hampshire border right out of the state. I think that is about 125 miles. That's a pretty expensive project to take full advantage of wind power. CMP stands to increase its net income by $100 million, and its customers get to share the expense with an 8.3 percent increase in their electricity bills.
T. Boone Pickens abandoned his wind turbine project in Texas when he found out that it was cost-prohibitive to transmit the wind power. Wind and solar power are not reliable electricity producers and need backup sources. Spain's annual emissions of carbon dioxide have increased by nearly 50 percent. (Institute of Energy Research).
CMP touts that this project will create jobs. For every four green jobs created in Spain, less than one was permanent. For every permanent green job created, nine permanent jobs were destroyed. (Sun Journal, March 30).
Follow the money and decide who will benefit from CMP's request. Replacing the blown-up dams would make more sense to me. Just remember the cap-and-trade bill may be around the corner which will make your electric bill skyrocket.
Diana Holcomb, Norway
Advertisement
Displaying comments, from newest to oldest
verified Diane, you are right. The
Diane, you are right. The sole purpose of this hideously expensive and dangerous grid expansion is to connect sprawling industrial wind sites to the Southern New England market. Maine gets nothing except thousands of turbines littering the rural landscpae, hundreds of miles of ridgelines blasted away, thousands of acres of clearcuts and powerlines everywhere. Where is the outrage? Beware, there could be a 345 kv line coming to your backyard!
That's the same PUC that: 1.
That's the same PUC that:
1. allowed Fairpoint to take over Verizon's problems
2. has given certain rights to First Wind Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of Evergreen Wind Power III LLC. Try getting information on Evergreen. No website; First Wind describes themselves as a "team" interested in the community, environment, etc. No reference to Evergreen on their website.
I'm a proponent of wind but MPUC's "due diligence" ability scares me.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Most Popular Today
verified on "P. Nachman: Confidence probably misplaced"
Its not trivvializing it
Hey, I throw in 11% that doesn't override the rest of the comment. 11% is huge. That's why I talked about what they have recently done to improve it.
But you reaction is based not on the numbers, but on your assumptions. "Government is overreaching" that's an assumption or better yet your bias. "they are outside their span of control". Again a bias or at best an assumption. Have you tested their "span of control". Do you really know its breath? Based on these two untested and untestable assumptions you reach the conclusion that waste and fraud will continue or get worse." "ObamaCare is simply opens the door to more opportunity" Again a conclusion with no support at all.
You have to know the capabilities of Federal systems and be able to test them to make the judgements you are. When Medicare was implemented Federal "span of control" was very low. A top of the line computer system used tape for I/O. The legislation gave them 6-12 months to implement new features/programs. Current computer systems are thousands of time more productive. Project development techniques are orders of magnitude better. And the Affordable Care Act staged implementation over a number of years. True these systems process millions of transactions per day and thats a real task for any operation. But they have the tools to do it today that they didn't have in the 1960's. The "span of control" today is huge. A medicare for everyone program is very doable. Minimimzing errors is very doable. Checking and preventing deliberate fraud is very doable today (credit card fraud detection is orders of magnitude better than just a few years ago). The Affordable Care Act provides te opportunity to greatly reduce real fraud. Nothing will reduce error too much.
verified on "Maine eyes $21 million in multi-state suit against mortgage lenders"
"Dead on" Robert
I'm so glad the first post was from someone who pays attention. Financially sound banks, which did nothing wrong, were forced to take the money too even though they didn't need it. That way the Obama Administration would later be able to say that they had to do this to avert a crisis. After all, look how many banks got that taxpayer funded bank bailout money. A person would have to be blind not to see that well timed lie coming.
verified on "J. Ziehm: LePage forgetting his childhood"
Nice
Like the commenting on purging DHHS from the budget while neglecting spousal and child abuse. Seems to me liking it to keep it silent and in the family.
In order to make comments, you must verify your account.
In order to comment on SunJournal.com, you must use your real name and include the town in which you live in your profile. A member of our staff will call you to verify this information. To join in, fill out your user profile completely and check the box "please verify my status." We'll get back to you within one business day to verify your account.
Login or create an account here.
Our policy prohibits comments that are:
- Defamatory, abusive, obscene, racist, or otherwise hateful
- Excessively foul and/or vulgar
- Inappropriately sexual
- Baseless personal attacks or otherwise threatening
- Contain illegal material, or material that infringes on the rights of others
- Commercial postings attempting to sell a product/item
If you violate this policy, your comment will be removed and your account may be banned.