Columns & Analysis
Wind industry must be stopped
The Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power held a press conference on Monday, Nov. 9, stating that the destruction of Maine's landscape for the benefit of the wind industry makes no sense and must be stopped.
The major newspapers covering the press conference attempted to provide balance to our message by referring to an opinion poll claiming that 90 percent of Mainers support wind power. This poll was commissioned by pro-wind forces and was designed to elicit a pro-wind response.
The facts about wind power have been concealed behind the propaganda that has accompanied the wind industry's well planned assault on Maine beginning with the Governor's "Task Force on Wind Power," a group of appointed department heads and wind industry insiders whose mandate was to uncover and remove the obstacles to wind power development.
The "Expedited Process Wind Law" closely followed the recommendations of the Task Force, effectively making wind projects immune from legitimate criticism during the Department of Environmental Protection review process. The Legislature readily accepted the recommendations of the Task Force and approved the "Wind Law" as a Governor's "emergency bill" with no debate and very little scrutiny only 15 days after the bill was introduced.
The Task Force agreed to a goal of 2,700 megawatts of installed land based wind turbine capacity by 2020, which means approximately 1,500 turbines on 350 miles of continuous mountain ridges, and hundreds of additional miles of access roads and transmission corridors through deep forest habitat.
For all of this destruction, only about 4 percent of the electricity consumed daily by the grid will be generated, so claims of climate benefits by the wind industry, the government and once respected environmental groups like Natural Resources Council of Maine have been grossly exaggerated.
Nor will wind power reduce consumption of oil, which is used to produce only about 2 percent of the grid's electricity. Wind power will not reduce the use of heating oil or gasoline and such claims are intentionally misleading.
The influence that companies such as First Wind and turbine manufacturer General Electric have behind the scenes in Washington is very disturbing. First Wind recently received $40 million in federal stimulus funds for completing construction of the Stetson Wind Project.
GE owns NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC where incessant ads for renewable energy pound home a subliminal message showing turbines at a distance in wide open green prairies. Given such top-down pressure in support of wind power, public acceptance is not difficult to understand. But all that is beginning to change.
People are discovering that the majority of the giant giveaways are going directly to foreign corporations. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is calling for an investigation into the payout of millions of dollars in stimulus funds to build turbines in China for deployment in Texas. U.S. Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) is also investigating the improper payments to wind companies in New York state.
Iberdrola of Spain, which owns Central Maine Power, recently received nearly half a billion dollars in stimulus funds for the "green jobs" it supposedly has created. Where is Senator Snow's and Collins' outrage at this misuse of our grandchildren's tax obligations?
While the misuse of tax dollars to support this industry is appalling, even more egregious is the wind industry's insistence on placing turbines too close to people's homes, subjecting them to noise induced sleep deprivation and a cascade of medical problems. These problems are identical to what is reported around the world, but denied by the wind industry in much the same way the tobacco and asbestos industries denied the dangers of their products.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has turned medical ethics upside down by ignoring health complaints from the first two wind projects in Mars Hill and Freedom. Today it was reported that similar noise problems have surfaced at the recently constructed wind project in Vinalhaven.
No matter how one feels about the appearance of turbines or the need to replace fossil fuels, there is no justification for permitting the wind industry to impact anyone's health and well-being. The complicity of the agencies that are supposed to protect the health and welfare of Maine's citizens can no longer be tolerated.
Wind power is a false promise and the sooner we pull the plug the better off we will be. It is time for the governor, the legislature and the NRCM to admit they made a mistake, correct it and move on with a sensible agenda for Maine's energy future. The Citizens' Task Force on Power was formed to work at every level to achieve that goal.
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HydroQuebec would love to
HydroQuebec would love to sell power to Maine but CMP and BH will lobby hard against it as they have in the past. QH would also place Maine way ahead of the Gov's whimsical renewable energy goals. The problem is the windsprawl industry has deep roots in Augusta and has worked clandestinely for years to open our beautiful countryside to their obsolete monstrosities. People have finally caught on!
Quicknote said: "And, of
Quicknote said: "And, of course, as Psct notes, opposition to environmental groups is driving the wind turbine "attack""
I'm afraid not. That's simply your pathetic spin.
Do us a favor - jump off a dam and in your final moments, ask yourself if hydro could supply all of Maine's electrical needs 24/7.
verified I am afraid I don't see a
I am afraid I don't see a credible energy program that will reduce our carbon footprint and deal with global warming from either Blueyes1119 or PenobScot. I find a general outline that anyone can throw out. And, of course, as Psct notes, opposition to environmental groups is driving the wind turbine "attack" which I understood from those supporting this in the first place even though they cloaked it in health concerns. Now, since the paper mill is noisy on summer nights, as I can attest from a mile and a half away, I am surprised that the group isn't opposing the mill with their concern for health.
Speak as rationally as possible, recognizing human beings are not always rational.
Run some pipes so people can
Run some pipes so people can heat their homes with natural gas if they wish. It's far cleaner than oil. Natural gas would thus be a pragmatic solution - and boy, is it abundant. Now, seal up the cracks in your leaky homes and insulate. You just saved more fossil fuel and just cut emissions more than wind ever would.
By the way, your so called 100% clean source wind uses tremendous electricity from the grid and that electricity here in Maine is from fossil fuel. And it also consumes tremendous additional fossil fuel in the form of highly inefficient spinning reserve.
That leaves one to think of three words when trying to understand why persons, politicians and even some so called environmental groups are pushing for wind, in spite of all the facts and far, far better alternatives:
FOLLOW THE MONEY.
Contributors, both individuals and corporate need to think long and hard about the environmental organizations they are contributing to and what they have become.
Taxpayers and ratepayers need to seriously consider energy in the 2010 elections. Any politician supporting wind may find themselves in trouble next year. People are getting wise to this con game.
verified Quicknote, twice you asked
Quicknote, twice you asked for some solutions. What the Citizen's Task Force on Wind Power concentrates on is the complete folly of supporting utility scale wind, an industry that wouldn't exist without heavy subsidies and preferential market treatment. It is truly a financial scam brought to you by Enron Wind schemers as a way to make money at taxpayer's and ratepayer's expense.
To blast away 150 miles of ridgelines and permanently clearcut more than 50,000 acres of forest, ruin Maine's quality of place with 1800 industrial turbines (this based on the Rollins Project of First Wind and the state's goals for installed wind capacity), and threaten the health and wellbeing of people living within the impact zones is absurd.
The public subsidy money, if used for weatherization and furnace replacement in this state would have a greater economic impact, save more fossil fuels, and reduce more carbon than all the turbines would do. Because the turbines are not about producing electricity; it is a financial scam of bring able to generate revenue three different ways from the same kilowatt and forcing ratepayers to accept into the grid extremely expensive electricity.
Maine produces 40% more electricity than it consumes. No electricity generated within Maine comes from coal; the only oil fired generator is the unit on Cousin's Island that usually runs as a back up. We have several biomass generators that are mothballed, in the most heavily forested state in the union! We have an excellent gas fired generator in Rumford that is allowed to only be used as back up. Thus, we don't need to add to our electricity generation. It gives us the opportunity to add capacity to existing hydro and to create locally distributed power sources while we carefully plan for, and site, another major baseline generator.
If we actually need more generating capacity, it should be base line power and not unpredictable, unreliable, inefficient spurts of power created when there are optimum wind conditions.
verified Would it be possible to see
Would it be possible to see an energy program presented by the anti-wind turbine group for at least Maine? The recent negative comments will not promote the anti-wind turbine cause. Please try to present alternative program to wind power in a rational manner.
Speak as rationally as possible, recognizing human beings are not always rational.
Here is a link to NY State
Here is a link to NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's investigation of First Wind.
http://www.ag.ny.gov/media_center/2008/jul/july15a_08.html
Here are links to the story about Wind Power and the Mafia:
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1212055
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/59fe9474-cf2b-11de-8a4b-00144feabdc0.html?ncli...
The turbines used are not Maine-based technology. Most are made overseas. None are made in Maine. As for Maine jobs, each wind "farm" leaves behind only about 2-3 jobs in total. Even monitoring is done remotely from places like California.
As for Baldacci's idea of turbines getting Maine off foreign oil, consider this:
- turbines produce electricity (very little actually!)
- we do not heat with electricity; we do not drive with electricity
If you would like to do something that saves tremendous oil and will create thousands of jobs for Mainers, write your legislators about supporting weatherization. It cuts fossil fuel use and emissions by 40% overnight in weatherized structures.
Central Maine Power is owned by Iberdrola which is backed heavily by the Abu Dhabi National Energy Corporation that controls 90% of the oild in the United Arab Emirates. Iberdrola is the largest wind farm operator in the world and they want to out up $1.5 billion in massive transmission lines through places like LEWISTON, YARMOUTH, CUMBERLAND and nearby towns for one reason and one reason only - to be able to sell the very small amount of electricity that would be made by northern Maine industrial wind complexes to Mass and Ct.
Without the upgrade, the grid can't handle the occasional spurts of electricity when the wind blows.
Message to northern Mainers: kill the CMP $1.5 billion upgrade and Baldacci's ecologically and aesthetically destructive and unhealthy wind farms die!
Message to LEWISTON, YARMOUTH, CUMBERLAND, BIDDEFORD, etc. and all the southern Maine towns where CMP wants to build unbelievably large transmission lines, kill the northern Maine wind complexes and the transmission project dies.
Look up your town on the CMP route map:
http://www.mainepower.com/PIM_FINAL_for_website.pdf
These would be truly MASSIVE transmission lines.
If the thousands of turbines
If the thousands of turbines Baldacci wants to build get built, there will be gigantic powerlines through many SOUTHERN Maine towns so that this can be sold to Mass, who by the way, won't tolerate turbines themselves for the most part.
To quote the Maine Sunday Telegram on October 4, 2009 - "...there would also be the impact of massive transmission lines throughout the state".
See: http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=286989&ac=PHedi
Or as the economist Charles Lawton wrote in the business section of that paper on 9/27/09:
"We need to look no further than the boom and bust of ethanol plants over the past several years to see the folly of chasing the next "sure thing" in energy. Maine's energy future and landscape are both too important to risk littering with rusting turbines, broken down dams or obsolete transmission towers that future generations will have to seek funds to demolish".
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=285538&ac=PHbiz
What we need is for our state Attorney General, Janet Mills, to make the wind companies sign a Code of Conduct. That's exactly what they had to sign in NY State, after their Attorney General began investigating them for bribery and intimidation. That investigation continues. Also in NYS, US Congressman Eric Massa (D) has requested of President Obama that Maine plunderer First Wind's stimulus gift (a total of $115 MILLION by the way), be revoked and has called for a GAO investigation of them - a company with a business model of LIE, CHEAT AND CORRUPT.
Can you think of anyone in Maine who has been corrupted?
Read Massa's letter to Obama here:http://batr.net/cohoctonwindwatch/CohoctonWindmillsTOObama.pdf
The other investigation of interest is the one that was reported in the Boston Herald recently at http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1212055
This one is about one of First Wind's top directors' longtime business partner, Oreste Vigorito being arrested in Italy on fraud by obtaining millions in public subsidies to build wind farms that either never worked properly or did not supply the promised amounts of energy. The pair worked together for seven years in Italy and even lived next door to each other for a time. If you study them, you will see that First Wind started in Italy.
Attorney General Mills refuses to make them sign a code of conduct. Her sister, our public health director, Dora Mills, steadfastly denies any health problems caused by the massive 400' tall turbines' noise and deep vibrations. Governor Baldacci's chief counsel of three years, Kurt Adams, runs development for this company. Governor King's son is rumored to run their mergers and acquisitions.
Are you getting the picture? These people work for us and that Stimulus GIFT to them is our money. We hire our public officials and we can fire them. It is time for everyone to start getting involved and take our state back and our country back.
WIND = THE MAFIA
verified No wind turbines?
No wind turbines? Cool...will you support offshore drilling for oil? Doubtful. Will you support LPG terminals off the coast of Maine? Hardly. Will you support natural gas pipelines, or Nuclear power plants? Hell, no...can't have that. Environmentalists are all the same. Their way, or no way. They favor plant and animal life over the survival of human life. Our planet does indeed need to be saved; from the idiots that insist on saving it at all cost.
Fear not the enemy at the gate, for it is the enemy within that will devour you.
- Agree Agree (1)
- Disagree Disagree (1)
verified Also, the majority of those
Also, the majority of those who call themselves environmentalists are just as wasteful as the rest of us. They always want everyone else to go out of their way to save the planet, yet they will fly in private jets and don't even think of taking away their hot tubs. When I was in elementary school, we were drilled on environmentally friendly concepts. Wind and hydro powers were supposed to save us all. Now, those will endanger fish and fowl. Come up with new plans and quit whinning when we do what you want.
On a side note: It's been unseasonally warm, which has cut back on fossil fuel used for heating use. Which should be good for the planet, except that it has been unseasonably warm which is bad for the planet.
verified Pirate, if I believed we
Pirate, if I believed we needed new sources of energy, I wouldn't choose utility scale wind turbines. Its bad public policy to support with taxpayers money and to force onto ratepayers. I personally believe that if we were to allow exploration, which we haven't for almost 40 years while technology has changed, the gulf of Maine likely would yield natural gas fields equal to Sable Island, Nova Scotia. That's an idea I would support. I would take the Cousin's Island generating plant, remove it and replace it with a state of the art natural gas fired generator on the scale of the Calpine facility in Westbrook. That's 500 MW of baseline electricity 24/7 instead of intermittent spurts of electricity when the wind happens to blow just right in those low wind potential areas the wind industry thieves want to destroy.
So, don't do the knee-jerk reaction of casting people who are against stupid public policy and financial scams as environmentalists that you apparantly disdain. Perhaps, also, next time you want to make a comment, write something thoughtful or analytical instead of just hurling invectives at people who are engaged in serious discourse.
Yes, Pirate. And don't
Yes, Pirate. And don't forget to throw in a few nuclear power plants into the mix. We could buy the enriched fuel from the Iranians. By the way, isn't it just like spongetron to think about something he could eat at someone elses expense?
verified I'm in favor of using you to
I'm in favor of using you to make soylent green! Now there's recycling.
- Disagree Disagree (1)
verified As a Maine citizen concerned
As a Maine citizen concerned about Maine's and the world's pollution problems relative to global warming, I would like to see the Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power's "sensible agenda for Maine's energy future." The group's opposition to wind turbines has not presented any position, let alone a clearly defined program, for Maine's energy future, in any letter or article opposing wind turbines.
Speak as rationally as possible, recognizing human beings are not always rational.
That's because the have
That's because the have none. They are just shock troops for the NIMBY brigade.
"The democracy will cease to exist when the government takes from those who would work and gives to those who would not." - Thomas Jefferson.
Where do you get off blaming
Where do you get off blaming two Republican Senators for all of the state and federal government agencies approval of wind farms and contracts to build wind turbines all over the world. This opinion completely trashes your whole opinion of wind farms.
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