PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A former Green Independent Party candidate for governor exchanged charges of greed and hypocrisy Wednesday with a former governor who's promoting a 128-megawatt wind power project in Somerset County.
Building 48 wind turbines in Highland Plantation would require blasting of 1.6 million cubic yards of rock and dirt, decimate fragile alpine terrain and generate visual and noise pollution all while failing to reduce greenhouse emissions, said Jonathan Carter, director of the Forest Ecology Network.
Former independent Maine Gov. Angus King, one of the Highland Wind LLC business partners, said the project carries an environmental impact but that it's more benign than oil, gas, coal or nuclear power. It would create enough clean energy for about 54,000 homes, or all the homes in Franklin, Piscataquis and Somerset counties.
King also took a jab at his former political foe in the 1994 gubernatorial race, saying the environmentally minded Carter was supportive of wind power until a project was proposed near his home.
Carter, who lives about 3.5 miles from the turbines, responded by calling King a "mountain-slayer and a profiteer." He said he's not against wind power, but he's against large projects that destroy mountaintops: "Industrial mountaintop wind, wherever you put it, is a disaster."
The war of words began with a news conference at Portland City Hall by the Friends of Highland Mountains, which has created a DVD outlining its opposition.
Carter described the construction of wind turbines on mountain ridges as "Maine's version of mountaintop removal." And he said there would be no reduction in greenhouse gases because carbon-emitting power plants would have to be kept running and on standby for times when the wind isn't blowing.
Furthermore, he said the turbine towers with blinking lights would be built in the face of the Bigelow Preserve and could be seen by hikers on the Appalachian Trail.
"I'll buy him a bus ticket to West Virginia, where they're tearing mountains to the ground to feed our fossil fuel addiction," King retorted. He said there would be a "1-to-1" reduction in greenhouse gases because existing plants would be throttled back whenever the turbines are in operation.
He said the remoteness of the site is part of its appeal. He said there only two vacation homes a half-mile from the turbines and that other homes are at least a mile away, reducing the impact.
Maine is currently the leader in New England when it comes to wind power, with 432 megawatts of wind power either in operations or under construction. Large projects already in operation include TransCanada's Kibby Mountain, First Wind's Mars Hill, and First Wind's Stetson I and Stetson II.
Central Maine Power is beginning a five-year upgrade of the power grid to make it more reliable and to increase capacity for future wind power projects.
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Citizens Unite
If you don't believe all the inane garbage put forth by the state, the developers, and the uninformed keep them out of your backyard. Pass an ordinance. I have not heard one shred of scientific evidence from any pro wind advocate that they in fact work as claimed. Yet in the three years I have been studying this issue I have read tons of scientific evidence that they don't work. I have also personally spoken to people in Freedom where the scammers got these things in by subterfuge and they are some pissed. Even people who were for it initially If the company goes belly up you know who is responsible for taking the potentially rusting hulks down? The people of Freedom. You know whose taxes have increased when the were supposed to go down? The people of Freedom. You know whose lives have been filled with dread? The people of Freedom who are in range of their flicker and noise. So if you don't know what you are talking about by spouting the benefits of wind turbines, and spouting the foreign oil rap and all of that crap at least do me the pleasure of proving it.
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Schemers, deceivers, and self – serving interests like King et al must be stopped.
Ask Ethan Hall, Wendy Todd and other citizen abutters of these turbines concerning what has happened to their lives because of this Wind Scam, by perpetrators like King et al.
Real science and free market economics will stop this, but for now, we best not listen to self servers like Mr. King, and best listen to real science from independent sources like Kamperman/James and Dr. Pierpoint and other science specialists if we wish to stop this insanity here. We need to listen to the affected citizens.
King knows that IT IS ALL ABOUT Federal SUBSIDY grabbing. He just wants his cut while the grabbing is good. It is all about screwing citizen rights for his greedy , self-serving interests, using feckless energy toys called wind turbines. It is about the Cap and Trade scam.
Mr. King is no better than the snake oil salesmen of decades ago,only now with a new twist .
What makes it even more despicable is how he is now USING the citizens that once elected him for his own financial aggrandizement. His deception here is openly palpable.
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Ask Mr. King and his son, Angus King III, (Vice President, Merger and Acquisitions at First Wind), who coincidentally started his wind career in June 2009. (Just in time to help daddy do a merger perhaps?) What they are really in this for. GREENBACK, to his pockets, from yours!
This inside dealing by Mr. King et al is the worst example of the Wind Rush, Wind Law in Maine. A constitutionally deficient legislative act that was ram rodded through a naïve legislature by inside POWER ELITE schemers on the Governors Task force like King.
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The biggest farce is that wind power will do anything about climate change. We have calculated that the 360 miles of turbines Baldacci has mandated for Maine equal the same amount of global cooling as a mere 1% of the Maine woods. This calculation uses NRCM's own figures. See: ********************* http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/maines-wind-goals-co2-and-the
NRCM is acutely aware of this calculation and we hop they are rethinking their support of this truly bad idea.
If you want to do infinitely more and actually put people to work, weatherize and get more efficient furnaces. We are a cold place and we have the oldest housing stock in the nation.
Wind is nothing but the latest scam where the people familiar with the government rackets, like King, are fleecing us and trying to come across as people who actually care. It is a direct attack on taxpayer and ratepayer alike, in other words - YOU!
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It's July 1st, 413 days into operation of UMPI's much balleyhooed industrial wind turbine and thus far 680,606 KWH have been produced. This is obviously very far short of the 1,000,000 KWH that were projected for the first 365 days. In the two other public displays of wind in Maine, Saco and Kittery's municipal turbines, we have seen similar failure. This is why the wind "farms" that are raiding the treasury will not release production data. They are lining their pockets by treading on our children and grandchildren's future. UMPI is at 11% of capacity. Like filling you gas tank and learning all they gave you was two gallons. See: *******
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/umpi-wind-turbine-scorecard-1
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"Stop pretending wind power has anything to do with reducing America's dependence on oil. Windmills generate electricity—not transportation fuel. Wind has become the energy pet rock of the 21st century and a taxpayer rip-off. According to the Energy Information Administration, wind produces only 1.3% of U.S. electricity but receives federal taxpayer subsidies 25 times as much per megawatt hour as subsidies for all other forms of electricity production combined"
US Senator Lamar Alexander
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It is not really the Wind Power issue in Maine, it is the scamming, self-serving subsidy sucking interests in the state like Angus King versus the average citizen who has not been allowed a voice in the process by the quasi-legal legislated Expedited Wind Law. Its creators, with the scamming wind lobby are what has been in control. But , the public is waking up! So are Maine businesses, as they know that their electrical costs will be doubling in the future if this scam is allowed to continue.
Drive them off the land and sea!
Wind in Maine will only benefit the Subsidy PIGS, which is all it is about. Tax dollars are shoveled to foreign countries like Brazil and China, and of course to “Power elites” like Angus King , Kurt Adams, and Baldacci. All part of the Wind Scammers Club , Maine.
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As usual, the self-server King and son of Firstwind drool at the subsidy money even though wind power is a farce, and they know it. But how else is a lying politician to make his next millions anyway?.
MaineWind energy isn’t free. And, it’s destructive.
The cost of electricity in Maine will double because of Gov. Baldacci’s climate change policies favoring wind energy.
Despite the claims of iwnd liars like King, propagandists, there is no empirical evidence that wind power will: 1. reduce the cost of electricity in Maine, 2. reduce carbon emissions, 3. make Maine ‘energy independent’, or 4) be environmentally friendly.
Average residential monthly electric bills could go up by $50 to $100 when these policies are fully implemented.
The total cost of wind turbines and transmission upgrades will be $7 billion, but produce less than 700 megawatts of electricity.
The Baldacci government rejected from the energy mix cheaper, clean hydropower available for purchase at 3.5 cents per kilowatt-hour from our Canadian neighbors.
.
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King's comment about 1:1 and its implication exchange is FALSE. That may be true if wind turbines worked at nameplate capacity but they never do. They operate at somewhere between 11-20% And about powering 54 thousand homes in all the Maine towns mentioned? The power produced goes to NH and Mass. About J Carter being for wind except in his backyard? He has always been for wind and is still for wind but not INDUSTRIAL wind farms. There are small wind generators that every home could have to generate its own electricity that would not destroy the environment, animals, carbon sequestering trees, etc. King, CMP and the other developers are having heart attacks just thinking about that possibility. Wake up folks. This is the biggest scam since Carters Little Liver Pills (pun intended) and snake oil!
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Angus King is the biggest hypocrite in Maine. In her post, Monique Aniel reminds of the oratory of King when the state preserved magnificent Tumbledown with TAXPAYER money. When he was Governor, King never let a photo op or sound bite go by without extolling the beauty of Maine, the "special places" that were preserved, a veritable walking talking tourism ad. Now, he has turned into a self serving TAX SUBSIDY swine. He wants to destroy Maine's mountains in Roxbury and Highland Plt with sprawling industrial wind sites so he can be a pig at the wind subsidy trough. His two projects that entail blasting away mountain tops to install 400 foot tall turbines will destroy the viewshed of the Mahoosuc Public Reserved Land, Tumbledown, the Bigelow Preserve, Mt. Blue State Park, and miles of the Appalachian Trail---all "special places" supposedly preserved, by taxpayer money, for all the citizens. Shame on you, Mr. King, you arrogant hypocrite! Destroying such a large swath of our beautiful state for your personal gain is despicable!
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Carter, now we see his true face, that of a NIMBY. Can we all say Not In My Back Yard. Then Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, boo-hoo.
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But you may have some explaining to do.
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In September 2002 then governor A. King said :"Today nearly 12000 acres of forest land ,including a pristine alpine pond at its summit ( Tumbledown) have been protected forever .
Maine citizens will benefit for generations to come from the legacy we are leaving behind".
Those were his words at the announcement of the permanent conservation of over 12000 acres of beautiful Western Maine Mountains's landscape, including the peak of Tumbledown amongst many other mountain tops , recreation trails and habitat for declining species.
What kind of speech will he prepare when he defaces the Bigelow Range and the Record Hill summits ?
Only fools do not change their minds when they realize the absurdity , enormity and uselessness of what they do .
Only greed allows you to change your principles to suit your private pursuit .
In 2002 legacy meant preservation of the mountain tops ,
In 2010 legacy means destruction of the same ,,
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Between King and Carter there should be enough wind power generated to power the entire country.
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Sandra, by far the best post in a long time on these blogs...short and to the point!
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It is a common misconception which you have, CommonSense, but I am pleased to see that you are getting involved in the dialogue regarding moutaintop industrial wind. Mr. Carter freely admits that he once supported the concept of wind power. Most Mainers did and still do. But the concept and the realities are very, very different. Most people believe that because the wind blows free and doesn't have the negative issues of radioactive waste like nuclear, or the pollution and supply issues like fossil fuel, that it must be good... and "green". And our government and industrial wind developers use that misconception to their advantage, selling their misguided energy plan to an unquestioning public.
If industrial wind power actually DID what the developers say it does, and if its positives-- to the environment, the economy, the energy situation-- outweighed its negatives, we would ALL support it. We would be foolish not to. But once we took the time to research the issue and learn the FACTS-- not the hype or innuendo and not the feel-ggod tag lines that King and other developers throw out-- we realized that there is, in all honesty, very little that's redeemable about mountaintoip industrial wind in Maine. From the state's official wind maps, to the biologists, to the economists to the scientists...they all say the same thing. Those with nothing to gain and much to lose are stepping forward and telling us that mountaintop industrial wind DOES NOT DO what the industry says it will do. And the numbers they consistently quote are based on RATED capacity, not actual production. The two are far, far removed from one another. No, CommonSense... once Mainers began to do research into this topic, the cover was blown off the wind energy plan. It is a subsidized feel-good plan to create unreliable and intermittent power which Maine doesn't need and which will not stay in this state. It will be many times more expensive than the hydro power we could purchase from Canada-- if we needed it, which we don't. It will have long-lasting environmental and economic impacts.. from tourism to real estate values to wildlife to erosion and water quality issues. The list is long. So please, don't discount citizens' concerns without knowing the facts. It takes a brave man to admit when he is wrong, and I've seen many friends change their stances on wind energy once they learned the facts... and admit that where they once supported the concept, they now vehemently oppose the realities of industrial wind. The truth is out there, and hundreds of Mainers are learning of it every week. I hope you'll take the time to have a serious look into the topic. And I'd be happy to provide you with resources to do exactly that. A good place to start is www.highlandmts.org. Respectfully submitted, Karen Pease, Lexington Twp. P.S. The Friends of the Highland Mountains are NOT against responsible wind generation, but on an individual or community-based level... where the turbines are smaller and have little or no 'footprint' or sound issues, and where the electricity generated is used by its hosts.
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Governor King, the people you are trying to persuade deserve to hear the truth about wind power. At the very least, please make some effort to understand how energy is managed on the grid. The idea that there is a 1 for 1 trade-off between wind and fossil fuel when the wind is blowing is simply not true. There is a very good chance wind is offsetting water in this region and other renewables. If wind manages to bump natural gas, people should understand the findings in TX and CO where nat. gas plants ran dirtier when forced to respond to wind's unpredictable profile. The reality of wind generation is not as nicely packaged as you purport.
Lisa Linowes
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For most people it is when one of these wind projects is proposed near their home that they look more closely at what is involved and realize how environmentally destructive and ineffective industrial wind is. They also realize that without grants, subsidies, tax credits and other giveaways of our tax dollars, and our grandchildrens tax dollars that no one would build these useless inefficient, unreliable, loud, strobe lit monsters anywhere.
The claims made by wind developers are unproven and unverifiable. Wind towers will become oil leaking monuments to stupidity, gullibility and greed.
In the not too distant future, proponents of this folly will look back and think, "How could we have been so STUPID."
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Jonathan Carter was a huge proponant of wind power until it was going into his back yard, can we al say NIMBY with all capital letters. Jonathan, wind power was good for Maine and good for the environment before it was proposed for your backyard and it is good for Maine and good for the environment IN your backyard. It is also good for the environment and good for Maine in my backyard.
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