Mr. Dosh, your sarcastic remarks in response to the "overwhelming" vote here is not nice and very disrespectful. These folks labored many months and educated themselves and weighed the values of their community. It would be easy for a community with a relatively small population spread across a rural area, that has little commercial base for taxes, and not a lot of wealth to take an opposite road and desperately grab the money the wind developers always dangle. Sumner showed respect for process, respect for the ridges that so define the topography of the town, and most importantly respect for one another, enacting an ordinance that protects all residents from this type of development. In the end, they decided if wind power development comes to Sumner, it comes on their terms. It is as simple as that. Well done, Sumner!

As soon as the PUC approved the $1.4 billion Maine Power Reliability Project, Iberdrola/CMP started to tout it as necessary for the build out of industrial wind projects. Prior to that PUC approval, they gave every reason on earth other than wind power to justify grossly overbuilding the trunk transmission line from Orrington to Elliot. To meet the local distribution needs, we might have required some upgrades that should have been done as part of a multi-year capital improvement plan. To meet the local distribution needs, it was totally unnecessary to build a new 345kv line, as the local grid operates just fine on 115kv lines. The sole reason for adding more than $1 billion to our costs is the few days a year a fickle trickle of wind power surges and the line has to have the capacity for handling this rare occurance. We have been bamboozled, Mr. Rooks! You want to pay my Iberdrola/CMP bill when I retire and the full cost of wind gets factored in?

Alan Michka, you are far more polite than I am. Doug Rooks shamelessly shills for wind. He has always had his nose firmly planted up Angus King's arse. I guess the guy just likes to defend losers.

The response in defense of wind is as rife with inaccuracies as anything the Governor says off the cuff. The Governor is alarmed about the trend that fulfilling the arbitrary RPS standards in all those RGGI states ends up with Maine becoming a turbine plantation. That will be devastating to our multi-billion tourism industry and the vacation home real estate market.

When the PTC ends, it will slow down wind development by a lot, but as long as states stupidly cling to the bad public policy of forcing electricity utilities to have percentages of renewables, we are setting ourselves up for taking on wind at its cost, not the lower cost of the wholesale market that is now driven by natural gas.

BTW, Doug, it is not Kibby, Stetson, Spruce, and a "dozen other sites". The current sad toll on Maine's mountains are: Mars Hill, Stetson, Rollins, Kibby, Record Hill, and Spruce, with the two small (3 turbines each) sites on Vinalhaven and at Freedom. Get it right if you are going to shill for an industry that wouldn't exist without unduly high (per MWH) subsidies, selling Enron-inspired RECs, and the heinous mandates from the RPS.

BTW, as an avid hiker, today I hiked in to Record Hill to witness the travesty of Angus King's project first hand. There was no wind up there all afternoon. The project contributed not a single electron to the New England grid today. Photos will be posted to www.windtaskforce.org

All Oxford Hills region towns need to get serious, very quickly about maintaining local control over destructive wind power development. Patriot Rebewables has no concern for the environment, no soul for nature, and are willing to wantonly destroy the health of your neighbors. They will blast away, level, and scalp any mountain ridgelines they can get control over in order to reap tax subsidies and sell Enron-inspired RECs.

The state won't protect your community, only the communities themselves can say that no neighbors are expendable to do the bidding of the wind company, that the quality of place found in each unique yet interconnected town is worth preserving. Petition your local government to place a moratorium on wind power development, step back and allow all residents to understand the multitude of issues concerning wind power, then write a strong ordinance that has the best interests of the community in mind. There are model ordinances and much more information, from the citizens of Maine here: www.windtaskforce.org

Thank you, LURC! Forested ridgelines are not the place for these sprawling industrial wind sites. What is environmentally beneficial about blasting away miles of sensitive uplands, leveling hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of ridges, clearcutting hundreds of acres of carbon sequestering forests, and fragmenting wildlife habitat? What is environmentally beneficial about scalping our ridges and accelerating siltation and herbicide residue into our streams and lakes? All this harm for an unpredictable, unreliable, inefficient source of electricity that we do not need for Maine. All this harm for wind turbines that have actual output, capacity factor, of less than 25%!

If we continue via the heinous “Expedited Wind Permitting” statute to allow build out of the state’s arbitrary goal of 2700 MW of installed wind capacity by 2020, we will cover more than 300 miles of mountains and ridges with ugly, useless turbines that are as tall as 45 story Boston skyscrapers. We will have lost 50,000+ acres of forest and created a spiderweb of new powerlines to link these sites with the grid. We will have turbines on the doorstep of Baxter State Park, home of iconic Mt. Katahdin. There won’t be a single vista from our magnificent mountains that will not have turbines in the view. We will have spent more than $200 million dollars through the Land for Maine’s Future bonds (taxpayer money) to purchase Maine’s “special places” like Tumbledown Mt., only to surround them with wind turbines.

Have we forgotten that a good amount of Maine’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry comes from the attraction of the gems of inland Maine, the mountains and lakes? The influx of seasonal dollars for second homes, resorts, B & B’s and Maine’s traditional sporting camps and guiding services are worth far more than the fickle trickle of electricity derived from these wind turbines. Have we forsaken the recommendation of the Brookings Institute that Maine’s “Quality of Place”, the “Maine Brand” is its most important asset for the short term gain of wind site developers in pursuit of taxpayer subsidies?

The Maine media, including this paper, is totally wrong in its unquestioning promotion of industrial wind power in Maine. It doesn’t work, it isn’t economically viable, and it is ruinous of the beauty and natural resources of our state. Let’s keep Maine a special place and not allow it to become a wind turbine plantation for outside special interests.

More misinformation from the propaganda machine of the desperate AWEA. What is environmentally friendly about blasting away and leveling miles of Maine uplands to put in 45 story machines? Wjat is envronmentally friendly about permanently clearcutting hundreds of acres for these sites and the transmission lines, replacing forest with gravel roads and turbine pads and using herbicides to keep down re-growth? What is environmentally friendly about fragmenting wildlife habitat and driving away animals with the low frequency sound waves? What is environmentally friendly about the silt and herbicide resideues washing into our waterways?

The destruction that happens with sprawling industrial wind sites in Maine is tragic, especially when there is no need for such a source of power to begin with. Mainers are being played for rubes by the thieves behind the industrial wind scam!

The Gov. has been in office for 14 months during a horrific nation-wide recession. Given the poisonous political assault by the so-called "69%" and mistakes he & his administration have made, it is remarkable that he has made progress. It will take far more than 14 months to turn away from 14 years of King & Baldacci governorships and Democratic control of Augusta to pare back state spending, reduce taxes, and pump some life into our economy. As a "Blue Dog" Democrat, I challenge the far left of our party to find ways to meet the Gov. in the middle and help Maine, not their political agendas. The wind power issue is a perfect example of this, with the bill to restore large scale hydro as a renewable resource to tap into potentially cheap Canadian hydro. Baldacci excluded this from the RPS as a huge favor to the wind industry, an industry that is destroying our beautiful state, an industry that wouldn't exist without huge subsidies and heinous mandates.

This Governor has more to say in his first year in office than Bland Baldacci ever did in 8 years. It was time someone stirred things up in Augusta and forced some new dialogue. I don't agree with everything this Governor advocates, but thank goodness he is speaking out. I keep an open mind about his fiscal policies and measures to make Maine a more economically competetive state.

Yup, just one in the trail of lies and misrepresentations strewn from one end of Maine to the other by the wind thieves. Every community needs ordinances for wind development to protect their interests and to establish the parameters under which they will operate if allowed in the town.

Hey, Kevin, I would like you to know that Dylan Voorhees and Beth Nagusky don't run this state. You pander to their predictable commentary on every article you write about energy. I am sick and tired of these people getting the free press and the promotion of their plans to gut the state's economy, insisting on raising electricity rates with their dumbfounded embrace of useless wind power and renewables mandates. Nagusky is a leftover from Baldacci's administration and Voorhees is just an irresponsible fountain of misinformation and propaganda who doesn't know a damned thing about Maine or economics.

Kevin, every time Voorhees opens his mouth, it is as a mouthpiece for the wind industry. Every time you get a predictable quote from the agenda he pushes, you owe it to the people who are battling the onslaught of wind turbines and the destruction of our uplands an opportunity to counter his drivel. As for Nagusky, just look at the positions she has had under Baldacci. Her work personifies the nanny state telling people how to live.

As for these proposals, maybe you should interview people like the head of National Semiconductor or other industries that are heavy users of electricity. I bet they are all for any legislation that will lower electricity rates. I don't understand why some of these companies remain in Maine when they incur such high overhead for energy, insurance, worker's comp, etc.

Get behind this Governor, folks. It has taken a while to gestate, but here are proposals that come from his election pledge to try to lower costs for Maine people and help Maine commerce compete better. I hope the Republican controlled Legislature rams through these proposals just like the Democrats in April 2008 rammed through the heinous wind power legislation in the waning hours of that short session.

Jason, wind turbines likely don't cause gagging. But I have experienced the effects of low frequency sound from wind turbines and I report both my healthy 18 year old daughter and I got headaches. I have had heart surgery and I experienced classic angina symptoms. After about an hour and driving miles away from the Rollins project in the Rocky Dundee ridges of Lincoln/Burlington, the symptoms subsided.

Two acoustics experts I know experienced far more severe and longer lasting effects including dizziness, disorientation and nausea while they were doing professional, scientific-based research on a set of wind turbines. Then there is the incessant audible noise. That sound of the low flying jet overhead that doesn't go away for hours and hours. These turbines produce their signature noise at far lower threshhold of wind speed than the speed at which they actually start to produce electricity.

So, I got under your skin with my intorduction to a FACT FILLED comment? Too bad. You are the one who brought up the noise issue. I'll go one further on you. I have experienced first hand the visceral effects of low frequency wind turbine noise, something the industry denies while readily documenting audible noise.

Here is a challenge for you. I will meet you for two hikes in western Maine. We can hike the entire length of Sunday River's summits from Whitecap to Jordan and together we can document all the alleged blasting and leveling of the mountains that has occurred in developing the economic engine of that part of the state. Then our second hike can be from State Rte 120 in Roxbury Notch to the northern-most turbines on Record Hill and do the same documentation of the subsidy plantation known as Record Hill Wind project. In marketing, focus groups are used, so lets present the comparison to a scientifically selected, non-biased focus group and let them judge which mountains have been destroyed. Then just to make it interesting, we could add in increased property valuation, economic multiplier, permanent full time employment, etc.

This is yet another despicable display of pro wind bias by LSJ. The wind industry guys really got to your editorial staff, didn't they? What about the photos of how badly blasted away and leveled Flathead Mt., Partidge Peak, and Record Hill are from this industrialization of the beautiful western mountains? What about a story explaining that these useless turbines will not produce even 30% of their rated capacity? How about an expose to the taxpayers how Angus King & Rob Gardner will reap 30% of the construction cost from ARRA scam and needed a government guaranteed loan in order to secure private funding? How about an investigative piece about the mysterious Bayroot/Yale University endowment connection for this project? How about interviews with the property owners of the Roxbury Pond campowners who now have to put up with their views and quietude ruined by these turbines and loss of property valuation and marketability of these properties?

On and on the questions can go! There are a multitude of issues surrounding this controversial project and others that the LSJ and other media refuse to investigate and report. You are quick to regurgitate the latest prpaganda from the wind industry and to push their agenda, helping the onslaught of wind power projects in the River Valley region. Shame on LSJ! Much sadness for ruination of Roxbury Pond's quality of place.

Maine isn't dying, though we have lost many traditional manufacturing. What hurts this state is the high taxes and poor business climate from 40 years of Democratic control. (Disclosure, I am an enrolled Democrat). The spiral of electricity costs started in Gov, now wind developer, Angus King's administration. The worst was Baldacci, who got Maine in RGGI & rammed through the heinous wind power act through an ignorant legislature in the waning hours of the short term session in April 1998. The biggest hurdle to locating new industry in Maine is the cost of energy and the inept way we match training & education with the jobs. If we go ahead with mandating more "renewable" electricity (which means wind), high electricity users like Fairchild and National Semiconductor will leave, as these companies are constantly being lured to other states in the predatory economic development competition.
Last point. Don't disparage Sunday River. They employ 300+ people full time, year round and 1,000 people seasonally directly in their operation That doesn't include the huge multiplier effect on the region's economy. Those jobs at Sunday River are three times the number of full time maintenance jobs that will be generated from the build out of the state's goal for on-shore wind.

I see a photo of whom I assume is you at Carry Ponds, Maine from 1977 on your Facebook page. Looked like you had a great time cross country skiing! Remeber how gorgeous, wild, and quiet the Carry Ponds are? All will be shattered when the ridges to the south of these ponds are blasted away and leveled and dozens of 459 foot tall wind turbines dominate viewshed. This is a huge project proposed by the same company that built the Record Hill project in Roxbury that clearly marrs the viewshed from the AT on Badl Pate Mt. and Tumbledown Mt. Preserve. None of these turbines will generate even 30% capacity factor and the unreliable power is not needed in the New England grid. Do you really want to sit out there in Hawaii and criticize the efforts of Maine residents to stop this destruction of what makes Maine so beautiful and unique?

Mr. Payne gets paid well to spend all day spinning the misinformation campaign of the wind industry. So when he claims wind power critics use misinformation that is the classic "pot calling the kettle black".

Mr. Payne, I am one of the people quoted in the Feb. 8 LSJ editorial. I am a regular citizen who has to work all day at a job no way related to wind. But this issue is so critically important to me as a 7th generation Mainer, that I must speak out. Like the hundreds of other critics of the proliferation of industrial wind in Maine, we give freely of our spare time and resources. My advanced degree has enabled me to be a critical thinker and to draw well substantiated conclusions. I stand by everything I write.

How dare you so arrogantly denigrate the work of the citizens who have risen up against more than a decade of wind industry propaganda to speak out a Maine-based truthful critique of wind industry? Critics of the wind industry include a broad spectrum from every day citizens who just know right from wrong or who have already become victims of wind power sites to doctors, lawyers, economists, and engineers.

Mr. Payne, you don't own the truth, facts, or integrity in this debate; far from it! If the citizens of this state could have the time and resources to make our case in Augusta, you would be hard pressed to defend an indefensible industry. Must be nice to be a smug paid shill!

"takes one to know one" taunt is what 10 year olds do. BTW, I have experienced wind turbine syndrome first hand, so I know what Ms. Barnett and her neighbors will experience. Try having respect for the well being of your fellow citizens of the state of Maine, or do you feel they should be sacrificed for the windunstry folly?

From Merriam-Webster: Shill:"to act as a spokesperson or promoter". You, Mr. Woodbury, are a shill. Ms. Barnett is a victim who is fighting for her rights and the rights of her neighbors to not have their health and well being injured by the noise impact of an industrial site being built on top of them.

This home is on Mountain Road in Mars Hill. The owners were part of the group who sued First Wind over verifiable noise problems. The turbines behind this home are less than 1,000 feet, far closer than any turbines should be built to dwellings. I have stood in the yard of the next neighbor and seen dBA readings on a decibel meter go from 46 to 58 as I listened to the incessant roar, thumping, and creaking.

Mars Hill was originally licensed for 45 dBA and in response to neighbors' complaints, the DEP gave First Wind a variance to 50 dBA. Our state government sided with a failed project instead of enforcing its license provisions and protecting its citizens! At a hearing with the Lincoln Town Council, the First Wind representative was asked what lessons were learned from the project in Mars Hill. To my amazement, the response was (paraphrase, but it is on tape) "We learned that turbines should not be built so close to people." None of the 40 turbines of the Rollins project in Lincoln Lakes are as close to homes as Mars Hill, but as soon as the turbines began testing, there were noise complaints.

Lastly, your use of these two contrasting photos is preposterous.

Less than 2% of electricity nation-wide comes from oil, so no connection.
First Wind is a company so heavily in debt that they failed twice to do an IPO and if the PTC is eliminated, they will go out of business.
Do not use the word communist unless you truly know what you are talking about. In a communist economic system, central planning creates mandates, quotas, etc. and that seems to be the only way wind power exists. People who oppose the wind folly favor free markets for energy, not heavy subsidies and mandates.

I stand by everything I wrote here and in all the other responses to LSJ stories regarding wind power in Maine. The Maine media have largely been complicit in pushing the wind industry in Maine. True investigative reporting doesn't exist in Maine with the exception of Naomi Schalit and John Christie.

LSJ owes it to their readership area to dig into the multitude of wind related issues, as the region is heavily targeted by an industry that exists only due to bad public policy that has created subsidies and mandates. The wind industry is steadily destroying what many of us cherish: the natural resources and Quality of Place, all for a folly. Please, LSJ, care more about Maine people and our wonderful western mounatains than a bogus industry!

Gary, the race is on to get as many of these sprawling, useless, environmentally devastating windsprawl projects going as possible while the ARRA money for 30% of the project cost paid for by you, me, and the other debt-ridden ($15 trillion and climbing!) taxpayers is still available. The wind industry states, as it pleads its case to Congress, that the industry won't survive if the Production Tax credit is eliminated. Well, it should be! Would you ever pay for an appliance that worked only 25% of the time? Would you ever pay for an appliance that wouldn't work when you really needed it or started to work then stopped or phased in and out sporadically? Would you pay for an appliance that not only would never pay for itself in its useful life cycle but also would require you to pay for an additional appliance to be running constantly as a back up? Well, that is exactly what we are doing with the asinine policy of the USA wasting money on wind turbines!

Firstly, there are only a few mountains in Maine that have the right terrain facing north that would be usable for alpine ski resorts. The best potential ski mountain in the eastern USA, Bigelow Mt., was proposed for the "Aspen of the East" development and was saved as a preserve in 1976 by the people of Maine voting for the preserve. Now, just 45 years later, we are about to encircle that preserve with useless, environmentally destructive industrial wind sites. If that indeed happens, we would have been far better off economically to go with the "Aspen of the East", a ski resort of world caliber. I would take that over wind turbines any day.
Secondly, just look at Sunday River: 746 acres of ski terrain. Every wind project: Spruce Mt. in Woodstock, Record Hill in Roxbury, Rollins in Lincoln Lakes, Kibby near the Canadian border, Stetson Mt. in northeastern Maine, and Mars Hill has had more clear-cut acreage than Sunday River. Sunday River has 14 chairlifts; the highest point above the ground is about 60 feet. I know Sunday River like the palm of my hand and I know the Rollins Wind Project the same way. You take the entire number of ski towers at Sunday River and aggregate them and they will equal about 3 of the 40 wind towers at Rollins. There is simply NO comparison. Besides, Sunday River employs directly more than 300 people and indirectly more than 1,000 jobs in western Maine. Rollins employs 4 maintenance technicians.

Well, this is very interesting. Despite having plenty of resources, money, zealots, and hired hands, these people might not have enough signatures that are verifiable.

Could it be that Maine people are beginning to see that wind power is no panacea? That mandates are burdensome, intrusive, and anti-democratic? That this particular mandate is both unnecessary and costly?

Are we getting to the point that Mainers want the real truth about the manipulation that has been happening, with ratepayers the victims, ever since Angus King (now wind developer) led the way to de-regulation? The promise that we would have lower electricity costs with de-regulation has been broken for a long time.

Let the free market create our choices and not the dictates of zealots who want to force their expensive and environmentally costly utopian ideal of unpredictable, unreliable, ineffective wind power on the rest of us.

First, Andrew, I understand your views about private property. It plays out on both sides, though, doesn't it? For example, the 700+ waterfront property owners in Lincoln Lakes who can't find buyers for their homes & seasonal cottages since the Rollins wind project went in and have thus suffered devaluation of their property. The noise of wind crosses over to the private property of the people who have wind turbines built too close to them. They can't sleep, can't concentrate due to noise, and suffer ill effects like headaches, nausea, vertigo, ringing in ears and even chest pains from low frequency sound waves---something I, personally, have experienced from wind turbines.

So who are Robert Rand and Stephen Ambrose? Two very dedicated accoustics experts who have taken their deep experience with industrial noise and applied it to wind turbines. They challenge the status quo of "sound modeling" with computers that are virtually cut & paste jobs for every wind power application. DEP & LURC rubber stamps these because the state uses non-applicable noise regulations drafted to deal with urban noise, not wind turbines. I took one look at the noise impact zone for the Rollins wind project and, being a simple lay person, said at the time, the people on North Rd. in Lee, sections of Lee Rd. and Rocky Dundee Rd in Lincoln will get "hammered" by noise. First Wind denied it. The "third party noise expert" hired by DEP said no. As soon as the turbines went in, there were complaints about noise. There have been verifiable, substantive complaints in every project that has gone where people live.

Concerning Rand and Ambrose, I give you this from the Rand Accoustics website: "Rand Acoustics is a Member of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering since 1993, and is committed to INCE’s Canon of Ethics. The first and most prominent of INCE’s ethical canons is aligned with the generalized principles of the Hippocratic Oath: Hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public." Something the wind industry will never do.

First of all, it galls me every time someone who derives financial gain from wind spins out the deceit about wind power without disclosing their professional or financial interest. Dick Hall's background is pointed out by the comment here by Monique Aniel.

Me? Just a citizen who has hiked every mile of the Appalachian Trail in Maine, hiked a vast majority of the mountains with trails and some that are trail-less, and I grew up in the northeastern uplands that the state is rapidly allowing to become the domain of First Wind. In my experience, I would put all ridge tops in the state of Maine off limits to the blasting and leveling of hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of ridges that occur every time one of these sprawling, environmentally destructive wind sites gets developed. Wind projects, Mr. Hall, are NOT LOW IMPACT!

The cumulative impact of building out the state's goal of 2700 MW of installed capacity of wind by 2020, contained in the most heinous law I've witnessed in my lifetime in Maine---the Expedited Wind Permitting statute---is horrendous! Based on what has already been built out, we can project that it will be 40 to 50 projects, destroying 350 miles of Maine's uplands, permanently clearcutting over 50,000 acres of carbon-sequestering forest, and more than 1,000 miles of new powerlines criss-crossing our beautiful state to connect to the $1.4 billion expanded transmission trunk line that is being built only for wind projects.

At the measly 25% capacity factor that we are seeing as the most production out of these wind turbines, because according to NREL Maine has poor to marginal wind potential, that comes to 675 MW of unpredictable, unreliable surges of grid-skittering wind power that ISO New England doesn't even include for its base load or base load following daily needs. If we need 675 MW of new power, just one other natural gas plant like the one in Westbrook sitting on less than 100 acres of an industrial park is a more environmentally benign and economically sensible solution than wind power.

Wind power is a scam. It is bad for the environment but wind shills like you never tell the truth about it.

Skibitsky advises the "selectman may not have to honor a petition on the matter." Huh? Unless the Town Charter or some state law prohibits petitioning on a subject matter that might have been considered in some other way, what prohibits the ridents of a town from putting a matter to a vote vis petition? The last time I looked, we still live in a democracy and part of the rights of citizens is to petition their government! At the local level, it is called Home Rule. Let Mr. McKay present a proposed ordinance and do a petition drive to put the matter to a vote of the registered voters of Dixfield.

As far as the ordinance itself goes, there are a number of well contructed and legally vetted municipal ordinances oassed by dozens of other Maine communities for Mr. McKay and others to draw from. Change the name of the town and delete or add specifics to the town and that's about it. The remarks from the Selectmen and the Town Manager in this regard indicate that there is a pre-disposed attitude in favor of wind companies amongst them. Which makes it that much more important to allow the citizens to decide a matter that can have a drastic community altering consequence.

First, if Dylan Voorhees felt it was necessary to meet with Peru's Ordinance Committee, he and NRCM must be very concerned about the movement of towns to control the development of sprawling industrial wind projects. To be fair, since the Peru committee met with Voorhees, they should also meet with a representative of the Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power www.windtaskforce.org or Friends of Maine's Mountains www.friendsofmainesmountains.org to get the non-"greenwashed" perspective from a life-time Mainer.

Voorhees stated that NRCM is supportive of the state's goal, which is 2700 MW of installed capacity on-shore by 2020. Based on my knowledge of the 60 MW Rollins project in Lincoln, a prime example of a mid-size industrial wind site, the 7 miles of ridges destroyed at Rollins, the 1,000 acres of permanent clearcutting of carbon-sequestering forest, and 20 miles of new powerlines, here's how that would project out: There would be about 45 more industrial wind sites, destroying 350 miles of Maine's mountains and ridges; 50,000+ acres of permanent clearcuts; 1,000+ miles of new powerlines. The Rollins turbines are 389 feet tall and most recent proposals include larger turbines with heights of 435 to 485 feet tall---compared to the tallest building in Maine, Franklin Towers in Portland at 202 feet. Rollins was an easy site to develop with low ridges and few steep slopes and not a lot of granite ledge. The footprint of larger projects and projects on higher mountains will be far greater. This is a terrible toll to take on our state's natural resources, beauty, and quality of life.

Here's the rub for me. The developers will invest more than $5 billion dollars to develop these sites, knowing that most of the cost is covered by US Taxpayers. They end up with, at best, 25% capacity, or 675 MW of unpredictable, unreliable power that Maine doesn't even need! One gas fired plant like the Calpine generator in Westbrook could be built on less than 100 acres for about a half a billion dollars and would crank out 675 MW of reliable base load power.

Voorhees has to really stretch to make NRCM seem reasonable in opposing just two projects out of more than a dozen where decisions were made by DEP or LURC: Black Nubble/Redington and the Kibby expansion to Sisk Mt. he mentions. NRCM also came out as neutral on the Bowers project last year. NRCM has supported projects that are clearly visible from Mt. Katahdin and Acadia National Park, that affect the Bigelow Preserve, the Tumbledown and Mahoosuc public reserved lands, the Bald Mt. & Speckled Mt public lands right next door to Peru. NRCM supports the Saddleback Wind project in Carthage, which will be clearly visible from popular Mt. Blue State Park. Folks, this is just the start of the devastation of our quality of place that we value. If we do not stop the onslaught of these huge ugly machines across our landscape, we will never be able to go anywhere without turbines in our view. Dylan Voorhees is not from Maine and speaking as an eight generation Mainer, I loathe his and NRCM's vision of ruining my native state for the folly of industrial wind.

Viewing the video reminds me of the ruination of Rollins Mt. and the ridges of Rocky Dundee by First Wind. See photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/101554457531034815464/RollinsWindProjectMay... More than 700 year round and seasonal waterfront homeowners have had their slice of paradise ruined and nobody can find a buyer for the properties as their value plunges. People go to places like the 13 Lincoln Lakes, Roxbury Pond, Concord Pond, and Shagg Pond is get away, to have views of mountains, not blasted away ridgelines with 40 story tall turbines, with their red aviation lights flashing. What are we doing to our beautiful state when we sacrifice our natural resources to the folly of an industry that wouldn't exist except for government subsidies misplaced "green" zealousness.

Kathy, I'm not sure, but I think Alice Barnett's remarks about the 24 receptors had to do with the Saddleback Ridge/Carthage project and not Roxbury. As someone who has been involved in a number of disputes over these projects, I can attest to the tactics used by the developers that do, indeed, include outright lies and manipulations. The Expedited Wind Permitting statute has created a hugely "unlevel" playing field regarding the favoritism and advantages given to the wind developers compared to the constraints placed on the citizens of this state. It essentially creates a "rubber stamp" by DEP & LURC whenever there is an application to destroy our mountains for the folly of useless sprawling industrial wind sites.

So, the last two paragraphs of your comment are right on target. The only way to stymie the onslaught of destructive industrial wind sites is for local towns to develop an ordinance that is appropriate to their location and to protect all of their residents, something the "model ordinance" from the state fails to do. I am glad Sumner is working on one, as it is bad enough to have the Spruce Mt. project on the border with Sumner. Shagg Pond, Bald Mt. and Speckled Mt., three places dear to me, will never be the same with 10 huge turbines intruding.

Many residents of the LSJ area are concerned about maintaining quality of life--people who choose to live in rural areas for the peace and quiet, for the natural resources, and for the birds and wildlife. An industrial wind power site can shatter all of this. Rural Maine is an easy target for wind developers because of large expanses of undeveloped land often owned in large tracts by a few landowners and because the dangers inherent in utility scale wind turbines preclude them being installed in more built up areas. Manipulative wind developers also entice local approval by dangling tantalizing (albeit tiny) amounts of money in front of local officials of towns that are struggling to find revenues.

Utility scale, or industrial, wind turbines range from 389 feet to 485 feet tall, more than twice as high as the tallest building in Maine. Placed on ridges and with their aviation warning lights blinking, they dramatically change view-scapes. The service roads and pad sites for these machines require extensive clear cutting, blasting, and leveling, as the components are so huge that special hauling trucks are required and assembly is done by what Reed & Reed Co. states is the “biggest crane in New England”.

Operation of a wind power site creates siltation and washing of herbicide residues into your watershed. Wildlife habitats are fragmented and wind turbines are notorious for bird and bat kills, though wind companies work diligently to cover this up. Unfortunately, anyone living within a mile or so of industrial wind turbines can also be bothered by both the incessant audible noise when blades are turning, and many are physically affected by pulsations of inaudible low frequency sound waves.

Is this what you want for your community? It will be if you do not take local action. In April 2008 an unknowing Legislature passed LD 2283, the so-called Expedited Wind Permitting statute without debate in the waning hours of the session. This law has stripped residents of having a say in siting wind power projects, has opened the door to an onslaught of development of industrial wind power sites, and rendered both the DEP and LURC to the role of rubber stamping every project. More than two dozen communities in Maine have taken notice of this and have passed local ordinances controlling wind power development, including Rumford, Newry, Buckfield in your area. The state will not protect you; only the concerned citizens in a local community can control their destiny and it should come before the wind developer comes to town. It need not be a huge sprawling 100 MW project, either, as the statute specifically encourages small projects like the three turbines at Freedom and Vinalhaven as “Community Based” projects of 10 MW or less.

The reporter writes: "Maine ratepayers will pick up a small portion of the cost for the project. The far larger part will be paid by the other states in ISO New England." As Paul Harvey used to famously say "and now for the rest of the story". By socializing the cost of this project through the grid operator ISO-New England, that small portion the reporter refers to is 8%. This means that Maine ratepayers will cover 8% of this project---sounds like a great deal, doesn't it? But by socializing the cost throughout ISO-New England, it keeps Maine ratepayers on the hook for what ISO-NE plans as some $35 billion related to renewable energy projects, mostly resulting from the mandates of RGGI. Now, which would you rather pay, 100% of $1.5 billion or 8% of $35 billion ($2.8 billion). Or not pay these exhorbitant costs at all?

So much of this is unnecessary. Going down the road of the wind folly is going to bankrupt our regional economy and send electrical rates sky high. Why don't we start with the premise that we in Maine do not need additional electricity generation from wind power since our hydro output alone is enough to satisfy RGGI mandates. We are also a net exporter of electricity, yet we have higher rates than the national average, a problem that needs resolution without adding expensive wind power with its huge environmental footprint. Wind power is certainly not the answer now, and in the future when Federal subsidies go away, it will be a disaster.

Let's examine a few things here. Emera, a Canadian company, owns both Bangor Hydro and Maine Public Service up in Aroostook. Iberdrola, the Spanish company that is also one of the worlds biggest wind developers, owns CMP, and is putting up met towers for wind projects in spite of the law separating electricity distributors from generators (remember CMP and Bangor Hydro had to sell all their production assets?). Look at the wind projects, using Chinese or German or Danish turbines and blades made in places like Brazil, all paid for with US taxpayer money. The Canadians have built huge generating capacity in places like James Bay and Churchill Falls. They have developed gas at Sable Island, NS and are developing gas resources off Newfoundland so rich that the Newfies will never want to fish for cod again. But here in Maine, we throw up roadblocks to partnering with our Canadian neighbors and lowering our energy costs and push heavily subsidized, costly, ineffective wind power. How stupid are we?

As far as Gov. LePage goes, I do criticize him: Gov., what has taken you so long? Be bold in taking action to lower Mainers' energy costs!

The by line here for Douglas Rooks should have included "notorious wind shill". I think it is high time that Rooks disclosed exactly what his relationship to the windustry is, other than long-tome supporter of mountain destroyer-wind developer Angus King.

This is an incredibly biased article. LURC erred terribly in the Sisk Mt. case and a decision on this is pending from the Maine Supreme Court. As for Bowers Mt., I attended the two days of hearings in Lincoln and LURC did due diligence and the opponents of this project won the day and LURC did the right thing. In any other state or country (Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia comes to mind) this incredible treasure of undeveloped lakes would be protected and preserved, not ringed with 40 story wind turbines.

Stacy Fitts, it must be noted, has a conflict of interest, working for (and advancing the financial interests of) Kleinschmidt Associates which contracts with the wind industry. He and Rep. Hinck worked hard this past legislative session to thwart any proposed changes to the heinous Expedited Wind Permitting statute. The law has denied citizens any rights to have input to wind projects while opening the door to an onslaught of industrialization of our magnificent and priceless mountains. It is, indeed, a sad chapter in our state's history.

The liberals who control our school systems shape the way youngsters think. This is an example of the greenwashing of a generation that is taking place. I have seen curricula that are devised in collaboration with wind proponents like AWEA that are blatant propaganda. I would love to see this curriculum and pick it apart for its objectiveness. Just as an example: looking at "nine types of energy and were required to identify them as renewable or non-renewable." Might it have served a better purpose to have the kids look at nine types of energy and identify which has the most or least energy density? Or which is the most cost effective per MW or BTU?

Just to quote the teacher as saying "It's great that this just happened to be in our own backyard," shows where she is coming from. Will these kids make a field trip to the Calpine plant in Westbrook that generates base load power of 545MW, 24/7/365? Will these kids make a field trip to the hydro dam at Rumford Falls and be allowed to be awestruck by the volume of the Androscoggin River and the hydro head that is harnessed there. Will a representative of the Citizens Task Force on Wind Power be invited to the classroom for a presentation? I'm sure they won't.

First of all, the word is polls when referring to places where people vote, not poles. Second, I understand the results of voting. You lost your push for whatever you think you might gain from having Rumford ravaged by industrial wind development, so perhaps you strident wind supporters should get over it. One of the most common results of the wind developers wanting to take advantage of towns is the schism, often rancorous, that divides communities. More and more people are saying they recognize the tremendous negatives associated with wind power development and do not want it in their communities. Or, they are saying wind power development can come to our town and I support it, but on our terms. Perhaps that is the true meaning to poll results. Considering the influence First Wind has tried to have in Rumford, this is a stinging defeat for the meddlesome company.

Frank, I'm glad you are such a big fan of the 3 Stooges. But the stooges are not the local people who worked hard to find an ordinance solution to protect all the citizens of Rumford. The stooges are Obama and all the other green-pandering politicians who vote to use taxpayer money to support an industry that wouldn't exist without heavy subsidization, while the country goes deeper and deeper in debt. The stooges are Obama and the pandering politicians who believe they must mandate electricity be generated from the most costly, inefficient, and environmentally degrading source possible. The wind industry is the bastard son of Enron and it is a ruinous road for us to go down.

If First Wind doesn't like Rumford's ordinance, it is because they know that the noisy, intrusive technology will never meet the sensible criteria set forth. They are in a frezied drive to put up as many of these useless machines as possible before the 30% upfront taxpayer-cash giveaway from Obama goes away. They will simply move on to ravage another part of our beautiful state. Rumford will be far better off without First Wind.

Finally, has it occured to you that just maybe the River Valley residents are appalled at seeing the destruction of Record Hill, Patridge Peak, and Flathead Mt. in Roxbury and the imposition of 40 story tall industrial turbines on the region and saying "no more"?

Gawd, where to begin! First, Pat Difillip, who likely is a nice enough and earnest fellow, is a project manager for Reed & Reed, the company that erects all the wind turbine towers because, as they brag, they own the biggest crane in New England. He is paid to go to every conceivable public comment meeting or hearing related to wind power development to push in his folksy way, the agenda of his company and the wind industry. I'm saddened that he did not have the integrity to disclose his role.

His letter is filled with wind industry bravada, distortions, half-truths and misinformation. Far too numerous to point out. He also doesn't say a bit about all the negatives such as blowing apart mountains and ridges, leveling hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of ridges for pad sites, the huge roads that are constructed to get Reed & Reed's gigantic crane in place to hoist parts of these monstrous pinwheels into place, etc.

The Sun-Journal's readership area in Oxford and Franklin counties are the target area for sprawling industrial wind sites with ridges sprouting 450 foot tall turbines. Get involved in stopping this onslaught. For more information, go to www.windtaskforce.org

It is well known that Mr. King cherry-picks information to suit his purposes. Thank you Sally for calling him out on that. The sad thing is the silver tongued King bamboozles people into actually believing his "Chicken Little" fear mongering that the planet is doomed unless we carpet our state from the NH to the Canadian border way Downeast with useless wind turbines in order for he and the other wind subsidy pigs can feed at the taxpayer trough. Former Governor turned scamster; how pathetic!

There is nothing good about this photo. It should be condemned and should serve as a wake up call to everyone who loves our mountains, as the Oxford Hills and the western mountains are targets for hundred of these useless 40 story tall machines. It will be a horrible blight on the land as already being seen here on Spruce Mt. and in Roxbury.

Why are we blasting away and leveling our beautiful mountains for an unpredictable, unreliable source of intermittent power that will, at best, produce no more than 30% of its capacity? Because the government is doling our billions of your taxpayer dollars for this folly. Meanwhile, the natural gas powered plant in the Rumford industrial park is relegated to continue as a back up facility. If allowed to operate as a base line producer, it's output 24/7 would be more than all the wind turbines on the drawing boards combined. There is something very seriously wrong with this policy,

Yup, here is yet another carpetbagger out of state developer who wants to ruin more of Maine's beautiful countryside to reap taxpayer subsidies and selling RECs from wind. Don't be lulled by these "mid-sized" turbines. They are just a smaller version of ugly blight on the landscape, they still make noise, and they are useless. Want examples of "mid-sized" turbines? Look at the Kittery, Saco, and UMPI turbines--mid sized, but colossal failures! They have all been plagued with failure.

The wind developers put out such a spin that if it were harnessed, it would produce more electricity than the turbines they are touting. Don't get fooled by the slick presentation. When the subsidies go away, Maine landscape will be littered with broken down, useless turbines.

I see that the perpetually self serving, manipulative, ego driven, and greedy Mr. King is at it again. This time, sharing his silver tongued mis-truths to the Bethel Chamber. The gall of the man, who just 25 miles away is responsible for blasting away, leveling, and destruction of three mountains in Roxbury, to spin his advocacy of the wind power farce in Bethel. But King is a hypocrite. He never missed a photo opp or sound bite to extoll the beauty of Maine and its unique natural resources while he was Governor. Go back and read what he said about protecting the natural treasures of Maine. Now he advocates surrounding those natural treasures with devastated mountains sprouting 400+ feet tall wind machines that are costly, marginally productive, and environmentally worse than the fossil fuel King denigrates ad nauseum.
His Record Hill Wind project in Roxbury impacts on the viewshed of Tumbledown and Mahoosuc Public Reserved Lands (bought with taxpayer LMF bonds), the Appalachian Trail, the Rumford Whitecap Preserve of the Mahoosuc Land Trust. Meanwhile, aside from the mill in Rumford, the leading economic force in this part of Maine is tourism. Follow King's greedy quest to reap taxpayer subsidies and profit from Enron-inspired REC sales and it will destroy tourism. Hopefully, better wisdom will prevail in the area and there will be a strong move to protect the natural resources and beauty that is such a draw to Bethel. Stop the proliferation of industrial wind sites now!

Thank you for your sentiments, Mr. DeRaspe. You have been grossly violated in the name of greed. I hope you get a tax abatement, but that is not the real issue here. The real issue, and people like Marjorie Grover need to get educated about this, is what a collosal waste of taxpayers money we are throwing away on wind turbines that would never exist without heavy taxpayer subsidies, mandates, and other preferential treatment. Mayjorie, we should not be subsidizing wind power when we have a $14.5 trillion national debt. We shouldn't subsidize any forms of energy. If we stopped the subsidies, the energy dense resources would still provide for our modern day economy, but there wouldn't be a large scale solar array, and industrial wind site, or an ethanol plant ever built, as these are economic follies that don't work effectively. Destoying our mountains by blasting them away, leveling hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of them, and leaving them permanently scarred with machines twice the height of the tallist building in Maine is asinine. Desecrating our unique natural resources of Maine with sprawling industrial wind sites is analogous to desecrating the beloved American flag. You just don't do it!

These do not belong here. What is not shown is the tremendous devastation of three mountain peaks from blasting and leveling for the turbine pads and the permanent gash of the road to haul in huge components. These are a monument to greed, as they would never be going in except for the huge taxpayer subsidies, the mandates and special treatment given the wind industry, and selling Enron-inspired RECs based not on actual output but on the nameplate rating of the turbines. It is a financial scam perpetrated by strong special interests that will ruin rural Maine. If someone had wanted to build a modest mountain-top camp, DEP would have scrutinized that application far more than the wind industry is treated thanks to the criminal and unconstitutional Expedited Wind Permitting statute. It is a crime against the natural resources of this state and an unconstitutional granting of privilege to an industry that wouldn't exist without it. The greatest travesty I have seen in my lifetime!

Why don't you engage in discourse instead of your silly little game of questions? I speak my mind, as you can see in comments on this article and many others. At this point, I've said enough. Its now an old thread.

TIF is complicated to explain and likely it is editing for space that causes Tom Standard to be a bit misleading when he writes: "The portion of the tax covered by the TIF must be used for community improvement or financial development, or it can be given back to the developer as an incentive to proceed with the project." There is absolutely no incentive for a wind developer (or any developer of a project subject to a TIF) to enter into a TIF unless the developer will gain something from "their" portion.

For many projects like building new housing in a blighted area or expansion or new location of industry, it is infrastructure costs like expending sewer lines, rebuiding/expanding access roads, etc. In the case of wind power developers, all they seek is a rebate in their property taxes in the TIF shell game. It is completely unfair to any other business or to homeowners to just give them back, typically, 50% of their property taxes in order for them to come in to town and destroy the natural resources and wreak havoc on the lives of local residents when the turbines are too close to where people live.

Using TIF for wind power development is a real abuse of the intent of the TIF legislation, which is economic development, keeping jobs that might be lost, addressing blight. Wind developers are tax whores. They exist only due to the tax equity financing and taxpayer subsidies. Then they have the temerity to go to the local communities and ask for half of their taxes back!

I say to the wind developers, pay full taxes on full valuation. Then pay an annual impact fee equal to the loss of state revenue sharing and school subsidy due to the town's higher valuation. It then becomes "revenue neutral" for local taxes. Then I am not paying for it through my taxes. Whenever a TIF happens in some other town, it costs me tax money. I am totally for projects that are true economic development, helping to create prosperity in our state. I am totally against the over-use of TIF for other than its intended purpose.

reliable, energy dense resources.

Selectperson Jean Smart lives up to her name, being smart and foresightful to know that Paris needs to be pro-active when it comes to regulating the wind industry. It certainly has open space on ridges that are targets of the wind developers. However, there is enough residential density in these areas that residents of Paris would be negatively affected by wind turbines being built too close to where people live. It is the community's responsibility to protect all its residents, not make some unfortunate people expendable to wind power development. Fortunately for Paris, there are several very good ordinances that are in place to use as models rather than the State of Maine model ordinance that fails to protect the interests of the town and its citizenry.

Well, isn't it interesting that the folks in Peru seem to be paying attention to the contoversy over wind power. Whenever the local people are given a chance to become informed about the plethora of issues regarding industrial wind sites, they usually vote the way the return of the survey indicates. Peru people want to preserve their quality of life and wellbeing of all citizens by favoring greater restrictions than the state's "model ordinance" which is essentially an open door to wind power developers. A plurality want to effectively ban wind power projects.

The local communities' only option is to protect their own interests and control their own destinies in facing the onslaught of wind power delopment that was unleashed by the heinous LD2283. The wind industry in Maine constantly touts a skewed and industry paid for survey that states that 80% of Maine people favor wind power. With dozens of towns adopting restrictive and protective ordinances and towns targeted by the wind companies in a community-splitting uproar, the opinion of rural people is far different than all those Portland people that the wind industry surveyed. I think Peru People have it right.

No, Frank, you've got it all wrong. The Town Of Rumnford's citizens should devise their own ordinance. One that is unique to Rumford. One that does not make any part of the town or any of its citizens "expendable" to wind power. Every citizen has a right to protection from having the deleterious effects of life near a wind turbine. Every One.

The state model ordinance was devised by a cabal of wind zealots for the wind industry. The Expedited Wind Permitting Statute was devised by a cabal of wind zealots for the wind industry. The DEP staff is loaded with wind zealots who advocate actively the wind industry. How else can you explain the verbal spanking that James Cassida and his DEP staff took in Dixfield during the public comment meeting for the Carthage project, yet they find nothing wrong with the Patriot Renewables application that is so riddled with holes it resembles Swiss cheese?

The only way any community can protect its citizens from the wind industry is to adopt an ordinance strong enough to regulate them. The state model ordinance fails miserably.

Well, well, isn't it easy for the police/DA/courts to arrest, prosecute, and convict people of civil disobedience and overlook the BIG CRIME---RAPE of our beloved mountains by the wind industry thieves. The CEO of Trans Canada and every executive responsible for the company's destruction of Kibby should be arrested and tried for RAPING OUR MOUNTAINS! That is the crime that not only goes unpunished but is rewarded by tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.

Mr. Fallon, it doesn't help to mock Dr. Gary Steinberg. The man not only has academic bona fides that most people involved with wind issues, pro or con, do not, he has the first hand experience of the Rollins Project in Lincoln and the deceit, lies, and manipulations of First Wind. He is like the Paul Revere of those who understand the wind industry and its agenda, striving to warn people about the reality behind the wind hype. Bully for him! And congratulations to the people of Rumford and the rest of the River Valley region for trying to shape their own destiny, for there are major issues at stake.

Since when is blowing up,leveling, and scalping mountains considered "environmental protection"?

Since when does it equally protect residents of a town to select some to be subjected to deleterious effects of low frequency sound waves, disorienting shadow flicker, and relentless audible noise. Does the wind industry have more rights than residents?

Since when is mandating an ever increasing use of the most costly and least efficient form of electricity generation good public policy?

Since when does it make sense to continue extraordinarily high subsidization (subsidy per mwh) from taxpayers when we run trillion dollar deficits every year and impose REC's as hidden carbon taxes on ratepayers?

If this state actually allows the build out of the number of wind turbines to meet its arbitrarily set goal of 2700 MW installed capacity by 2020, hundreds of miles of the beautiful mountain ridges across the state will bristle with nearly 2,000 forty story wind turbines, all turning by the vagueries of weather, maybe putting out 675 MW (@25% capacity factor) of unpredictable, unreliable electricity. Its bad economics and bad public policy that many Mainers are coming to realize. That is why the debate going on in Rumford is a state-wide issue. That's why people like Dr. Steinberg and myself lend a voice based on substantial research and a huge amount of actual experience.

Do you ever do any research? Do you ever consider the facts about renewable energy sources? This editorial reads like it was written by the wind industry and I'm sure they are in your editorial offices all the time spinning their lies. The Governor is right. We already do more than any other state in the union when it comes to percentage of our electricity generation from renewables. The issue here is mandates and bad public policy that now and in the future costs us more due to the mandates.
It costs us more right now because the TAXPAYERS SUBSIDIZE wind far more per megawatt hour than any other source (USEIA, wind $23.37/mwh; next highest is nuclear $1.59/mwh; biomass, which we could do a lot in Maine 89 cents) Plus wind industry sells RECs, which is a not-so-hidden carbon tax that is passed on to consumers. In the future, when Congress actually gets rid of subsidies, we will be left with mandates to take electricity from this source at 3-4 times the cost of natural gas generated electricity. Finally, what the wind industry dodges as a cost and you don't mention either, is the tremendous cost of new infrastructure and expensive technology to integrate ever increasing amounts of skittering surges of wind power into the grid.
The Governor is right and you are absolutely wrong. Supporting ever increasing mandates for Mainers and continuing participation in RGGI which is driving other states' renewable energy portfolios resulting in placing more turbines in rural Maine is a ruinous policy. Thank you Gov. LePage for understanding this and continuing the quest to bring down our electricity costs.

That this should happen doesn't surprise me. Everywhere that wind developers come, it ends up dividing communities, even families. There is a large contingent in the River valley region who understand that wind is a folly, that it's huge footprint destroys mountains and the mountain ecosystems, that don't want huge 40 story towers looming over their town, that don't believe it is OK to say a certain number of citizens are "expendable", whose rights to peaceful existence and well being are just collateral damage to the wind industry. Its just wrong!

First Wind always says they don't want to be in a community where they are not welcome, yet the company is so persistent in imposing itself onto Rumford. It is arrogant in waging its second political campaign for access to Rumford, knowing full well that citizens don't have the money to wage a political campaign back. First Wind pulls out everything in the wind industry playbook, that's for sure. So although I will recognize that it is wrong to take political signs, I can understand the frustration of the local person who just wants First Wind to leave Rumford alone.

Rumford and Lincoln are a lot alike, although the mountains around Rumford are closer and higher and Lincoln has the lakes. A picture says a thousand words. Check out the photos of the nearly completed Rollins Project in Lincoln. All the turbines are in place, it just isn't wired up and tested yet. Click the links or copy and paste into your search engine, put on slide show and change the speed setting to be slow enough for you to read the captions. Keep in mind that these are the small (389 ft tall) GE 1.5 MW turbines and all recently proposed wind projects in Maine use other, larger turbines that go as tall as 485 feet.

https://picasaweb.google.com/Blueyes1119/RollinsWindProjectMay12011#

https://picasaweb.google.com/Blueyes1119/RollinsWindProjectFromTheAirMay...

River Valley area residents! Every town must take the time to study the proliferation of industrial wind turbines and adopt ordinances to protect the interests of all citizens. Patriot Renewables is targeting every ridge with available land in the River Valley region, just like First Wind in the northeastern uplands from Lincoln to the Canadian border.

They depend on communities to fall prey to a few dollars dangled in front of them and to declare that some of the people---your neighbors--- are "expendable", that they don't matter, in order to take over your town. This is horrendous greed based on taxpayer subsidies and making millions from selling Enron-inspired REC's that are nothing more than a hidden tax on carbon. What Patriot Renewables or any other wind developer pays the town is like me giving a penny to every resident. Pocket change to them allows a massive rip off of taxpayers and ratepayers.

They don't give a damn about the environment, the quality of place that is Dixfield, Carthage, Woodstock, Canton, or any other community they are targeting, and most importantly, they don't give a damn about condemning people they build turbines on top of to a life of misery, degraded health, and loss of property value.

While it is nice to see Andover go on records at Town Meeting as not being in favor of wind power development in the town, this step doesn't protect the town from the predatory wind developers. Andover should join with the regional effort of Newry, Bethel, and Greenwood to develop ordinances that guide wind power development or do an ordinance on your own. As more communities (which New Vineyard and Avon just did) realize their citizens need to control this development, the wind industry will relentlessly seek other towns. Don't wait for the first met. tower to go up before taking action.

I find it an interesting choice to publish the photo simulations produced by Patriot Renewables. The LSJ photographer also took a couple of pictures of posters I made up of real photos of the Rollins Project currently under construction in Lincoln. Here's the difference. First Wind did the same ploy with photo simulations. Now that the turbines are going up in Lincoln and they are visible from so many viewpoints, the reaction of many in town is "they are a lot bigger than I thought they would be" and "they are bigger than what First Wind's photos showed". So, there you have it. Mitigating the potential impact with the trickery of photo simulations is right out of the Chapter on Deceiving the Public" in the wind industry's playbook.

Regarding my photos of Rollins, they were taken from usual vista points around town and from the front yards of people who live year round on Mattanawcook Lake. I spoke with dozens of people at the meeting last night who were keenly interested in seeing the photos. They were shocked that people were going to see 389 foot tall turbines punctuating the pretty view. They were all appalled at the photos of the environmental devastation from blasting away the ridges and leveling hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of ridgeline and the scalping of acres of forest to install turbines. The media in Maine like the LSJ would do a great service to Maine people if they were to truly document the negative impact of constructing a sprawling industrial site on top of our mountains.

It didn't take long for a paid staffer of the wind industry to jump on an informed citizen's critique of wind power. This industry has had its way in Maine and elsewhere for so long that they are reactive quickly to anyone who has an opposing view. The Big Wind/Big Lie is unraveling as more and more Mainers understand that wind power is useless and does nothing for Maine except destroy the rural area's beauty and natural resources. Their positions have been so discredited that all they can talk about is the money.

Yes, constructing a sprawling industrial wind site brings money into the area during construction and the turbines increase property tax revenues to an extent. But where does that money really come from? Primarily from taxpayers and, ultimately, ratepayers. With $14 Trillion National Debt, the US should not be borrowing more money to pay the hefty subsidies on which the industry survives and without which there wouldn't be a wind turbine built anywhere. Why? Because it is such a capital intensive piece of machinery producing such a fickle trickle of electricity that it would never be cost effective in a fair market. Regarding those 101,000 MWh of electricity the author projects for output, it is subsidized at $23.37 per MWh. That is another $2.36 million towards ballooning the National Debt. That's just one tiny project. The Economics of physics-challenged wind power don't work without the bad public policy of subsidization. This is insane.

Furthermore, the Wind Companies always get local welfare in the form of TIF, so the remark about increase in tax base and the community benefit fund is misleading blather. The financial impact of what Carthage gets out of these compared to all the money Patriot Renewables will gain from taxpayer subsidies and selling Enron-inspired REC's is akin to me going door to door and giving every resident a penny from my pocket. We should not be giving away Saddleback Ridge in Carthage or any other upland in Maine to these thieves. Don't let the "smoke and mirrors" of this illusion dupe us, Mainers. Otherwise we cheaply throw away our heritage.

I am tired, as a taxpayer, of seeing the wind lobby successfully pillage money from the government at a time of the National Debt reaching $14 Trillion. We can't continue throwing taxpayer money at projects that cannot compete honestly in the energy market. Banks weigh risk. They know expectations and projections for wind projects are inflated to make them look far better in proposal form than actual production, which is a miserable failure. The banks don't want to rely on a project paying for itself with an unpredictable, unreliable source like wind and limitations of the turbine technology.

So why should the US Taxpayer shell out 30% of the contruction cost as a free gift to King & Gardiner? Why should the US Taxpayer give King & Gardiner 2.1 cents per kilowatt hour Production Tax Credit? Why should US Taxpayers guarantee a loan so that after King & Gardiner have depreciated everything in 5 years, sold off all the Renewable Energy Certificates, pocketed Obama's construction gift, they can just walk away from the LLC and the US Taxpayers are left holding the bag?

This absurdity would be laughable except that it is real. The US Taxpayer and the citizens of Maine would be best served if King & Gardiner would just curb their lust for a quick hit off the taxpayers, at the expense of destroying the ridges around gorgeous Roxbury Pond, and go away. Far away. Never to be heard from again.

The wind industry lies! Lies! Lies! Don't fall for it, Canton! Patriot Renewables is to Oxford County as First Wind is to the northeastern uplands. They are targeting every poor town they can in a cluster to put up turbines, reap the short term benefits, laugh all the way to the bank and then bail out, leaving a mess behind in the pillaged communities. Don't believe anything they say or show you. Right now, as the towers rise in Lincoln Lakes, there are many remarks around Lincoln like: "They are a lot bigger than First Wind's photo simulations showed" "They are bigger and more intrusive than I thought they would be" "They did a lot more blasting than expected" "I can't believe what they have done to Rollins Mt. and Rocky Dundee". These remarks are coming before the 124 foot long blades are attached to the nacelles and long before the incessant roar, screeches, and thumping noises echo across the lakes.

Life and property values will never be the same in Canton once you let Patriot Renewables come to town. Demand that the company prove to you what the wind measurements are and wait for their answer---until Hell freezes over. Industrial wind turbines are not feasible based on wind and output. Patriot renewables just wants Canton to host turbines so that: Taxpayers will pay for 30% of the construction, enable them to sell REC's based on nameplate, not actual capacity (an Enron-inspired scheme), gain preferential investment tax advantages, and then walk away when the subsidies are gone and the fickle trickle of electricity cannot make any money for them.

I know how destructive an industrial wind site is and the devastation of your local natural resources and the quality of place of your town is far worse than any of the reputed (and over-hyped) benefits of wind power. I am from Lincoln, where First Wind's Rollins Project will have 40 turbines, each 389 feet tall sprawled across more than 7 miles of ridges and more than 1,000 acres permanently clearcut. These ridges are blasted away and scalped. Go here to view photos from last November. https://picasaweb.google.com/Blueyes1119/RollinsConstructionNov72010 and https://picasaweb.google.com/Blueyes1119/RollinsDestructionNov2 For more information about industrial wind development in Maine from the citizens' perspective, visit www.windtaskforce.org

When is a bribe not a bribe? When the local folks get the equivalent of half a penny (compared to what Patriot Renewables will earn from reaping taxpayer subsidies with the wind site) and they say its awesome! Bribing the local snowmobile clubs in Maine to gain local favor is one of the cheapest ploys by the wind companies. First Wind did the same thing for the Snowhounds Club in Lincoln. Yet when the Town of Lincoln looked for donations for a new fire truck, which will be essential in fighting the forest fire when one of these turbines burns out and catches Rollins Mt. or Rocky Dundee on fire (and they do catch fire!), First Wind didn't offer a penny. These arrogant thieves then turned around and twisted the arm of the Town to grant them a kick back of half their property taxes through a TIF. Shame on the people of Carthage to sell out your town just like Lincoln.

Angus King is such a phony manipulator. Whenever things don't go his way, he whines. I am so tired of his presense in this state. I wish the carpetbagger would finally pack up and leave. This hypocrite never missed an opportunity to get a photo op or sound bite when he was Governor extolling the wonders of our beautiful state and its natural resources. Now he is a wind developer, intent on destroying miles of ridgelines in the Roxbury and Highlands regions with sprawling industrial wind sites that do nothing but line his pockets with Enron-inspired RECs and taxpayer subsidies for an electricity source that doesn't work. Have you ever heard this guy's stump speech about Maine becoming uninhabitable? It is such BS it is laughable, yet his accolytes continue to believe. What I say to Angus King is "Bunk!" Get a thicker skin if you are going to be out there scamming the people of Maine. Some of us are on to you, Mr. King!

I would respectfully suggest that Seth Wescott's dramatic win at the Olympics and the substantial and growing opposition to wind power development in Maine that culminated in 5 people being arrested at the Rollin's Project rally in Lincoln in November should both be above the two Obama stories you put in your top ten. Big deal, he visited Acadia and he came to the People's Republic of Portland to pander for support of socialized medicine. Give me Seth and the "Davids" challenging the wind "Goliath" over Obama any time!

It is sad that Rumford succumbed to the First Wind-funded (likely with your taxpayer dollars!) campaign to defeat the wind ordinance. Please, if you make decisions about a wind ordinance based on the state model, encompass the best of the protections from the defeated ordinance to protect your citizens. The state model was drafted by the wind industry to fit their needs, just like the Expedited Wind Permitting ordinance was. Rumford and Lincoln have similarities. They are both paper mill towns, both in economically struggling regions, both in beautiful settings. Rumford has its mountains; Lincoln its lakes.

First Wind was able to bamboozle Lincoln officials and manipulated them for years behind the scenes. They have offered nothing to Lincoln and extorted them for half their taxes back via TIF. You know they will demand TIF in Rumford as well. The Rollins project in Lincoln is under construction now and the mountains are devastated. Blasted away and scalped. Take a look at the photos posted on www.windtaskforce.org and see if this is the fate of your mountains you want.

This is sheer, unadulterated bullcrap as far as I can see. Let's stop this fantasy of putting thousands of expensive wind turbines out to sea or on land. Secretary Salazar is bowing to the pressures of developers who are anxious to get their hands on tax subsidies. Let's level the playing field and remove all forms of subsidies from electricity generation and see what we have. I guarantee there would not be a single wind turbine built anywhere on land or sea. Maine expedited wind permitting and it has been a disaster. Corporations now have more rights than citizens when it comes to wind power and whose country is this, anyway?
If you want to cut down red tape for wind, then do the same for oil, gas, and nuclear snd really solve our energy needs. Red tape and restrictions have kept the Gulf of Maine off limits to exploration for 40 years, while technology has made huge progress. When I see next door to us, Sable Island having 3 trillions cubic feet of natural gas reserves and the development has just six platforms and a clean operations record, I think why not bring that kind of energy resource and prosperity to Maine? Surely there is a similar reserve somewhere in the Gulf of Maine, but we can't even explore the possibility. Meanwhile politicians like Salazar and Baldacci want to populate the same Gulf of Maine with thousands of wind turbines. It is enormously expensive, can only be done with huge taxpayer subsidies, and will at least triple electrical rates. Meanwhile, we do not allow natural gas exploration to bring in a much more energy dense resource, developed completely without subsidies, and brought to the market at competetive rates. Mr. Salazar, you are wrong!

Karen Pease has written a thoughtful letter. Here's some insight from a community not all that different than Rumford: Watertown, in upstate New York is a mill town, in a tourism region, in an area where industrial wind sites are proliferating and causing controversy. Here is an excerpt from the Watertown Daily Times:

The town's wind economics committee. . .which released its report Oct. 7, saw risks to property values, school district aid and tourism. On the other hand, wind power projects would have payments for landowners and for taxing jurisdictions through payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements.
The report also briefly pointed to other financial risks, including the failure of the developer to pay agreed payments, the owner terminating operation and the owner not saving enough money for decommissioning costs. The town and residents could incur legal fees from disagreements or disputes.
To limit the possibility of economic harm, the committee recommended that the town:
--Adopt a zoning law that considers all effects of wind power development.
--Create a planned development district in the town for turbines.
--Negotiate PILOT agreements that "fairly and fully compensate" the town.
--Require compensation to individuals for effects that can't be mitigated.
--Require property value protection assurance.
--Require a buyout plan for properties negatively affected.
--Require bonding to ensure compliance.
--Establish a reserve fund to cover any town-incurred project costs.
--Establish a decommissioning plan.

Rumford is on the right track in creating an ordinance and kudos to the town officials and citizens who have raised so many pertinent questions to First Wind. I hope the residents of Rumford approve the ordinance; they will never regret it.

Of course First Wind is going to demand a TIF from Rumford and Roxbury. That's their development strategy, to seek out every advantage from taxpayers at every level in addition to the tax equity financing and depreciation advatntages they receive. Plus, now Obama will give them 30% of their construction cost up front and the Feds will guarantee their loan.

I dug out of my files a letter to the editor of the Lincoln News from 2 years ago that I share with you, as Rumford is very much like Lincoln. The difference is the size of the project of First Wind that will tower over the lakes with 40 turbines compared to 17 turbines on the mountains above Rumford and Roxbury. Otherwise, its all the same, so read on:

It is said that energy from wind turbines such as those proposed for the Lincoln Lakes Region is “Green” energy. Yes, it is “green”, but not in the sense of helping the environment. It is “green” as in the color of money.

First Wind wants the area towns to subsidize their development by kicking back 60% of the property taxes under the guise of a TIF. Why should area towns help underwrite construction costs when the $140 million project will earn First Wind more than double that amount in the next 20 years? Instead, we should say build it on your own without local subsidies and pay your fair share of property taxes just like everyone else. Oh, by the way, since we are allowing you to destroy natural resources of the area and sully the beauty and enjoyment of the Lincoln Lakes with industrial blight flung across the ridges, you should pay an impact fee.

Take a look at a quick projection of earnings for First Wind over 20 years: If the wind turbines actually produce the stated megawatts for 30% of the time, at current ISO-New England rates, they will earn $151 million from sale of electricity. At today’s Production Tax Credit from the Federal government (it is indexed to increase), they will earn $66 million. With the sales of Renewable Energy Credits at recent auction prices, they will earn $71 million. So, total earnings add up to $288 million over 20 years! That’s earning a lot of “green”!

Why shouldn’t a good portion of that money stay in the Lincoln Lakes area instead of going out of state? It is the responsibility of the town governments to demand full property tax payments plus a share of earnings through impacts fees on behalf of the residents rather than being stooges for First Wind. If First Wind doesn’t want to pay its own way, let them go elsewhere.

I don't know about anyone else but I don't want to continue the 8 miserable, failed Baldacci years by having Mitchell elected. She is in love with the wind industry just like Baldacci. This is from her website: "The legislature created pre-permitted sites for wind power that have dramatically decreased the permitting time. At Kibby Mountain, beautiful and graceful windmills are already working in what was already an industrial forest to produce enough electricity to supply all the homes in Franklin, Oxford, and Somerset counties combined!" It has since been taken down. Maybe she is starting to pay attention to the groundswell of citizen resistence to land based wind turbines? I doubt it, more that some advisor said not to be so openly supportive. Or maybe its because someone said "Gee Libby, ya'know the first year record of Kibby is kinda miserable at 17% of its capacity. Its only enough to light up one small town, not three counties, you dumb ass!"

Why should Paul LePage attend an NRCM forum when it will be nothing but a love-fest between NRCM and their favorite candidate Libby Mitchell. Baldacci was NRCM's lap dog and Mitchell will just be a third Baldacci term. These elitists wormed their way into the Augusta political scene and they deserve to be thrown out along with all the rest of the Baldacci era hangers-on. Only Paul LePage seems to be the candidate that will bring about real change in Augusta.

NRCM positions itself to be part of state government and have been, along with Libby Mitchell, promoting an economic and environmental dusater for Maine in its promotion of industrial wind development. Wind is an industry that wouldn't exist without heavy taxpayer subsidies and is bad economics and bad public policy. It appears only Paul LePage understands that. Libby Mitchell, along with NRCM, are hypocrites. Out of one side of their mouths they say they protect the natural resources and environment and Quality of Place in Maine and out of the other side of their mouths they push the industrialization of Maine's mountain tops and ruining what makes Maine special.

With Paul LePage, everything is on the table and decisions get made based on cost effectiveness. That's what I like in a leader.

I'm pleased to see these folks planning to take control and maintain Quality of Place that is so crucial to the area. Sprawling developments of 400 foot tall wind turbines all over the ridges will ruin the area. Patriot Renewables slipped in to Spruce Mt. before the citizens caught on to what the project actually will do to the area. Don't let it happen again in this beautiful part of the state! The local officials should be keenly aware of the damage an industrial wind site does as well as the efforts of a growing number of communities in Maine to take control of the issue.

Congratulations to the community of Phillips for approving this ordinance. You have chosen to value your community and the well being of all its citizens over corporate interests. I especially admire the effort of the Planning Board to include the work of acoustics expert Robert Rand. This ordinance, along with the one adopted by Dixmont, should be models for all communities to consider before the country side in Maine gets over-run by these sprawling and noisy industrial wind power projects.

Poor candiceanne, you get a migraine from witnessing good citizen action? Or is it the need for protecting the citizens of Rumford that makes you nauseous? If you think you have a migraine now, try living near these wind turbines, like the folks in Mars Hill. Some of the most common symptoms are headaches, migraines, nausea, dizziness, and heart palpitations. See Dr. Michael Nissenbaum's study here: http://www.windaction.org/?module=uploads&func=download&fileId=2043

Dear Candiceanne, you obviously are a strong advocate of wind power development, so I can understand why you are so upset that a group of citizens might work diligently on an ordinance to guide the siting of huge industrial machines in town. My goodness, they might have concerns for the impact on the health and wellbeing of all the citizens of Rumford by such a development.

First Wind cries foul any time it doesn't get its way and they depend on a chorus of wind advocates to join in. Rumford should tell First Wind to get out of town and have nothing to do with this pitiful company. You are naive if you think that First Wind hasn't been working hard to defeat the citizen's proposed ordinance. The model state ordinance is a sham that allows them to have their way. The expedited wind permitting statute gives them preferential treatment, rolls back environmental protection that would apply to every other development, and strips citizens of their rights to determine what happens in their own town.

Rumford is getting the same treatment that Lincoln got in dealing with First Wind. These masters of manipulation have been after Rumford officials for years. They lie, misrepresent, withhold information, and adopt an attitude of its their way or no way. They look for local welfare via TIF to heap on top of all the other subsidies they get. It is refreshing to see that in just two years there has been a change between the Lincoln and Rumford situations. In Lincoln, the project was made public after six years of secretive meetings and manipulations between First Wind and town officials. By the time the citizens in Lincoln were aware, they were dealing with an application being rammed through. At least in Rumford, the citizens are involved earlier in the process.

The runaway train of the First Wind project in Lincoln Lakes has been stopped for two years by a citizens group. It has caused terrible rifts and hard feelings in the town. This happens in every community where wind developers go. Sadly, it is happening in Rumford, too. The ordinance that came from the citizens' group deserves an up or down vote, seperately, on its own merits. Let the debate be centered around Rumford citizens' vote on that proposal, not the interests of First Wind. Rumford belongs to its citizens, not First Wind.

Rumford should be proud of the extensive work done by their citizen committee to draft a solid ordinance. First Wind cries "foul" about everything if they don't have their way. God forbid the citizens of a town may want to act in the interest of the residents and not the intent of First Wind!
Remember, First Wind is the company that put wind turbines right on top of folks in Mars Hill. They are now being sued by 18 people from Mountain Rd. and East Ridge Rd for the horrendous impacts on their lives and property. This will happen in Rumford unless there is a local ordinance to protect the people.
Ironically, the same Andrew Fisk that was in Rumford last night is the same DEP official who approved the variance that First Wind got in the Mars Hill license, from 45 to 50 dBA. Even this higher level is violated, with First Wind doing nothing to alter the impact on these people.
Black Mt. in Rumford is likely no better spot than Mars Hill. Rumford, protect all of your residents from this insidious intrusion by adopting a strong, but fair, ordinance. If First Wind can fit its plans into this, then fine; if not, your town is better off without them.

The Best Interest of the Town of Carthage and all towns is for their Selectmen and town council members to act wisely and with deliberation. The Best Interest of all towns is for these officials to tell the wind developers that in order to cross the threshold of town office to speak to them the following conditions apply: that all meetings will be public and that the citizens will be totally informed and provided equal time and equal access to the decision making. In far too many towns, there are years of unscrupulous behind the scenes meetings as wind developers lure in the town officials. Decisions get set in stone and processes for approval facilitated far before the citizens know what is going on. It is the "play book" of the wind developers.
This is not a modest manufacturing plant in a designated business park or even a Wal Mart. This is a total change in the natural resources and ambiance of the community. These are huge industrial machines sprawled across blasted away and clearcut ridgelines. Wind development is something that most communities have never considered in zoning and the industrialization of the mountains is unacceptable. Even more unacceptable is the town officials who help the developer ruin the town instead of protecting its citizens. Shame on Steve Brown for being in Patriot's pocket.

Do you selectively pay attention? The citizens are finally getting the word out about the plethora of negatives regarding industrial wind projects. This, after years of a masterful lobbying and marketing campaign by the wind industry. As soon as the citizens started to get a small bit of notice, there has been a well coordinated, relentless campaign by the wind industry and their allies (those who stand to benefit) to push back. Much of the media has been complicit in continuing to support this folly. Citizens volunteering their spare time because of their love of their state and their devotion to thwart the destruction of the natural resources versus paid staff and PR firms is definitely a "David & Goliath" scenario.
Every citizen that looks beyond the "green" pop culture regarding wind energy comes to the same conclusions. Wind power is bad public policy, bad economics, and bad science. If it weren't for heavy subsidization and preferential treatment, there wouldn't be a wind turbine erected anywhere. The more citizens who pay attention and learn beyond superficial thinking, the more widespread the opposition to the proliferation of industrial wind sites will become.

While I'm sure that some people were awed by how huge these components are and I'm sure people who have jumped on the green bandwagon loved them. However, to people who understand the fallacy of the wind industry and have concern about destroying Maine's beautiful mountains this is a sobering sight. One that I hope people in Roxbury, Byron, Rumford, Dixfield, Carthage, Woodstock, and Canton---all area towns dealing with some aspect of this threat---will take seriously.

Do we want to blast away the mountain tops, permanently clearcutting them to stick up 400 foot tall wind turbines? Will there be a vista anywhere in Oxford County that will not have these huge industrial machines marring it? How many people who sought out the peaceful rural life will have their lives changed dramatically by the noise and the ill health effects of the low frequency sound waves emanating from the turbines? Will sensitive wildlife be driven away and how many bird and bat fatalities will there be?

At the same time that easily lobbied officials embrace this fickle power source for a small trickle of the subsidy driven revenue stream, a real base load power source, the gas fired power plant in Rumford, is hugely underutilized. I don't believe in the economics of wind power, as no turbine would be erected anywhere if it weren't for heavy subsidization ($23.37 per MWH compared to 25 cents per MWH for natural gas). But if they are to go anywhere, let it be in the middle of cornfields and wheatfields of the flat, open midwest where nobody gets bothered. The mountains of Maine are too precious to be sacrificed to this folly.

Gawd, here we go again! How many times do we have to hear that stupid repetition that there is a connection between electricity generation and oil? Oil is used primarily in transportation, heating and steam production for manufacturing, plastics, lubricants, and many other uses that provide us with the standard of living we enjoy.
Once again, less than 2% of the nation's electricity comes from oil. Here in Maine, only the old Wyman plant in Yarmouth is oil fired and is used for back up and peak power needs.
Frankly, it could be converted to natural gas and for a tenth of the cost of all the planned wind turbines, could become a reliable baseline facility producing hundreds of megawatts 24/7, just like the Calpine plant in Westbrook. I happen to live in a home that was built for electric heat standards. But I am glad I have an oil fired furnace. I just wish I had natural gas available. I would never, ever want to pay the expense of electric heat.
Wind produced electricity will be far more costly than the mix of generation currently in the market. The announcements of the contracts for wind projects signed in recent months indicate triple the kwh cost than what we pay in the grid today. Wind is a farce that bites the citizens three ways: As taxpayers, we heavily subsidize it; as ratepayers, we pay more for it and the transmission line expansions; as Mainers, we witness the destruction of the northeastern uplands and the western mountains.

I see Dr. Jennings is back with his diatribe about how we have to save the planet with wind turbines and, as usual, is wrong, wrong, wrong. We in Maine do not have any reason whatsoever to sacrifice the beautiful mountains of western Maine and the uplands in the lakes region of northeastern Maine to save the planet. Wind is not the answer, Dr. Jennings.
I am amazed that someone with the intelligence to earn advanced degrees can bemain so narrowly focussed on the wrong solution. Wind is bad public policy. It is bad economics. Maybe its good policy and economics because Dr. Jennings has a financial interest in wind development?
I ask everyone, as individuals, the following economics question: would you ever buy anything that only works at best 30% of its capacity? Would you buy anything on which your way of life depended that was totally unpredictable and unreliable, that is, it could quit on you just as you were depending on it? Would you buy anything that, in its useful lifetime, would never save you the money you invested in it and, indeed, need complete backup? It is irrational to say yes, yet that is exactly what we get with wind power! Seems to me that is a valid reason to oppose widespread destruction of hundreds of miles of our ridgelines.
We have a $13 trillion national debt. Yet the government continues to subsidize wind at $23.37 per megawatt hour; the next highest subsidy is $1.59 per mwh (USEIA, 2008). Where does the subsidy come from? TAXPAYERS! Or, we simply add it to the national debt. Here's a nice piece of irony. China buys much of our national debt. Money we borrow from the Chinese goes to subsidize wind companies, which buy their turbines from---you guessed it---China! Anyone else believe that is bad public policy? Dr. Jennings, there is another vaild reason to oppose industrial wind deveklopment.
Without heavy subsidization, there wouldn't be a wind turbine erected anywhere, and especially not in a poor wind potential area like Maine. Private investors will never touch it. The government needs to stay out of it, drop the preferential treatment and subsidization of wind and let free markets determine from what sources our electricity is generated. As for Dr. Jennings, if you love wind turbines so well, I suggest you move to Altamont Pass in California.

You people who advocate for any form of Cap & Trade or REGGI or Carbon Tax or whatever you want to call it are irresponsible. A Tax on carbon is just that--a TAX. Something we don't need in a struggling economy is another TAX on common everyday people. I'm quite satisfied that the energy portion of my latest CMP bill was 9 cents per kwh because ISO New England is purchasing wholesale from tried and true, reliable, base line power sources. I don't want some form of carbon TAX driving up those costs.

The hidden agenda behind a carbon tax is to promote unpredictable, unreliable, inefficient and costly wind power. There are two ways that I see Maine lowering its electrical rates. One is negotiating for plentiful, low priced, renewable hydro from Quebec. The other is duplicate the 540 MW Calpine plant in Westbrook, built 10 years ago for only $300 million. Natural gas is plentiful and it is what has driven costs down. To generate the same amount of electricity from wind would mean 1500 turbines sprawled across rural Maine, encompassing 300 miles of ridgelines blasted away and clearcut, with a spiderweb of 1,000 miles of powerlines bringing the fickle trickle of power, when the wind blows just right (or blows at all!) to the grid. There are two places already where we could do this using existing powerlines: Wiscasset at the site of the old Maine Yankee, or a redevelopment of the Wyman station on Cousin's Island, where an LNG facility could be developed as well. Of course, the screaming and holloring of utilizing the existing oil port, the old anchorage of the North Atlantic fleet during WW II, for LNG would be deafening. Never mind cost effectiveness, or no need for Tax subsidies which are the problem with wind---lets go ahead and spend $5 billion on stupid turbines and ruin the mountains of western Maine and the uplands of the northeast so we can drive up our electricity prices.

Doesn't anyone recognize the economic insanity of that? Does everyone want a new carbon TAX to pay and drive the national debt higher to subsidize wind? Does everyone want to triple their electricity bill? Everyone ready for rolling brownouts when we are forced to have 20% of our electricity from wind and ---oh! oh! like this past Independence Day weekend--- the wind didn't blow for 4 days?

Pass the "Green Kool Aid"!

Great job by Jonathan Carter. The entire wind industry is a scam and it doesn't belong anywhere in Maine. People should be outraged by the proliferation of industrial wind and rally to save our mountains.
Now, the little correction. When Jonathan wrote of the 2700 Megawatts of wind power envisioned for our beautiful mountains, he didn't state that the 2700 MW are installed capacity, not actual output. One look at the US Energy Information Administration map of Maine's wind potential shows that many areas where these projects are proposed are "poor" or "marginal" wind potential. It translates to maybe 25% capacity factor, or 675 MW, not 2700. Big difference!
Instead of $5 billion for 1800 turbines sprawled across 360 miles of Maine's ridgelines, we could meet that with another facility similar to the 540 MW Calpine natural gas facility on less than 100 acres of industrial park in Westbrook. Compare the two: wind power that is an unpredictable, unreliable, inefficient source of electricity that exists only due to taxpayer subsidies or a totally reliable, highly efficient source that hums 24/7 and is built entirely by investor money. I say let the free market determine our energy mix and get the government out of mandates and subsidies.

Candiceanne, you are obviously under the spell of wind turbines--a veritible wind zombie! You should do actual research before you spout off your diatribes because you woefully show ignorance of science in your zeal to promote wind turbines. Wind turbines are destructive industrial machines. They are not beautiful, graceful to many people. The physics behind wind turbines defy your characterization of "radical improvements at ann amazing rate". Moreover, it is the unpredictable, unreliable, finicky wind that keeps the best sited utility grade turbines producing, at best, 30% of nameplate capacity. I ask evereyone, not just Candiceanne, would you invest in any expensive contarption that performed at less than a third of what it could? Angus King is not a principle in First Wind. He is, however, the principle in the now-stalled (because he doesn't have financing) Record Hill Wind project in Roxbury, a project he started work on without all the permits clearly in hand. That is how arrogantly zealous he is to get to feed like a pig at the tax subsidy trough. First Wind is backed by two hedge funds that are politicalyy connected and headed up by Paul Gaynor, a former Enron exec. That should tell you something right there. Even with that backing, it is always teetering on bankruptcy and they are desperately looking for towns that will roll over and let them in because once they put up a turbine, whether it produces electricity or not (as in Stetson II) they can at least sell forward their RECs and make money. They are scamsters extraordinaire! As far as them whining about not knowing the contents of the wind ordinance being worked on, they have no right. The day they share any of their data is the day they can ask the town for a sneak peak at the ordinance. Pigs will fly first before First Wind ever discloses any information. Of course, if pigs could fly, they would likely be clobbered, along with raptors and migratory birds and bats, by those gracefull turbine blades you love so much. Regarding the moratorium, it is the town's prerogative to enact a measure that is simply a "time out" to enable it to handle its own issue rather than be rushed into allowing something without thinking through how it affects the town. A sprawling industrial wind site hovering over your town is a serious impact on the natural resources and the people. It requires a thoughtful process, not kow towing to the demands of out of state scamsters.

Congratulations to the Town of Buckfield for taking into their own hands the issue of controlling industrial wind development. The town has realized that the state will not adequately protect citizens from the negative impacts of these huge machines. A community that cares about the well being of all their citizens and wishes to conserve and protect the sense of place that makes living there attractive will always be a good community. Good work by the committee that drafted the ordinance.

CommonSense, it is a far more slippery slope to let Patriot Renewables or any other developer blast away the area's beautiful mountains to erect huge industrial machines. It will ruin the town and the noise threatens residents within a very large noise impact zone. Dixfield people need to go beyond the superficial impression of wind turbines that has been spun so masterfully by the PR of the industry. Once people learn about these projects, they will realize the heavy negatives about them. Its not about private land owners use of their property, its about what impact is allowed on neighbors and the community as a whole.
Dixfield should adopt Dixmont's ordinance, a well researched, well written ordinance that protects the citizens of that community and lays out very clearly the parameters for a wind developer to meet. All the Dixfield Committee needs to do is change "mont" to "field"---that's not so hard, is it?

What a sad day for Carthage. Any time there is such a close vote for a moratorium exemplifies exactly why moratoriums are needed. The push for wind turbines is like a runaway train. It plows through unprepared towns with too much speed. Citizens are constantly denied the time to actually get to understand an issue that has tremendous, deleterious impact on their community, their wellbeing, and their natural resources. The rails for this runaway train were greased by the legislature's passage (without proper citizen input and without any legislators actually understanding what they were voting for!) of the heinous "Expedited Wind Permitting" statute in 2008. This is happening throughout the state in support of an industry that wouldn't exist without deep TAXPAYER SUBSIDIES and without the greed of those who profit, from hedge funds to the locals who sell out their community for turbine site leases. It is good reason to have a statewide moratorium on further land-based industrial wind development before we have ruined our beautiful state.

There are many reasons why people live in hamlets like Carthage. Its usually for the appreciation of quiet country life, living away from industrial and commercial hubub. It includes enjoying wildlife and things you do in the country, like hunting, fishing, picking berries, being close at hand. Beautiful vista are important, too.
All of that will be lost when hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of Saddleback Mt. get blasted away to erect turbines, shattering the mountain, forever changing it's profile. Wildlife habitat gets fragmented, as hundreds of acres are permanently clearcut. What isn't gravelled over gets treated with herbicides and the silt and herbicide residues wash into the streams and ponds.
Towering over town will be huge industrial machines with the dull roar of a low flying jet overhead that never goes away as long as the blades turn. Worse, is the effects on humans and animals of low frequency infrasound that has negative effects on health. Just ask people in Mars Hill and Freedom. Wind turbines are notorious killers of birds and bats. Topping it all off will be a dozen or so aviation lights blinking 24/7 in place of the brilliance of the milky way against a black night sky.
Not only does this impact Carthage directly, but the sweeping vistas from Mt. Blue State Park and the Tumbledown Mt. Public Reserve will be marred by the scalping of Saddleback and the hideous cluster of 400 foot tall trubines.
Is this what we want for a peaceful, beautiful part of Maine? For a company whose sole purpose is to gather government subsidies and sell credits, rather than actually sell electricity? Industrial Wind sites in Maine produce only 25% of nameplate capacity and it is an unpredictable, unreliable, ineffective, and costly source of electricty. Carthage, save your town and do not get caught up in this scam!

The tempest in a teapot over whether Congress or the EPA should control CO2 emissions is all political posturing. What we don't need is any CO2 control scheme that cripples US industrial competetiveness in a global economy or that creates a new (not so) hidden TAX. That's what all the schemes about CO2 come down to. I am sick and tired of ruining our industrial base, sending it all overseas to the polluting countries with next to slave wages. I already pay too much in TAXES and any politician that is being honest has got to tell the people, you are going to get a whopping NEW TAX because we need to placate the whiners about CO2. Tell Snowe, Collins, Pingree, and Michaud that we don't want to cripple our economy and we don't want a new TAX on CO2!

First, to Kent Hope, you don't have to go to Denmark to understand how bad these turbines are. Just go ask the folks who live near them in Mars Hill and Freedom. Besides, last time I was in Denmark, I saw no topography anywhere near that of Saddleback and Webb Lake and the surrounding countryside.
Second, Turier stood underneath them for a few moments and has declared himself an acoustics expert to tell everyone there is no noise problem. Well, you two---and Patrioit Renewables---there are lots of noise problems. Study acoustics of wind turbines and you will find that the dB A scale noise carries down off the ridge to the people living below and emanates across the valley such that people a mile away can be affected by this audible noise more than the person standing at the base. And these people have to live with the constant roar all the time, not just walk up, stand underneath for 5 minutes and then leave.
Then there is dB C scale infrasound, the type that is regulated by OSHA in factories, construction sites, etc. due to deleterious health effects, but the wind industry fights to keep from being regulated. No wind turbine would be built anywhere near people if this type of low frequency noise were (and it should be) part of the regulations.

There are many reasons why people live in hamlets like Carthage. Its usually for the appreciation of quiet country life, living away from industrial and commercial hubub. It includes enjoying wildlife and things you do in the country, like hunting, fishing, picking berries, being close at hand. Beautiful vista are important, too.
All of that will be lost when hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of Saddleback Mt. get blasted away to erect turbines, shattering the mountain, forever changing it's profile. Wildlife habitat gets fragmented, as hundreds of acres are permanently clearcut. What isn't gravelled over gets treated with herbicides and the silt and herbicide residues wash into the streams and ponds.
Towering over town will be huge industrial machines with the dull roar of a low flying jet overhead that never goes away as long as the blades turn. Worse, is the effects on humans and animals of low frequency infrasound that has negative effects on health. Just ask people in Mars Hill and Freedom. Wind turbines are notorious killers of birds and bats. Topping it all off will be a dozen or so aviation lights blinking 24/7 in place of the brilliance of the milky way against a black night sky.
Not only does this impact Carthage directly, but the sweeping vistas from Mt. Blue State Park and the Tumbledown Mt. Public Reserve will be marred by the scalping of Saddleback and the hideous cluster of 400 foot tall trubines.
Is this what we want for a peaceful, beautiful part of Maine? For a company whose sole purpose is to gather government subsidies and sell credits, rather than actually sell electricity? Industrial Wind sites in Maine produce only 25% of nameplate capacity and it is an unpredictable, unreliable, ineffective, and costly source of electricty. Carthage, save your town and do not get caught up in this scam!

I direct your attention to the two wind maps used in this article. The one that purports to show the tremendous increase of wind projects from 1999 to 2009 doesn't state that wind projects proliferate only when the government provides subsidies and outright grants of taxpayer money and preferential treatment in the market. In fact, the industry did no new projects when the federal government dropped the production tax credit and expanded again when it was reinstated. What does that tell you about the financial feasibility of wind?
Regarding the Maine map of wind projects, it is the NRCM's propaganda. NRCM has completely sold out its credibility as a protector of Maine's environment, as these sprawling industrial sites are destructive. Furthermore, it is erroneous and misleading to call the yellow dots "upcoming projects". Some examples: #6 & #7 in Aroostook County are just developers looking at a map and dreaming about sites from which to reap taxpayer subsidies. #10, Passadumkeag Mt. has a met tower owned by Noble Environmental that is in such dire financial condition that it likely will never be built. #9, First Wind's Rollins Project was to have been built and operating two years ago. It has been delayed by two factors: local opposition (see www.friendsoflincolnlakes.org) and First Wind can't find financing because it is such a shaky company. This, in spite of the fact that these thieves got an outright grant of $115 million of Obama stimulus money last September to keep it afloat. They face possible default on a $93 million loan coming due in June. The collateral? The 40 Chinese made turbines and 120 Brazilian made composite blades they had purchased for Rollins that have been sitting under snow and ice all winter in Chester.
I could move on to critique the western Maine portion of the map, but you get the picture. If wind was such a viable industry and if Maine had high wind potential these projects would be under way, as Baldacci and an unknowing legislature created an Expedited Wind Permitting statute to open the floodgates and deny citizens' rights to determine if there should be industrial wind projects in their communities or the unroganized territories. If Mr. Thistle hadn't been so hell bent on doing a promotional piece, this kind of information would be part of the story.

Candace Casey, what the heck kind of rant is that? What does any of it have to do with wind turbines? Are you delerious? Frothing at the mouth? I love with industrial sized wind turbines?
To delineate to any degree the huge numbers of negatives associated with industrial wind turbines would take an entire editorial page, not just a few paragraphs. But, lets start with basics. Its an inefficient machine that has only 20 to 30% efficiency. They are huge, 300 to 400 feet high with a nacelle the size of a city bus and blades with a span greater than the wingspan of a Boeing 747. They make a lot of annoying noise and emit harmful low frequency noise. They kill bats and birds. They are unpredictable, unreliable, costly sources of trickles of electricity. No wind turbines have ever replaced other forms of power generation because back up is always needed, yet their surges in the grid destabilize the grid. The wind industry would not exist without huge subsidies paid by our TAXES.
I could go on and on. But I don't want it to sound like your rant. Wind turbines are bogus--bottom line.

I can't believe the cohones of these thieves from First Wind to come back to Rumford. Do they take the town to be idiots? They are so desperate to get something up and running to try to salvage themselves from impending default on the short term loan coming due in June. They teeter on the verge of bankruptcy once again, just as they did when they mothballed Stetson II last year, only to be salvaged by $115 million gift of your TAX money by Obama.
The Chinese turbines and Brazilian blades that have been moldering under snow and ice all winter that they bought for Lincoln (the eastern Maine twin to Rumford!) have either got to go up so they can sell Renewable Energy Credits and get 30% of their cost paid up front by Obama (YOUR TAX DOLLARS!!!) or the components will be seized for collatoral for the loans they will default on.
Please, Town of Rumford, tell these thieves, the sons of Enron, to not even bother coming to the area. If we need any cost effective electricity, crank up the gas turbines in Rumford full tilt and tell costly, unpredictable, unreliable wind developers to go to Hell.

J Dwight is one of the most incisive writers concerning energy.  The role of energy in our modern economy and society has to be conservative, reliable, predictable, and have its cost determined by the free enterprise market, not by socialist fiat.

Wind does not fit the above characteristics.   It is unreliable, unpredictable, inefficient, and costly.  It doesn't even help reduce carbon in spite of the dreamers' contention that it is "free" and "clean".  In the final analysis, not so!

Yet we continue to award an industry that wouldn't exist with its lifeblood of TAX dollars in the form of subsidies.  We continue to contrive ways to force its usage and its higher costs onto ratepayers.  Even if you accept that Maine should participate against global warming/climate change and contribute more electricity to the grid than the 40% surplus we already send out of the state, there are much more cost effective ways of doing so than industrial wind.

Be wary, people, of the practice of using borrowed money, driving up the $12 trillion national debt, to pay out subsidies to these wind industry thieves.  It is a criminal waste of our TAXES.  The REGGI that Baldacci foolishly got us involved in is merely a pre-cursor to Cap & Trade mandates from the Federal government.  It entails a TAX on carbon and we, the ratepayers, will pay this tax through steep price increases.  Taxpayer/ratepayer, robbed twice for a folly!

Dear armymom, its not civil discourse to make accusations like "uninformed NIMBYs have been screaming louder than any turbine is about how noisy they are".  Many of the people I know who are challenging the proliferation of industrial wind sites in Maine are highly educated; but most are concerned Mainers who have made an effort to get educated about industrial wind.  The activists have done their homework, researching every aspect of this complex issue and networking with experts in every field.  Their credibility is solid and based on science and economics.  An example of the science is incorporation of C scale low frequency decibels in determining acceptable noise.  It is not in the noise regulations for wind turbines because the state of Maine is using noise standards adopted in the 1970's that are not an appropriate application to wind turbines.  The wind industry lobbies vigorously to keep dBC out of the regulations because these huge machines would fail.  I challenge Donna Perry to do an article of a real issue like that.

More importantly, the subsidies provided and the mandate for electricity to come from this particular source is onerous to both taxpayers and ratepayers.  Providing subsidies to this industry is preferential treatment to one particular industry, not fair to other generators of electricity.  Subsidies are TAX dollars.  If we ever want to get control of government spending, we need to get rid of subsidies and let industry thrive or fail in a free enterprise system.  If you support subsidies and preferential treatment for the wind industry, you are supporting a form of socialism.  Its not how I want my tax money spent.

Nor do I want to be told that the grid must accept wind generated electricity at a price 2-3 times the cost of other sources.  Obama has made it clear his policies toward wind will increase costs.  You bet it does.  ISO-New England buys wholesale electricity every day at less than 10 cents per kwh.  We have seen several wind contracts signed recently for 20-30 cents per kwh, with annual escalators of 3-4%.  We are being forced to use an electricity source that guarantees higher prices instead of negotiating a stable, long term contract with Hydro Quebec that will lower electricity rates.

Industrial wind is a destructive, costly folly.

Thanks for the editor's note, but it should have stated that Williamson is a paid shill for the wind industry.  Likely part of his pay comes from Federal TAX money that has flowed into the state for composites research.  I resent any of my tax money being used for blatent propaganda for any particular cause, but especially for such a folly as industrial wind.

Its bad public policy to promote and support with huge subsidies ($23.37 per MWH, USEIA, 2008) an industry that wouldn't exist without them.  It is an abuse of taxpayers and will drive up electricity costs unnecessarily.  Its all a big scam.

Mr. Powell is absolutely correct when he notes that setbacks from humans need to be two miles or better.  (World Health Organization recommendation) He is also absolutely correct when he speaks of the higher cost of this capital intensive investment in unreliable, unpredictable intermittent source of electricity being overly expensive.  (Companies signing contracts for 2-3 times the current cost by ISO-New England)  I had an occasion to hear Mr. Powel speak and he really has command of the facts and credibility from having actually worked as project consultant on wind developments.  Credibility that nobody in the gang of politicians in Augusta has.  The gang who have followed the lies and lobbying by the wind industry like lemmings that can't take the time to actually research a multi-faceted issue before approving it as public policy.

Who in Augusta ever asked if Maine should be part of REGGI and thus have mandates for renewable energy (aka wind) thrust upon us?  Who in Augusta ever made the effort to gain public input before rushing through the heinous "Expedited Wind Permitting" statute as an "Emergency" in 2008?  Just what was the "Emergency"?  Was it Baldacci's haste to grease the skids for First Wind, Angus King and the other thieves eager to prey on rural Maine so they can collect taxpayer subsidies by the millions?  Who in Augusta has pushed the expansion of 345 killer-volt transmission lines which are totally unnecessary except for the sole purpose of tying industrial wind sites in rural Maine to southern New England?  Who in Augusta ever asked the long suffering ratepayers if they wanted to increase their rates significantly for electricity we don't need from the most expensive source?

Industrial wind sites cattered across rural Maine from Aroostook County to the New Hampshire border are a scam and a travesty that must be stopped.  We cannot afford to let it go forward.

The news that the committee has worked so diligently on drafting a wind power development ordinance proves how wise it was to enact the moratorium.  Townspeople will have the say about this type of development and how it is handled in their community.  It will be interesting to see the details, but the reported one mile setback is a step in the right direction in protecting the wellbeing of all residents of Buckfield.

I'm glad to see Greenwood, Bethel and Newry coming together and realizing that sprawling industrial wind sites do not fit into this beautiful part of Maine.  This is actually an easy undertaking.  All they need to do is use Dixmont's ordinance and adapt for their towns.  It is here on the Citizens Task Force on Wind Power websites:  http://api.ning.com/files/Qo0W4rn9HBI6mOeJ1RqhSnv08v5Rmg67xMAVhwHonVk_/Dixmont_Wind_Energy_Ordinance_Nov_2009.pdf

It always outrages me to see subsidies for industrial wind.  It doesn't work.  It doesn't produce enough electricity to serve its supposed purpose of reducing fossil fuel emissions.  Without the subsidies, it is an industry that simply would not exist.  It is disingenuous for anyone to spin it any other way, whether it is Mr. kerry or Mr. Colgan, or Angus King.

The use of TIF for wind development is even more of a corruption of an economic tool which, when used properly, is something I support.  But I abhor the use of TIF as a local/state subsidy for an industry that produces so few permanent jobs and no tangible benefits to the state, yet if we realize the state's goal of 2700 MW of installed capacity of on-shore wind by 2020, we will have seen about 45 of these projects go in, blasting away 350 miles of Maine's ridgelines, permanently clearcutting more than 50,000 acres of carbon sequestering forest, polluting countless streams and lakes with silt and herbicide residues, and criss-crossing the state with a spider web of hundreds of miles of new powerlines.

Industrial wind development is a Feel Good Folly, a desperate attempt to find a panacea for perceived climate problems that cost the taxpayers and ratepayers enormously.  It will destroy the beauty and natural resources of inland Maine for no benefits and at great cost.

Fortunately, people are waking up to how much the real negatives of industrial wind outweigh the perceived (and not realized) benefits.  Communities are enacting moratoriums and adopting ordinances to protect citizens from the proliferation of industrial wind sites.  To get informed about the issues, go to www.windtaskforce.org, the website of the Citizens Task Force on Wind Power.

Yet another brilliant piece of writing by J Dwight!  He's one guy who sees through all the smoke and mirrors and tells it like it is.  The political system in this state has been taken over by a bunch of wind turbine zombies.  These people are so intellectually shallow that they actually believe all the Al Gore & company propaganda and that wind turbines are the panacea.  That is utter Bull crap! 

People actually believe we should destroy the scenic beauty and natural resources of our state because of some higher calling of globalism religion.  Let's destroy Maine to save planet earth!  Blast away 350 miles of Maine ridgelines but save the Maldives Islands!  Permanently clearcut 50,000+ acres of carbon sequestering Maine forest to keep the polar ice cap from melting!  Scatter 1800 or more wind turbines across the scenic mountains and ruin the tourism industry and drive residents in sound impact areas crazy so we can smugly say we are battling global warming!  Crank up the $13 trillion dollar national debt so we can subsidize these wind turbines and developers get rich!

This is assinine and J Dwight's is a voice of reason that should be heeded.

For years, I cheered NRCM for their active role in advocating for protecting what we treasure about Maine.  In recent years, there have been several issues on which I disagree with the organization.

There is one issue on which they are dead wrong and that is the destructive folly of industrial wind in Maine.  They should be advocating against blasting away ridgelines and destroying fragile ecosystems to enable investors to send a tiny trickle of electricity down to Southern New England and reap massive subsidies in doing so.  NRCM should be advocating to stop frangmentation of wildlife habitat and the disruption of life patterns of wildlife by the low frequency noise from wind turbines in the wilderness, when Maine receives no benefits.  NRCM should be advocating renewal of sustainable forests instead of tens of thousands of acres of permanent clearcuts, with silt and herbicide residues washing into our streams and lakes, poisonong our fish and the loons, ospreys and eagles that eat contaminated fish.

In Lincoln Lakes, Dylan Voorhees brought NRCM's presentation to town where he was met with great opposition by Friends of Lincoln Lakes.  He stated that NRCM had not taken a position on First Wind's Rollins Project and that he would take the local residents' concerns back to the office.  One week later the weasel was back in Lincoln, providing a ringing NRCM endorsement of First Wind's project to the DEP.  When I asked him if he had ever been north of Bangor before coming to Lincoln, he said he had been to Baxter Park.  Never been to Mars Hill, never been to Stetson Mt.  Never been to Lincoln.  When he came for the two Lincoln meetings, both were at night in February.   He had never seen nor had no knowledge of the 13 lakes nestled around Rollins Mt. and the ridges of Rocky Dundee.  NRCM should be ashamed of advocating the destruction of parts of Maine that their staff don't even try to know! 

It is this pig-headed advocacy of destructive industrial wind sprawl that causes me to condemn NRCM.  If they have a concern about "global warming", "climate change" or whatever, there are numerous ways to address the issue.  Destroying rural Maine's natural treasures should not be the mission of NRCM.

If NRCM wants to gain credibility, they should underwite a series of regional forums in the areas impacted by the heinous Expedited Wind Permitting statute and be willing to engage people who can present the real facts about industrial wind sprawl.  At a minimum, the Board of Directors, Mr. Houston, should do a special meeting and have a discussion with members of the statewide coalition Citizens Task Force on Wind Power about this issue.  It is obvious that NRCM is only considering the wind industry's propaganda.

Dear people of Weld:  You live in a slice of paradise.  One of the most beautiful places in Maine.  Quiet, peaceful, starry, black sky at night.  Treasures like Tumbledwon-Jackson, Webb Lake, Mt. Blue State Park.  Wildlife, birds.  You must love living there.

You are a target for several wind developers who don't give a damn about what you value.  Look at all the towns nearby who are being pressured by this development.  A typical wind project will blast holes in your mountains.  Every turbine pad needs a 30 foot deep hole, a quarter acre in size blasted into bedrock to anchor an industrial machine up to 400 feet tall.  The roads needed to bring in the huge turbines (made in China) and 124 foot long blades (made in Brazil) will make Rte 142 look like a cowpath in comparison.  They will destroy your local roads but won't pay for the damage!  You will get aviation lights 24/7 and the roar of a low flying jet that never goes away whenever the wind blows.

Is that what you value about life in Weld?  Be pro-active!  Get the Dixmont ordinance and adapt it for Weld before the wind companies come to town.  They are relentless in their quest to get turbines up to suck up subsidies from the taxpayers.  They will be coming to a ridge near you---I guarantee it!

First of all, xyz, this is not NIMBY, it is about issues that impact all of the state, all taxpayers, and all ratepayers.   The beauty and natural resources being destroyed by the development of wind turbines is everybody's yard and it is everybody's wallet.  This is an extremely important public policy issue and I have to strongly disagree with Dr. Jennings.

It is unfortunate that Dr. Jennings, in his well intentioned concern for public health  related to air pollution, embraces sprawling industrial wind turbine sites across the rural landscape of Maine.  That wind turbines are seen as the be-all panacea to air pollution, climate change, and energy issues is a result of the masterful propaganda of Big Wind/Big Lie.  I would like to believe that people like Dr. Jennings and Dr. Dora Mills, intelligent enough to earn the MD degree, would also be intelligent enough to fully research this scam.  They would realize that massive wind turbine proliferation ends up creating so many other negative impacts that their development does virtually nothing that their idealism envisions and extracts a huge, untenable, and unwarrented price.

Liars and spinmeisters! Look at the drivel Tilberg put out: “It is important that people have a discussion" You call a stacked deck going through the motions of only looking at and hearing pro-wind propaganda a discussion? That is what the Gov's Task Force on Wind Power amounted to. Then they produced that heinous "Expedited Wind Permitting" statute. Slam dunk for Big Wind. No "discussion" with the citizens

Tliberg also says: "those and other concerns have drawn the Baldacci administration’s attention." ! The Governor will drive all the way to Stetson Mt. in support of his buddies of First Wind---twice---but not drive an extra 45 minutes to meet with the people in Mars Hill whose lives have been ruined by the turbines. Of course not, the turbines are First Wind. It is pathetic that Tilberg & John Kerry (State Wind Zombie in Chief) had to be pressured into meeting with leaders of the Citizens Task Force on Wind Power, but treated erstwhile citizens to political pabulum, then squashed the CTFWP efforts to bring some sanity to this run-away train wreck of pushing industrial wind down the throats of people.

She refers to the state ordinance---yet another farce that doesn't protect people. As stated in the article, recently some towns have actually written just, fair, and scientifically sensible ordinances.

Lastly, she refers to "The state also is continuing to review technical information on setbacks, noise, health implications and other aspects of wind power to see whether regulations should be revisited." That's news to me! They aren't seeking any citizen input. DEP & LURC have been pressured by Baldacci to make it easier on Big Wind and harder on citizen involvement.

DEP & LURC have both been presented with many considerations that would enable them to modify the statute and their own regulations. DEP ignored the recommendation of its own noise consultant to use dBc scale measurements on turbine noise. Freedom of Access Act has been used to uncover so many manipulations that it borders on criminal. DEP & LURC officials act like coaches to the developers, telling them how to modify their applications to enable them to approve them. They are afraid the citizens might uncover these flaws, but, then again, well documented material and serious questions about these projects are either ignored or brushed over lightly. I know, I've been through this un-civic process!

Give me a break, Karen Tilberg! And don't get me started on John LaMontagne or Jon Hinck!

Candiceanne, what drug are you on, anyway? It causes hallucinations that industrial wind turbines are beautiful and causes you to regurgitate like a broken record the question about have you been to a working wind turbine site?

Yes, I have stood on Mountain Road, on the east side of Mars Hill, with an expensive, well calibrated decibel meter that continuously read 48 to 54 dbA on a day when the wind was blowing but less than 20 mph because the chairlift at Big Rock ski area on Mars Hill was operating. Chairlifts generally are put on wind hold if there is steady winds greater than 20 mph. The turbines up there are such a problem that the license for Mars Hill, initially 45 dbA, was increased to 50 dbA, a significant increase in allowable noise level. So yes, I have been there and witnessed why the Mars Hill Mountain Landowners Association are suing UPC/First Wind. They should sue the State of Maine, Wind Turbine Zombie in Chief Baldacci, and Andrew Fisk, the DEP bureaucrat who gave the variance to First Wind, as well. These folks lives have been ruined.

Regarding property values, in the Lincoln Lakes region, there are dozens of seasonal and year round homes for sale at all times on the lakes. In Lincoln alone, there are 720 waterfront parcels with dwellings. The spector of the Rollins project looms like a dark cloud over the real estate market. No properties for sale on the lakes where Rollins Mt. or the ridges of Rocky Dundee are the viewshed sold this year.
That is the reality here in Maine, not what some study out of Berkeley cooked up to satisfy some bureaucrat's need to justify the wind industry.

Congratulations to the wise and concerned people of Rumford! Beware of the slick out of staters. The remarks by John Lamontagne are the verbal tripe they use everywhere. They will do anything to get their projects approved and have a history of back room dealings with town and county officials. They say they are for open process, but if you ask them about their data, they won't tell you anything about it. In Lincoln, which is rated as "poor" wind potential on the US Energy Information Office map, they were asked how their data justified the project and wouldn't reveal any information. They use the same studies but move them around for different applications, which they were called out on at the Lincoln DEP hearing.
Well, here are some answers, based on my first hand experience with First Wind. They want to do projects wherever they believe they can get a willing host community that is also sucker enough to grant them a local subsidy through a TIF. Its not about generating actual kilowatts, its how many turbines they can get up to maximize sucking up taxpayers' money. They just cloak it in their "save the world" spin.
As far as the DEP goes, you can prove over and over that First Wind is a flim flam operation and blast all kinds of holes through their application, but DEP is still going to approve because of pressure from the head wind zombie himself---Baldacci. He is directly and personally connected to First Wind. Kurt Adams, who was Baldacci's legal counsel for 3 years, then appointed by Baldacci to be chairman of the PUC for 2 years is now Executive VP for Development for First Wind.
So, wise people of Rumford, you took a great step in enacting the moratorium. Now look to excellent ordinances similar to the recently enacted Dixmont ordinance to have in place to protect your town's interest. You control it, not First Wind and Baldacci!