This is in response to the editorial April 20, “Give annex plan a chance.”
The Sun Journal has come out again as cheerleader for Harley Lee’s wind power plant proposal. The editorial stance hasn’t wavered since 2002, and the arguments do little more than echo Lee’s dubious claims, which were refuted in the LURC hearings.
Opponents rightly call Lee’s latest tactic an end run in trying to circumvent two negative LURC judgments, the governor’s Wind Power Task Force’s determinations and the Legislature’s Expedited Areas designation.
The editorial claims that “… the real end run would have been a drawn-out legal battle between (Lee’s) company … against the rulings of LURC.” Asking another authority to judge his case would have kept the matter within the system whose rules the people of Maine have agreed to abide by. Take notice that Lee didn’t take that route. Calling a legal appeal an end run doesn’t meet the straight face test.
And it’s misleading to claim that lawmakers don’t understand the hearts and minds of “valley voters.” Carrabassett Valley voters cannot determine the fate of those two mountains, because those protected peaks lie in the Unorganized Territories and, therefore, belong to the people of Maine.
If LD 741 passes, the precedent will be set for any developer to get a town to annex land belonging to the state. The fact that there are expedited areas for wind power should please serious developers. The burden is on them to play by the rules.
Vera Trafton, Phillips

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