ROXBURY – Maine’s largest environmental organization, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, announced its support on Thursday afternoon of a proposed wind power project on town hills.

According to NRCM Clean Energy Project Director Dylan Voorhees, the council has reviewed the permit application by Record Hill Wind LLC and believes the 55-megawatt project should be approved by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

The DEP has been reviewing the project application since Nov. 2008 and is expected to make a decision before summer.

Record Hill Wind, composed of Independence Wind principals Angus King and Robert Gardiner and landowner Bayroot LLC of Delaware, has proposed building a wind-power facility with 22 2.5-megawatt turbines along 3 miles of ridge on Partridge Peak, Flathead Mountain and the southern slope of Record Hill.

Voorhees said Thursday in a report that the project will provide an important contribution toward Maine’s goal of 2,000 megawatts of wind power by 2015.

“Staying on track toward this goal will cut global warming pollution, boost energy independence, and keep Maine in a leadership position in the development of clean power,” he added.

Voorhees said the Record Hill project is projected to reduce pollution by putting electricity into New England’s transmission system that displaces power generated by dirtier forms of power production.

Estimated annual pollution reductions would be 62,000 tons of carbon dioxide, 33 tons of sulfur dioxide, and 18 tons of nitrogen oxides.

“The Record Hill project will help reduce air pollution and global warming without causing undue environmental impacts,” Voorhees said.

“When compared with coal, oil and natural gas – which currently provides more than 40 percent of Maine’s electricity – wind is a far superior energy source,” he added.

However, project opponents like Steve Thurston, a fourth-generation camp owner at Roxbury Pond, disagreed with the council’s stance.

“The enormity of this mistake is beyond comprehension,” Thurston stated in a Thursday afternoon e-mail. “This is not about electricity or foreign oil or global warming.”

“It is about a very powerful industry with long tentacles and a huge appetite for tax subsidies, laying waste to hundreds of miles of Maine’s scenic and fragile mountain ecosystems and wildlife habitat,” he said.

Thurston said he contacted Voorhees after reading the NRCM report.

“The taxpayer dollars being used to subsidize wind power could be much more effectively spent on conservation and efficiency programs, which would save Maine residents 30 percent or more in heating bills,” Thurston said. “Voorhees agreed with me on that.”

Voorhees said the project fits well with Maine’s emerging energy policies which focus on boosting energy efficiency, reducing pollution from existing power plants, and tapping into the power of winds that blow across the state.

Thurston disagrees.

“It is clear that NRCM is about saving the world from global warming, not about protecting Maine’s natural resources,” Thurston said. “They are doing neither job with their support of wind power.”

Thurston said he believes the Roxbury Pond community will be most affected by the sight and sounds of turbines on the eastern ridge lining the pond.

“Fifty communities like Roxbury Pond will be sacrificed to reach the (state) goal of 2,700 megawatts,” he said. “Low frequency blade thump will replace the nighttime quiet that Roxbury residents are accustomed to.”

Voorhees said the project is expected to generate enough electricity annually to power 20,000 homes and could result in a 66-percent reduction in Roxbury property taxes by paying about $700,000 annually as its share.

“The developer also has agreed to pay the first 500 kilowatt hours of electricity generation charges for every current residence in Roxbury for every month over the next 20 years,” Voorhees said.