“As a practical matter, this was a denial,” Commission Chairman E. Bart Harvey III of Millinocket said after the meeting. “We simply have to memorialize that in a document that explains the reasons for denial and vote on it to approve it. I think we concluded the impact on resources is in excess of what we would be allowed in LURC’s comprehensive plan, regulations and rules.”

FARMINGTON–The Maine Land Use Regulation Commission voted, 6-1 against rezoning 1,004 mountaintop acres in northern Franklin County for a 30-turbine wind-energy project today. Only commissioner Stephen Wight, of Newry, supported the rezoning request. The commission's staff had previously recommended the rezoning be approved.

A seven-member citizen board will rule Wednesday on a wind power project that would be built on ridgelines that environmentalists say are rare habitat and home to threatened species. The Land Use Regulation Commission will meet at 9:30 a.m. in Farmington to rule on the application by Maine Mountain Power LLC to rezone about 1,000 acres on Redington Pond Range and Black Nubble Mountain to allow the construction of 30 turbines, each 400 feet high. The meeting is scheduled to take place in the Olsen Student Center at the University of Maine at Farmington. Environmentalists have strongly criticized a recommendation by the commission staff in favor of the $130 million project. The commission usually follows the staff recommendation. The land use agency acts as the planning board for the unorganized territories, an area that makes up roughly half of Maine.

A group of environmental and hiking organizations claimed Thursday that a recommendation by the staff of Maine’s wilderness zoning board to approve a controversial wind power project in the state’s western mountains is illegal. But the groups, including Maine Audubon and the Appalachian Mountain Club, stopped short of vowing to initiate a court challenge if the Land Use Regulation Commission gives the green light to the plan to build 30 wind turbines on Redington Pond Range and Black Nubble Mountain. LURC is scheduled to vote on Maine Mountain Power’s application Wednesday in Farmington. The commission usually, but not always, goes along with staff recommendations.

An element of mystery has entered the story of the increasingly controversial Competitive Energy Services (CES) wind turbine project proposed for Freedom’s Beaver Ridge. Potentially critical mail apparently went missing on its way from a lawyer’s office to the town office earlier this month. As a result, 27 local residents unhappy with what they see as significant negative effects that would result from the $12 million project now fear they might be denied their opportunity to mount an appeal.

FREEDOM — The board of appeals has scheduled hearings on a proposed $10 million wind turbine project for next month, but whether the board ever gets to hear the appeal remains to be seen. Ron Price, who owns the Beaver Ridge property approved for the electricity-generating turbines, argued in a letter submitted to the town on Tuesday that the opponents’ appeal was not properly submitted and should be dismissed. The town’s planning board last month approved Portland-based Competitive Energy Services’ plan to erect three turbines, each 390 feet tall, on Price’s property on Beaver Ridge. The turbines would produce up to 10 million kilowatt hours each year — enough to power 2,000 homes, according to the company’s proposal. Competitive Energy hopes to complete the project by the end of 2008. Steve Bennett and his daughter, Erin Bennett-Wade, and their spouses appealed the planning board’s decision with a notice turned in to the town office on Jan. 6, one day before the 30-day deadline. However, their appeal did not include a site plan as required by the ordinance, according to Price.

A multibillion dollar Canadian energy company proposing to put 44 wind turbines on mountains in northern Franklin County got a mixed reception from county commissioners Tuesday. Two commissioners said they felt that using wind as an alternative energy source was a good idea. One was concerned about the effect on recreation of 400-foot tall, lighted turbines and miles of transmission lines. Another questioned whether the developer, TransCanada, might one day reroute the energy to Canada rather than the Northeastern U.S.

AUGUSTA -– TransCanada Corporation has officially filed an application with the Land Use Regulation Commission for a petition to rezone and develop the Kibby Wind Power Project. The LURC Commissioners and Staff will be well rehearsed in wind power having dealt with the Redington project over the last year. The commissioners are expected to take regulatory action on the Redington project starting on Jan. 24 in Farmington. The proposed wind energy facility sited on portions of Kibby Mountain and Kibby Range in Franklin County, would provide approximately 132 megawatts (MW) of wind-generated electricity to customers in Maine and New England. The proposed wind project is four times the size of the Redington project.

Local reaction opposing the Freedom Planning Board’s Dec. 7 decision permitting Competitive Energy Services (CES) to erect three wind turbines on Beaver Ridge has now gelled in the form of an appeal at the local level brought by 27 town residents. A letter from Bangor attorney Ed Bearor received Tuesday at the town office addressed to Addison Chase, chairman of the town board of appeals, lists those appellants, all of whom live or own property within two miles of the proposed project site. Earlier, Bearor was on record as representing just four appellants, Judy Bennett, Steve Bennett, Jason Wade and Erin Bennett-Wade. In another letter from Bearor to the appeals board chairman received Wednesday, the attorney contends the planning board “improperly found, without sufficient supportive evidence in the record, that the project would meet” a variety of standards set down in the town’s recently enacted Commercial Development Review Ordinance. The specific areas of disagreement with the planning board’s permitting decision include noise, stormwater management, avoidance and mitigation of damages to public roads and drainage systems, bonding, and fire suppression. The pending appeal is also based on the planning board’s response to CES’s intention to combine transmission lines and points of connection to the local distribution lines, the Portland-based company’s alleged failure to demonstrate sufficient right title and interest in the area between the end of Sibley Road and the proposed project site and its alleged failure to demonstrate “that the project would not adversely affect the scenic or natural beauty of the area.”

KIBBY TOWNSHIP, Maine - A Canadian-based energy company has filed its application with state regulators seeking a zoning change and development permit for 2,900 acres in western Maine to build a $270 million wind farm. TransCanada Corp., based in Calgary, Alberta, is proposing to erect 44 wind turbines on 13.7 miles of ridge line on Kibby Mountain and Kibby Range in Kibby and Skinner townships in northern Franklin County near the Canadian border.

TransCanada Corp. has filed an application with state land regulators seeking permission to rezone 2,900 mountain acres and to build a $270 million wind-energy producing farm in northern Franklin County. TransCanada, a leading energy developer in North America, proposes to install 44 3-megawatt turbines and associated infrastructure on 13.7 miles of ridge line on on Kibby Mountain and Kibby Range in the Boundary Mountains in Kibby and Skinner townships, north of Eustis.

Thursday’s board of appeals meeting to discuss the Beaver Ridge wind turbine project was short and sweet. The board, which failed to announce the organizational meeting properly, decided to delay much of the work it had planned to do until it reconvenes at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the town office....... The appeals board will use Tuesday’s meeting set a date for hearing the appeal, determine if it needs legal council throughout the process–an attorney worked with the planning board throughout its deliberation–and to set a time limit for meetings.

FREEDOM — A plan to put wind turbines on Beaver Ridge is becalmed again. Steve Bennett and his family have appealed the planning board’s approval of the project. In a one page letter, Bangor Attorney Edmond Bearor, who represented the Bennetts throughout the planning board hearing process, listed numerous instances in which Bearor believes the planning board should have rejected the application for lack of evidence. The letter was turned in to the town office on Saturday, the final day the ordinance allowed an appeal to be filed.

The wind power project on Beaver Ridge reached a milestone Thursday, Jan. 4, when the Freedom Planning Board signed an order stating the project complied with the town’s commercial development review ordinance. No vote was required, as the board had voted 5-1 to approve the project in early December. Belfast attorney William Kelly, who represents the board, drafted the formal order in the last month.

A school district in Waldo County is looking to become the first district in the state to use wind power. SAD 3 is teaming up with Unity College and Coastal Enterprises Institute exploring whether there is enough wind to put an industrial scale wind turbine near Mount View High School.

The staff of the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission has recommended approval of a proposed $150 million wind power project in northern Franklin County. The draft recommendation on Maine Mountain Power’s Redington wind farm was released Friday. It goes before the seven-member Commission for a vote Jan. 24.

Staffers from Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission are recommending 1,004 mountaintop acres in northern Franklin County be rezoned for a 30-turbine wind-energy project. Maine Mountain Power LLC has proposed building a $130 million wind farm on the ridges of Redington Pond Range and Black Nubble mountains in Redington Township, about 4 miles west of Sugarloaf/USA in Carrabassett Valley. The wind farm would consist of turbines on top of towers about 400 feet tall, ridge line roads, two meteorological towers, transmission lines, new access roads and upgraded existing roads among other features. The project is expected to provide about 100 jobs during its yearlong construction and about 10 permanent jobs to the region.

The months-long review process of a proposed $12 million wind power project on Beaver Ridge has ended with the application winning the necessary town permits, but an appeal is in the works. Competitive Energy Services LLC of Portland announced in March it wanted to build three towers with wind turbines to produce 4.5 megawatts of electricity to be sold commercially through Central Maine Power’s electric grid.

The town of Freedom has moved one step closer to becoming the next site in Maine to have a wind farm. The wind turbines in Freedom will look similar to these in Mars Hill.

A federal law designed to ease electricity transmission bottlenecks and improve power reliability could hit Maine ratepayers in the pocketbooks, twice. The measure could force the construction of transmission lines to move Maine’s surplus power south. Not only could the loss of the surplus increase the price of electricity in the state, but Maine consumers would also have to pay part of the cost of building the lines.