Baldacci, LaMarche and Merrill agreed that nuclear power has no future in Maine and that wind power does, although Merrill was alone in endorsing the Redington Wind Farm, which Maine Mountain Power LLC wants to build in western Maine.

An 80-foot-long tube that got stuck in Searsport last week as it began a truck trek to a windmill project in Aroostook County finally got on its way Saturday........ "The trailer was the problem," Saucier said. The original trailer used was not appropriate for the equipment it was carrying.

FREEDOM - Local review of a $12 million wind power proposal for Beaver Ridge is set to begin next month, coming after a planning board decision Thursday night that Competitive Energy Services' application is complete. The wind project was proposed in March, but CES voluntarily held off applying for permits until the town could develop an ordinance by which to evaluate it. The ordinance was adopted earlier this summer, and an attempt to pass a six-month moratorium on wind power permits was defeated at a special town meeting last week.

SEARSPORT - High-tech wind power met old-fashioned road pavement Thursday as a truck hauling an 80-foot-long, 197,000-pound tube for a major power generation project in Mars Hill got stuck. The driver's inability to make a turn from a road at Mack Point onto U.S. Route 1 resulted in the tube rolling off its trailer, damaging the road surface. Traffic was blocked for at least three miles.

SWAN'S ISLAND, ME - Swan's Island Electric Cooperative members voted at their annual meeting to consider developing wind power on Swan's Island and Frenchboro, according to Working Waterfront.

Backers of a $10 million wind energy project for Beaver Ridge in Freedom scored a victory Thursday when townspeople rejected a moratorium effort proposed by two of the town’s three selectmen. The vote was 79-44. As a result, a representative of Portland-based Competitive Energy Services (CES) is expected to appear before the Freedom Planning Board Thursday of this week seeking a permit under the town’s recently enacted commercial development review ordinance. According to CES executive Andrew Price, the company has been unable to place its order with the manufacturer for the three proposed tower-mounted turbine units until it secures town permitting. There is about a year’s lead-time until the units would be delivered, he said.

CARRABASSETT VALLEY – The Planning Board heard two proposals at its August 31 meeting, one for a proposed subdivision on Sugarloaf and the second from Maine Mountain Power LLC (MMP) for a part of its proposed wind power project. MMP has proposed a 30-wind turbine project for nearby Black Nubble and Redington Mountain, with access roads and transmission lines located in Carrabassett Valley. The Maine Land Use Regulatory Commission (LURC) held hearings on the project last month at the Base Lodge on Sugarloaf.

The purpose for the meetings was to formally announce that TransCanada has concluded most of its studies in the Kibby Mountain Range and are now stating that it is suitable for the development of a wind power project. TransCanada plans on filing its rezoning application to the Land Use Regulation Commission this fall.

Freedom voters once again supported the construction of wind turbines on Beaver Ridge. In a 79-44 vote Thursday, residents turned down a moratorium that would have prevented town officials from approving the project.

KITTERY, Maine -- The Town Council has agreed to fund a wind study at the local dump to see if the location is right for a proposed power-generating windmill. At the meeting Monday night, the council unanimously approved the use of $2,000 to buy testing equipment and begin a wind speed study, which could take up to a year.

A proposed wind farm on Beaver Ridge continues to fuel vigorous debate. Freedom residents are preparing to vote Thursday, Aug. 31, on a moratorium that would prohibit local officials from granting permits for the project for 180 days, with extensions possible if “the problem giving rise to the need for this moratorium still exists and reasonable progress is being made to alleviate [it].”

"It's a difficult bird to study because it's distributed across a fragmented range of mountaintops which we sometimes refer to as 'sky islands.' We estimate the total population to be between 20,000 and 40,000 birds," Rimmer said. The bird's habitat faces potential threats from ski area development, communications tower construction, wind energy projects, acid rain, mercury and global warming.

Tapping into wind power's clean energy isn't as simple as it sounds. Even the environmental groups that tout sustainable energy are divided when it comes to the massive turbines. In Maine, a key environmental group opposes plans to put turbines on a high-visibility ridgeline.

Editor's Note: Click on link below to hear audio report.

“We had 30 hours of public hearing, a marathon, but the participants did a great job adhering to a very strict schedule… Everyone who offered testimony was helpful for the commissioners to make their decision. “We have not had a hearing that was that long and with so many people that I can remember,” Carroll said.

Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- New York, New Jersey and five other Northeast states set a goal of cutting power-plant carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent over 10 years to help curb global warming.

ELIOT, Maine -- The call for finding alternative energy sources and gaining energy independence has been growing increasingly louder in the past few years. Fueled by the continued rising cost of crude oil and fears of global warming, Americans across the country are pushing the government to take action.

More than 10 large and small wind-power facilities are on line in the region. More could be on their way. A proposed 24-megawatt project in Lempster, N.H., is under regulatory review. A 13.5-megawatt project in western Massachusetts' Berkshires is moving through the regulatory process.

``The problem we're having with all these wind farms is . . . they're proposing to put them in all the worst places," said Thomas W. French , assistant director of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. ``If they could do what the Russell Biomass plant did, which is to find a preexisting, historical industrial district, we'd be applauding them." As part of the ongoing state permitting process for the plant, French's division worked with its developers to reroute proposed power lines to reduce their impact on wildlife.

MARS HILL, Maine— At the crest of a mountain ridge that hugs northern Maine's border with Canada and shares names with the potato-growing town below, what will become New England's biggest wind-power development so far is quietly taking shape.

CARRABASSETT VALLEY -- Hours into the second day of hearings on the proposed Redington Wind Farm, commissioner Bart Harvey noted the wide differences between information provided by different sides. "One wonders when we read this whether we are looking at the same place," said Harvey after Steven Pelletier, of Woodlot Alternatives, Inc provided a summary of his analysis related to environmental impacts.