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Impact on Landscape or Massachusetts
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People opposed to the sacrifice of Maine's landscape have the deck stacked against them. Laws in place prevent citizens from challenging the economic and environmental assumptions used to justify wind power. The cumulative effects of multiple wind projects are ignored by the agencies responsible for protecting our environment and wildlife habitats.
How did this happen?
That natural treasure, which we voted to protect one generation ago, is once again in jeopardy. Once again the citizens of Maine need to let their voices be heard, and once again step forward and say "no" to a proposal to place a massive industrial wind complex on the very doorstep, and just a few short miles from the southeast corner of the Bigelow Preserve.
Annette Smith, the head of Vermonters for a Clean Environment (VCE), the only green group opposing wind power in Vermont (the other, Energize Vermont, is really a VCE spinoff) said she had spent a lot of time discussing the wind issue with officials of the other environmental groups, and suspects that one reason they are all so pro-wind is that a few of them have some financial connections with wind power companies.
Currently, there are three industrial wind projects being planning between Mayfield Plantation and Sisk Mountain in Chain of Ponds Township. Those projects, along with the constructed Kibby project, would result in a combined total of at least 200 industrial wind turbines that would cover about 23 miles of mountaintops. ...Iindustrial wind development has a long reach when it comes to visual effect.
They looked like a line of alien invaders marching across the face of the earth. I believe I counted 31 of them using my binoculars, with several more showing just their blades cutting in the back drop. I thought how horrible they looked.
I wondered how Maine reached this precipice, where developers and politicians permanently scar beautiful Maine landscapes. It seemed a strange twist for a state that once had prided itself on financially sound, aesthetically pleasing development, and even outlawed billboards decades ago.
Falmouth's wind turbine noise study is complete and all the Greenies can continue to wonder why we abutters are so whiney over "that sound," which for the most part falls within the guidelines of state noise regulations and Falmouth's own windmill bylaw of 40 decibels.
Also filed under [
Noise|
Massachusetts]
Cape Wind - composed of unnecessary rate hikes, sweetheart deals and hidden costs - has been disguised by a clean, green energy cloak, camouflage enough to fool any environmentally conscious consumer into thinking that if it looks green, it must be good.
Cape Wind is not good for Massachusetts.
Over the past five years, concern for the future of the planet has morphed into an unthinking support of any plan, however harmful to the countryside, that might just possibly help the energy crisis, however infinitesimally.
Turbines have become a marketing tool, representing global concern and niceness, appearing in advertising campaigns, as backdrop for local TV news, even in the England World Cup symbol.
Last spring all the skids were greased for a publicly funded $91 million "specialized vessel for installing offshore wind farms," according to a report filed by Danish ship builder Kurt Thomsen, who also happens to be a consultant to Cape Wind.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
Massachusetts]
At 1.4mw, it is maximum size, industrial class; it is intended to generate electricity for ARC for use and to sell for profit. Large as the Provincetown Monument, it has a blinking red light and emits noise and vibrations.
Town Meeting in Dennis already voted to place turbines in five designated areas, not beaches.
Ian Bowles, the state's secretary of energy and environmental affairs, argues that plenty of alternative power sources have emerged to date and supply should not be a big problem in the future. That seems like wishful thinking.
Wind power, especially offshore windmills, and solar power are not cost-competitive today. I doubt offshore wind will compete on price in my lifetime, and I'm convinced solar power in the Northeast will remain too costly.
This Act explicitly authorizes this single state agency to approve wind projects regardless of local decisions and regardless of recommendations from other state agencies with expertise related to such projects. It also replaces environmental laws with weaker "standards" that can be waived solely at the discretion of that agency and eliminates rights of appeal by municipal officers, municipalities, and most by other parties.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
Massachusetts]
Since 2004, the Beacon Hill Institute has published analyses showing that the economic costs of the project would exceed the benefits by hundreds of millions of dollars, and that the project would require commensurately large subsidies.
Also filed under [
General|
Massachusetts]
This is exactly the position of the Cape Wind project where the price per kilowatt hour is to be more than double the typical charge. We have opposed this project and the Massachusetts state mandates that lie behind it.
If any Atlantic Coast turbines carry similar cost penalties they should be opposed too.
Clean Planet Energy is neither on the Web, nor can it be found through dialing directory assistance in the San Rafael, CA area ...I think it's prudent to question the legitimacy of the Bourne wind developer Clean Planet Energy on this basis.
Also filed under [
Impact on People|
Massachusetts]
We're not anti-wind. We're not anti-industry. We believe that wind farms have a role to play on appropriate land parcels, but this bill would force municipalities to adhere to the state's approval criteria and it would effectively silence opposition from property owners affected by a wind turbine installation.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
Massachusetts]
As unmolested as these islands look from the deck of a small craft, that may change as wind turbines sprout. ...Voters whose calculations of industrial wind, whether off or on Vineyard shores, conclude that the detriments outweigh the benefits will want to examine candidates for the state senate, the House of Representatives, and the Massachusetts governorship carefully.
DPU concluded hearings Friday on a proposal that would add $1 billion to the electric bills of National Grid customers to pay for Cape Wind, even though the utility could have purchased less expensive renewable power from other suppliers. ...Our cross-examination of senior National Grid executives and other principals in the proposed agreement established several important facts.
Also filed under [
Impact on Economy|
Massachusetts]
Cape Wind siting economics and cultures of the Coasts (Part 1 of 2)
September 29, 2010 in Examiner.com
September 29, 2010 in Examiner.com
When there is no wind no power is produced. When the wind blows at night, battery storage power is as primitive now as it was in 1990, with very little improvement. The Big Breakthrough in proton exchange membranes and fuel cells is still a research hypothesis ...Thus, based on economics the conclusion is that Cape Wind is a No Build project.