Opinions
Category:
Maine
Our quality of place is being attacked one mountain at a time. Our natural resources are our future and our economy, way beyond the 20 years the turbines will be there. I want our state agencies to represent OUR best interest, not the developer's. ...Is the Department of Environmental Protection in existence to pave the way for corporate industrial development or to protect the State of Maine through sound science and good judgment? Be scientists, not politicians!
Also filed under [
General]
The Department of Environmental Protection's public meeting on the proposed 12-turbine industrial wind project for Saddleback Ridge in Carthage will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 10, at Dirigo High School in Dixfield.
Also filed under [
General]
With the stroke of a pen, an uninformed governor named John Baldacci sacrificed the natural art work that millions of individuals had grown to love. Maine's landscape was destroyed because of a bill called LD 2283 which sacrificed an entire state to the wind industry.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy]
For people who believe one of Maine's highest conservation priorities should be the preservation of the state's unorganized territories as the timberlands and outdoor-recreational lands they have traditionally been - and I count myself among those people - the greatest threat to the North Woods is large-scale development of any kind.
Also filed under [
General]
Editorial undercounts the costs, oversells the benefits of wind
January 12, 2011 in Portland Press Herald
January 12, 2011 in Portland Press Herald
It's well-documented and accepted - even among developers - that wind projects create very few permanent jobs. Big Wind and its media allies gloss over this fact and make the argument that economic activity "no matter how brief" justifies permanent degradation of our state's most valuable natural assets.
There's nothing that sells a bad idea like the promise of economic salvation.
Also filed under [
General]
Maine Voices: State's record on wind power has little to boast about
December 30, 2010 in Portland Press Herald
December 30, 2010 in Portland Press Herald
The euphemisms of pro-wind developers at a LURC hearing to add Kossuth Township to the expedited wind development zone highlight last fall offered a picture of disturbing political and financial alliances that scar Maine landscapes.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy]
Citizens opposing the plan to install 360 miles of turbines across Maine are made to look like selfish people whose only concern is their view.
But now the huge cost of this plan is coming to light. Now the health issues are being exposed as our neighbors suffer from long-term exposure to low frequency noise. Now DEP sound standards are being proven as inadequate for turbines' unique noise.
Also filed under [
General]
Once again the "wind facts" get distorted by the press. In the newspaper's Dec. 19 issue, another story was written as if it were the truth. It was stated that 1 megawatt of wind energy would power 750 to 1,000 homes. One might be impressed by that ratio - if it were true.
Also filed under [
General]
An 82-year-old got tired of spitting into the wind, went out on a limb
December 6, 2010 in Portland Press Herald
December 6, 2010 in Portland Press Herald
By risking arrest to oppose wind power, he drew attention from media far and wide. ...Many people have asked me why I did this. Good question. I hope I give good answers.
The first reason is that nobody seems to be paying attention to the negative aspects of wind power -- least of all the complacent and complicit media in Maine.
Also filed under [
General]
As a neighbor of the wind turbine farm, this year has been a journey from hope to anger and disgust. ...Our experience has forced me to look into the deeper issues of industrial wind - the technology, economics and politics - and the investigation has been an uncomfortable journey. It has brought my once-honey-eyed vision of easy, green power to the conclusion that industrial wind energy is, at present, bad science, bad economics and bad politics.
Also filed under [
Impact on People]
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?
Also filed under [
Impact on Landscape|
Impact on People]
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.
Also filed under [
Impact on Landscape|
Impact on People]
Wind protesters really prophets who warn of dire peril ahead
November 15, 2010 in Portland Press Herald
November 15, 2010 in Portland Press Herald
The three dozen protesters who stood out in the biting rain and who were arrested will in time be vindicated in the eyes of the editors and others in the aftermath and awakening of the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on the public and the environment.
This is, was and will always be about the money.
Also filed under [
General]
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.
Also filed under [
Impact on Landscape|
Tourism]
Maine Voices: Things aren't all rosy on Vinalhaven about wind turbines
November 12, 2010 in Portland Press Herald
November 12, 2010 in Portland Press Herald
Our experience has forced me to look into the deeper issues of industrial wind -- the technology, the economics and the politics. It has been an uncomfortable journey that has changed my once honey-eyed vision of easy, green power to a view that industrial wind energy is, at present, bad science, bad economics and bad politics.
I add my voice to the growing number of Mainers who are demanding a moratorium on wind projects all over Maine.
Also filed under [
Impact on People]
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.
Also filed under [
Impact on Landscape|
Impact on Views]
People will not only pay dearly in making the developers wealthy, but will also lose control of the beautiful mountains. There will also be a loss of wildlife (birds and beautiful animals), and loss of tourist dollars and quality of life. The debt will be far greater than having increased property taxes or higher electric bills.
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.
Also filed under [
Impact on Landscape|
Impact on Views]
Now we have a landowner demanding that citizens vote against the proposed wind ordinance in Rumford or else the trails on their property will be closed.
I would like to point out that the wind industry is relying on the old military tactic of divide and conquer.
Also filed under [
General]
Building industrial size wind turbines right next to my home is NOT the same as the possibility of drowning or having allergies. I can take steps to protect myself from these things, even move if I feel the need to, but I cannot protect myself from the health effects from wind turbines.
Also filed under [
Noise]
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