A proposed wind farm in Clifton is, once again, dividing residents. After a series of appeals by opponents and the developer, the State Supreme Court is now reviewing the plan.

General Maine

State environmental officials have recommended that the Board of Environmental Protection reaffirm the denial of a proposed $100 million, 16-turbine wind-to-energy site in eastern Penobscot County, officials said Tuesday.

Zoning/Planning Maine

The department’s staff, as it did in 2013, is again recommending the project be turned down, according to state documents filed in advance of Thursday’s meeting. In its 2014 recommendation, DEP staff wrote that Bowers Wind “would result in an unreasonable adverse effect on the scenic character” of the region.

Impact on Landscape Zoning/Planning Maine

The state wants to make sure the developer, which lost a key funding source in a court ruling, can afford to finish four projects in Maine worth $1 billion. ...applicants for wind-energy projects must show that they have enough money for construction and maintenance, and for restoring sites after wind farms go off line.

General Maine

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is appealing last month’s ruling by a judge who determined that DEP Commissioner Patricia Aho erred in a decision involving noise complaints about a wind farm on Vinalhaven.

General Maine

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has appealed a Kennebec County judge’s ruling that chastised Commissioner Patricia Aho for her role in responding to complaints by neighbors over noise from Vinalhaven wind turbines. “On behalf of DEP, the attorney general’s office has filed an appeal of the Superior Court’s decision in the Fox Islands Wind case,” DEP communications director Jessamine Logan said.

Legal Maine

In a prepared statement, the Standard & Poor’s rating agency said the court ruling could trigger a sale of the company’s assets, or prompt Emera to divest its interest in the company. For rating purposes, it was putting the venture on its CreditWatch and said it could consolidate the joint company into First Wind. “Because we currently rate First Wind lower than Northeast Wind, it’s possible we would downgrade the company,” Standard & Poor’s said in a statement last month.

General Maine

After a floor debate featuring soaring rhetoric about democracy and self-determination, the House on Monday advanced a bill aimed at giving residents of Maine’s vast Unorganized Territory a new way to slow down wind development.

General Maine

This is not about good wind vs. bad wind, folks. This is about citizens’ rights. Much research has been done to determine how this UT law change could have happened in the first place. Unfortunately, all the legal “i’s” were dotted and “t’s” were crossed. Barely. Developers and Environmental NGOs had more notice and access to the process than the citizens affected, but that’s another story for another day. The moral to that story is “watch your back at all times”, though.

Energy Policy Maine

"So windpower invades Maine, forces us to buy a billion dollars worth of something that we don't need," he says, "and that does us no good, ruining hundreds of square miles of classic Maine mountains, and ruining our economy, and this is something to celebrate?" Critics like O'Neil also accuse the wind industry of relying too much on federal subsidies.

General Maine

“They are a motivated and organized trade association,” said Chris O’Neil, a lawyer for the Friends of Maine’s Mountains citizen group. “We continue to see Big Wind scrambling to build whatever projects they can before the honeymoon is over and their product totally falls out of favor.” O”Neil said that as federal subsidies for wind power dry up, the industry will find itself outperformed and priced out of the market by other generators.

Energy Policy Maine

The request-for-proposals is expected to be issued by the New England States Committee on Electricity, a nonprofit organization that represents the governors on regional electricity issues. Maine’s representative on the committee, Public Utilities Commission Chairman Thomas Welch, said on Monday that it was too early to know what shape the RFP would take, and when it would be issued.

Canada Maine Massachusetts Vermont

A lawyer representing the side that challenged the deal and won the argument at the  state’s Supreme Judicial Court said Thursday that the business venture shouldn’t be allowed to continue operating. “There is no approval of this. It has been vacated, nullified,” said Alan Stone, representing the Houlton Water Company.

General Maine

During the coldest days of an especially cold winter, LePage said, Maine lawmakers were discussing rebates for solar energy, while a resident he heard about was huddled at home in an electric blanket. “Don’t ask the ratepayers to pay for it, because they can’t afford it,” LePage said.

General Maine

Town officials will be developing an ordinance to regulate wind energy projects after residents voted Monday to impose a six-month moratorium on such projects. ...The Columbia moratorium was approved by a 28-16 vote at the annual town meeting. The town’s Planning Board sought the moratorium in order to allow time to consider enacting local guidelines for the project.

General Maine

LePage admonished participants at the forum, many who are involved in clean-sector businesses focused on energy efficiency, biomass, solar and wind power, not to expect the public to foot the bill for the cost of research and development. A vocal opponent of Maine’s wind power policies and any additional costs they put on ratepayers, LePage indicated the state now seems to be favoring solar subsidies.

Energy Policy Maine

L.D.1791 was amended to keep the megawatt goals - a small victory for wind advocates - but the bill now also seeks to require developers to prove a project’s economic worth before receiving approval from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. The original bill had included a goal, not a mandate, that a developer substantiate job creation and lower electricity rates.

Energy Policy Maine

In a ruling issued Monday, Kennebec County Superior Court justice Michaela Murphy overturned a controversial regulatory decision Aho made in June 2011 involving noise violations at a Vinalhaven wind farm, saying there was “no rational basis or relevant evidence” to support it. Aho’s decision, which reversed the recommendations of DEP staff and the Attorney General’s Office, was the exact outcome sought by Vinalhaven’s Fox Island Wind, which was represented by Pierce Atwood, the state’s largest law firm, where Aho had worked until earlier that year.

Noise Legal Maine

After three years of litigation, a Maine Superior Court decision has finally found in favor of wind turbine neighbors complaining about excessive noise from three nearby 1.5 megawatt GE wind turbines. Although citizens across the United States living near wind turbines are complaining -- including lawsuits against wind turbine operators --  this is the first court case where a state judge has found against a state agency charged with enforcement; the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

General Maine

When those customers are generating power from their own energy sources, they’re not buying power from CMP, thereby reducing the company’s revenue. CMP wants to charge those customers a special rate to reflect the fact that even though they aren’t buying power all the time, they expect CMP to provide them with reliable distribution service. It’s an issue in other states, too, as power companies adapt to increasing power generation “behind the meter,” on-site by small-scale producers.

Impact on Economy Transmission Maine