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.

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The industry's rapid growth has been sapped this year by the economic downturn, and by low natural gas prices that have driven down wholesale electricity costs and made wind less competitive. Installed capacity is off 71 percent from last year, down to 2007 levels, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

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"It's as early in the process as one can be," says Iberdrola Renewables Communications Manager Paul Copleman. The wind analysis will take place for at least a year. "The process is typically a four- to five-year process."

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The sessions featured several stations with a variety of experts who work for Patriot Renewables LLC prepared to answer questions ranging from the impact on birds and bats to the sound of turbines. The public informational meeting was required as part of the permitting process.

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The statute allows for industrial wind projects to be fast-tracked through the state permitting process in exchange for project proponents' providing tangible benefits for their host communities, which, besides tax revenue, could include everything from scholarships to community parks. The law, Blake said, "has essentially opened the floodgates to this industry, ruining the landscape of rural Maine from New Hampshire to Canada."

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"I think I'm tipping my hat to my bias," board member Dale Landrith said. He said that potential energy cost savings of 5 to 10 percent estimated from such a project did not justify the potential environmental damage. "I don't see why we're even pursuing this," he said to a scattering of applause from the two-dozen or so audience members.

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Protesters are concerned about more than simply not-in-my-backyard factors. They are angry about permanently ruining the views near the Bigelow Mountains and the Appalachian Trail. The wind farm project investors and partners receive tax breaks and federal energy grants, but most Maine taxpayers and ratepayers won't see any benefits.

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RUMFORD - Depending on the whims of voters, selectmen could put months of multiple meetings behind them this week and finalize the 2010-11 budget that is normally set after the June town meeting.

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First Wind's Longfellow project instantly created a rift between pro- and anti-wind residents in Rumford. Voters enacted and then extended a moratorium on such projects to develop a law regulating such development. ...First Wind polled 175 Rumford residents by phone to learn whether they favored the Longfellow project. Lamontagne declined to reveal what they learned.

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The three elected commissioners asked First Wind officials on Wednesday night to provide them at future meetings with information about the number of jobs that could be created. They also wanted to know whether the creation of a tax-incremental financing district would cause the county as a whole to lose revenue.

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"Some environmentalists have been drawn into believing that if you are not for covering the mountains of Maine with wind turbines, then you are acting against the unfolding disaster of climate change. ...The industrial wind mountaintop frenzy sweeping across Maine is not tied to shutting down an oil or coal power plant."

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The Friends group wrote, fears Rollins will have the same alleged violations of state noise regulations found at the three-turbine wind site on the midcoast island of Vinalhaven. "Given the recent findings regarding noise production by the same make and model of turbines that will be used at Rollins, we believe there is a credible basis for the BEP to revoke or suspend Evergreen's license."

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The question asks whether residents favor zoning the Colonel Holman Mountain ridge and Sugarloaf Mountain starting at 1,000 feet elevation so no commercial or industrial development, except for logging and communication towers, can take place.

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Since July, officials and townspeople from Bethel, Greenwood, Hanover, Newry and Woodstock have met five times as the Regional Wind Power Committee to create and review a document with which to regulate wind farms. ..."The goal for everybody here, is for when a wind power person shows up at our doors that we have an answer for them."

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The petition seeks to have a moratorium ordinance enacted that would apply "to any wind energy facility consisting of one or more wind turbines, the purpose of which is to primarily generate electricity to supply off-site customers, and included substations, cables/wires, and other structures accessory to such a facility."

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KEAN Energy LLC, a Turner-based renewable power company, is proposing two small-scale wind farms Down East, one in Jonesport and the other in Lubec. ...Residents have been promised at least a 10 percent reduction in their electricity bills and a major infusion of tax dollars.

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Campbell said that if the Land Use Regulation Commission allows the reclassification of nearly 700 acres of Washington County timberland as a fast-track zone for industrial wind-site development, the commission would be creating a potential compromise of the goals it set in its own Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

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Selectmen have yet to decide what action, if any, they will take on a petition outlining a proposed wind ordinance for their town. The petition, signed by 28 Carthage voters, was presented at the last board meeting by resident Alice Barnett.

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To justify the destruction of Maine's landscapes with his wind turbines, Angus King repeats the familiar claim that "there would be a 1-to-1 reduction in greenhouse gases because existing plants would be throttled back whenever the turbines are in operation." This is simply not true.

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Alan Michka is a resident of Lexington Township and is chairman of the board of the organization the Friends of the Highland Mountains, which was formed in opposition to a proposed 48-turbine wind-generation project located west of Moscow, in Highland Plantation. He said that at this stage, people in Bingham should be concerned about not having a turbine-related ordinance.

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