The Spanish company Iberdrola Renewables (IR) proposes to build a large industrial wind energy facility in Concord and Lexington Townships. While specific details of the project have been kept hidden from the locals and the public-at-large, we know that today’s wind turbines are growing in size with each new wind facility proposed. First Wind’s Bull Hill Phase II project calls for turbines in excess of 500 feet. To put that in perspective, these immense machines are almost 100 feet taller than the elevation separating the Atlantic Ocean and the center of our village.
IR hopes to construct an industrial complex – miles long and as much as 2.5 times higher than Maine’s tallest sky-scraper – in the middle of this quiet, rural area – a region inhabited by families who purchased homes here because they value Maine’s natural resources and the peace and serenity they provide; qualities that are becoming increasingly rare.
The majority of the residents in these communities have signed petitions opposing IR’s wind energy facility. Here in Lexington 85 percent of residents signed in ink stating they were opposed. 85 percent! Our state senator and representative support our stance, as do our county commissioners. We’ve conveyed our majority opposition to IR and land owner Plum Creek, who have blatantly ignored our request to abandon the project. Not only have they ignored the will of the people who reside here, but this week IR submitted an application to erect a fourth meteorological tower just north of Peaked Hill. For what purpose? To expand an already-massive project that is not wanted and has been staunchly opposed by those who will live within its shadow and sound-shed?
We are Maine citizens who have been denied any input in the future of our homes and our home-town. We’ve done our homework. We’ve studied the science and economics and weighed the benefits and the negative impacts. We are not uninformed – we are educated. And we are Americans. Do our votes and voices still count or does this foreign developer hold all the cards?
This is a watershed moment. We have spoken. Will anyone listen, or have Maine citizens’ liberties gone with the wind?
Karen Pease
Lexington Twp.
Since I moved to the great state of Maine, over 30 years ago, I have observed an attitude prevalent among many of the inhabitants that runs something like,” My land is my land, sometimes your land is my land too, I can do whatever I want on my own land, and on your land, but you can’t do something on your land that I don’t like.”
A few months ago, there was an objection to cell phone towers in Eustis. They were too ugly. Never mind that those who objected also took once pristine forests and made a living by developing on them.
It’s OK to shatter the peaceful quiet of the forests with the whining snarl of snowmobiles and ATV’s and to pollute the clean mountain air with the noxious stench of exhaust fumes, on trails that wind for hundreds of miles. It’s not OK to see windmills turning.
Despite laws to the contrary, many consider it a God given right to hunt wherever game may be found even if it be land where permission has not been granted, but don’t put windmills where I might want to hunt.
There are some legitimate issues to consider regarding wind power. lets try and keep discussion to reasonable issues.
Cant you just call Angus King for HELP here???
Oh that’s right,,,The foreign WindTurbine company already lined his pockets.
How ya’ll like him now?
Frosty, the annoyances you list bother me, too. I don’t like the fumes from snowmobiles drifting up into my yard a thousand feet from the trail. Clear cuts I see across the way bug me. And I know I can’t control everything a landowner does. I think it is the scale and siting of these wind projects that are so troubling. I mean miles of continuous ridgeline, towering over multiple towns (including ones with zero compensation). It’s incongruous. I really question the good they do anyway….numbers quoted are of capacity–far from actual output. But even aside from that, the siting is lousy. And they are slated for ridgrline after mountaintop in western Maine. When will we reach critical mass??
Hi Frosty,
I appreciate your comments and your perspective. But you went off on a bit of a tangent so please allow me to comment in more detail.
When the Highland Wind project was first proposed I was in favor of it. Many locals were. But at the informational meetings held by the developer, many of us were also bothered by the fact that we couldn’t get straight answers to seemingly simple questions. Would we hear the turbines? How would that affect us? Would the facility truly reduce carbon emissions, and if so, by how much? How much of the project would be paid for by tax-payers at the federal, state and local level? Who would be responsible for the millions of dollars it would cost to decommission the project? How would the bald and eagles and other raptors that use this corridor to migrate be protected? How about our at-risk bat population? Why did we need to host an intermittent and undependable energy source, far from existing population centers and transmission corridors when Maine already produces far more electricity that we consume? Would any of the electricity produced stay in Maine? How would the project impact the experience of AT hikers who would have an up-close and personal view from just a few miles away?
We received little by way of factual answers. Instead, we heard the standard rhetoric that ‘wind’ was green and good and that it would ‘get us off foreign oil’. No proof, no facts to back up those statements. We were supposed to take the developers’ word for it.
But this was big. This was important, life-changing stuff. And so… we began to research the science and economics of industrial wind. We began to ask questions of experts who weren’t employed by the wind industry. We spoke to people who lived near existing wind facilities and discovered some very serious negative impacts to their health and quality of life and property values. Many of these people were once also in favor of the ‘concept’ of wind power…. Until the facilities went online and the realities of industrial wind became clear.
My neighbors and I aren’t backwoods hicks. We’ve spent incredible amounts of time and attention on this issue and we’ve made informed decisions. Would that every decision made in voting booths and town halls was the result of such intensive study! We aren’t selfish elitists who only care about our ‘view’, either… although Maine’s undeveloped places and outstanding views are sought after the world over by tourists and people who want to move to one of the few remaining places on the eastern seaboard where there are still commanding panoramas of undeveloped wilderness and true, dark night skies.
This letter is about citizens’ rights. About fairness. About having the ability to design the future of the place we call ‘home’. If you live in a municipality, you currently have more rights than we do. Your residents can vote to approve or deny zoning ordinances for your town. If a large pig farm wants to move into town… you have a right to say ‘No, thank you… we’ve studied the impacts vs. the benefits and decided this isn’t for us.” Or… you can say ‘Yes. We like the tax benefits and can live with the stench and the noise.” The same goes for a trucking depot or a Walmart or a nuclear plant or a simple apartment complex that wants a place in your community. You have the right to decide whether or not it’s right for you and whether or not it fits into the parameters of your town’s comprehensive plan.
Our right to participate in a similar process was taken away when our rural areas were re-zoned as ‘industrial’ for the development of wind energy facilities… and it was accomplished without our input and in such a way as to be effective immediately. We don’t believe that’s right or fair. And having done the research, we’ve also decided that a wind facility isn’t the right ‘fit’ for our communities.
I hear what you’re saying about land-owner rights, but zoning exists specifically because what one person or company does on his/its property can impact others. Sound, sight and smell don’t recognize property boundaries, pieces of corner rebar or blazed lines on trees. Neither do erosion or run-off or waterways. Birds and bats and other wildlife roam at will – and as stewards of something really significant and worth preserving, we feel it’s our right and our duty to participate in making informed and common-sense decisions.
A majority of our residents oppose the industrialization of the mountain ridges in our communities. We’ve done the ‘democratic’ thing… signed our names in ink to petitions and asked that we be granted the same rights as our counterparts in the towns next door. I’m surprised at your comment, because we’re doing what Americans should be doing. Educating ourselves, voting… and then expecting that our votes count for something.
You said it. “There are some legitimate issues to consider regarding wind power. lets try and keep discussion to reasonable issues.” I agree. And I believe that being allowed to participate in the process when a drastic change is proposed for rural Maine is very reasonable.
Respectfully,
Karen Pease
Lexington Twp., Maine
One quick comment about my response to Frosty.
I referenced the Highland Wind project. That is not the project proposed for Lexington and Concord, but for the adjacent Plantation of Highland. I referenced it because that was my first introduction to ‘industrial wind’ and was the project which caused so many locals to research the issue.
Iberdrola’s proposal was first learned of approximately one year later.
Didn’t mean to be confusing. :)
Karen Pease
Frosty
Ms. Karen Pease about said it all.
She only neglected to mention a few specifics that bother me.
Things such as the loss of thousands of acres because of the access roads to the sites and the miles of transmission line corridors to connect it to the grids, the loss of cold water source origins which are our mountains, the effect or elimination of threatened and endangered species as listed by the state & federal government, the fact that we here in Maine don’t need the electricity because we currently produce more than we need, the waste of tax dollars (borrowed money from China) for a system that is only 11% efficient at most, the closing of our hydroelectric dams or their reduced output of their turbines (by government order) to allow the wind industry to participate in production.
I could list many more specifics, but the real fact of all this waste & abuse is in that our Federal Government has borrowed monies from one of our biggest enemies to do all this under the guise of a non-factual Global Warming politically generated issue. And to top it all off our great elected officials are now selling our gas & petroleum rights to the Chinese while we sit here dumb and happy because the news media doesn’t tell the truth anymore nor do they report things that the government doesn’t want them to.
And yes – I don’t like it, none of it.
Hey Frosty –
Where did you come from 30 years ago? My guess is that you moved to Maine to get away from encroaching industrialization or residential sprawl. Please do some research on the impacts of industrial wind development worldwide. A good place to start would be http://www.wind-watch.org/
You will find that the overwhelming majority of articles written about industrial wind development around the world have been written because those who have had to live around them have suffered greatly from health issues, property value losses, environmental degradation and other negative impacts. Wildlife impacts are devastating, also. For example, it is well documented that some bird and bat species are threatened with extinction because of the impacts of industrial wind. Very little research has been done on small and large mammals.
The folks from Highland, Lexington, Concord, and Pleasant Ridge have done their homework and are trying to prevent similar effects from occurring in their towns. They are not against renewable energy sources, but they are against renewable energy sources that are not sustainable. One definition of sustainable: “… of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged…”
A whole new field of research, Sustainability Science, is evolving to bridge the gap between natural and social systems and how those interactions affect sustainability. Looked at through the lens of sustainability science, industrial development on mountaintops could never meet the goals of this discipline. There is not any way that an industrial wind project can be built on the ridge tops in Maine without causing permanent environmental damage that can never be repaired.
The current round of industrial wind development will be short lived as it was in the 1970’s; but it will be here until government supports dry up. Hopefully, the turbines that have already been built in Maine will not linger as abandoned rusting hulks – as they were in Hawaii and California after the ‘70’s – reminders of another failed government subsidy program foisted on our citizens and taxpayers who pick up the tab while the echoes of laughter from multi-national wind developers can be heard all the way to their banks.
To everyone who loves the Maine mountains,
I drove back home this morning from southern New Hampshire. Heading north passing long lines of cars and trucks heading back down south, I was so thankful for where I live.
There’s really nothing in the east that can compare to Maine. As I made the last turn up Route 27 north of Farmington, I felt my body and mind relax . Wow, am I lucky to live here.
Initially, I too wanted wind power . Then I listened to all the research on both sides and concluded land based wind power isn’t right for Maine. It doesn’t make sense to ruin where we live and enjoy, for a form of power that destroys the very thing we love. Go down “south” and spend a weekend and then come back to Maine, that’s all it will take.
Regardless of whether you’re a local or someone from “away” , a hunter or an organic gardener, a hiker or an ATVer, skier or snowmobiler, someone who just needs a job or a vacationer,
We all have one thing in common , we love these woods and mountains, streams and lakes.
We must save this last refuge for all of us.
Not that long ago there was a hue and cry in the Northeast over acid rain and air pollution.. It came to us from the Industrialized mid-section. I wonder why we don’t hear of that anymore.
We decried the pollution that drifted over us; those states that produced it pointed out that we bought the goods produced and the power that was generated from which the air contaminants derived.
How can we morally object to the placement of windmills on our lands, when we wanted an alternative to air pollution?
I don’t know how it is that more electricity is produced in Maine than is consumed, yet we still have some of the highest electrical rates in the country. We pay more for it than we sell it elsewhere for?
If anyone who objects to windmills also owns a cat, and that cat is free to roam they are also responsible for the killing of birds.. it is is estimated domestic cats are responsible for the demise of billions of birds world wide every year. So, to argue that windmills kill birds is hypocritical.
When the Tennessee Valley Authority was formed it destroyed a vast area of pristine wilderness and displaced hundreds of people. Our country, our society would not exist today without it. We have enjoyed the results of the sacrifices made then. It is hypocritical for us now to argue we cannot develop a small portion of our state for clean, renewable power generation.
It is probably that those in the future will look back on our technology today and think it crude by their standards,yet they will know too, it all had to have a beginning and we were the courageous pioneers who led.
I have listened up close to several windmill installations, in various parts of this country and elsewhere. Given a choice of listening to one versus listening to a snowmobile, or a motorcycle, or ATV or tour bus, I’ll take the windmill.
I personally view windmills as awesome engineering feats and never tire of looking at their majestic beauty.
As for those who argue that global warming is not real, there will probably be nothing that will ever convince them.
It’s ironic that those who argue against science, can embrace some extremely complex, abstract science whenever they use a cell phone or use a GPS mapping device. The same scientific system that discovered the theories needed to produced them, was used to uncover the theories that show the causes, impacts and progression of global warming. The world wide body of scientific knowledge that affirms global warming is as compelling as Relativity and Quantum theory. Without the application of those theories, cell phones and GPS would not work.
To say we must preserve this pristine refuge we call Maine, is to ignore that the greatest danger to our state, as well as the rest of the world, is to do nothing, to continue to rely on fossil fuels until they are completely depleted and the ecology of our environment has been permanently altered. To do nothing is to ensure the end of that which we cherish.
I tire of people who assume that, since I am at odds with local, popular opinion, I must have come to Maine from an urban setting. I have lived a well rounded life that includes being born and raised on a place far more rural and wild than that where I am now.
We’ll frosty is entitled to his opinion, as I am to mine. I have read, researched and listed as objectivly as I could to the pros and cons of windpower and am convinced the net gain is not worth the loss in terms of the environment and the asthetics of the region. I can’t add much to the arguments of Karen, Nora and others above. What we have here is unique and increasingly rare, and the value of it will only increase over time if we can keep it as close to original as possible.
I care about the environment. I would like a portion of the Maine Mountains to be preserved for the future. When I saw the windmills from the top of the Bigelows and from Flagstaff lake my heart broke. So I read everything I could about wind power. I wanted to believe that the sacrifice of our beautiful Maine Mountains was worth it.
But…
It is about $$$. People making LOTS and LOTS of money.
It is about out of state use of electricity.
These structures are 50 stories high.
Unanswered questions….
Who fights fires in the structures? As far as I know there are few area fire departments that can handle emergencies at 50 stories high. Yes, there are MANY youtube videos of fires, falls, etc.
What happens at the end of the life span of the turbine? 50 stories of landfill? What is the action plan? Why is there so much secrecy if the project is environmental.
What is the carbon footprint of moving a 50 story structure from on country to another? Many of the turbines are constructed out of the country and shipped here.
It seems to me if a local resident wanted to construct anything 50 stories high, people would ask questions. Yet in the future there will be no area along Maine’s Appalachian Trail peaks that will not be overlooking wind energy. Call me selfish but that is a very high price for Maine to pay.
Hiker:
Perhaps someday, future generations,struggling to survive in a much hotter Maine, will look at those mountain, denuded of the vegetation you so cherish now by the drastic change in the climate, perhaps they will think you were selfish.
Of course it’s about money. What isn’t?
The towers, blades and turbines can be disposed of quite easily, once they are no longer functioning.
Go hike the Appalachian trail down in the Scranton PA area. Take a good look at the view one gets there from the trail, of the old slag heaps left from mining coal. That is what we are trying to move beyond, with clean, sustainable wind energy.
Our ridgelines are NOT renewable! After they have been destroyed, they are gone forever!
Hiker, I love our trails in Maine & I have watched Industrial Wind try to take over. The A.T. will never be the same if we are forced to see & hear 400-500 foot wind turbines at every turn of the trail!
Who will fight the fires? Good question! Our local departments were not trained for that. Nor do they have the proper equipment. I know this for a fact as I know my local FD very well.
Yes, you hit the nail on the head: Its not about clean energy, Its ALL ABOUT $$$$!!!!
Our mountains are not for sale!
Our Mountains are not for sale?
As I said above, I love how some Mainers have a concept of what’s your’s is mine to use, what’s mine is mine, I can do whatever I want with mine, but you can’t do with yours something I don’t like.
When Roxanne Quimby wanted to donate her land to create a national park, preserving it’s pristine beauty for future generations, it generated a venomous, vituperative outcry from so many that the proposal was dropped.
So much for that. Yeah, it’s your land, but we don’t want you to do that.
When paper companies want to clear cut, that’s Ok, we need the jobs, and the deer and moose like the forage it creates so we can then shoot them.
Ski resorts, OK to build and expand them. Skiing is fun, creates jobs. Part time, seasonal jobs that don’t pay well, and yes, ski resorts consume ungodly amounts of power and create massive carbon footprints, but hey, skiing is fun. The also generate lots of building and real estate sales.
Liberals want clean energy.
Conservatives want free enterprise.
But, nobody wants windmills where they have to look at them.
Let’s be honest. This isn’t about worries of them catching on fire, or where the power they generate goes, who makes money from them and where it goes.
The mountains will still be there long after we are gone. You can go to mountains where 20-30 years ago there was a ski resort and now you’ll have to look close to see any signs it existed.
It’s about people who own property worrying that its value will decrease because of the windmills and others who make their living selling those properties and a few people who just don’t want to look at them.
When you’re hiking along the AT, think about the energy that went into manufacturing your high tech hiking gear, the boots, the backpacks, the tents, all that fancy, lightweight stuff made from the newest materials.
Check out where most of it is made.
China has been bringing a new coal fired power plant online every week. We all share the atmosphere. Think about it.
In the end, it is all about money and selfishness.
Our ridgelines are NOT renewable! After they have been destroyed, they are gone forever!
Well, actually they are, just look at Vermont where the whole state forest was harvested and it was pasture for most of the 1800s. Now it is all forest.
How about instead of wind power we just put gas power plants up north in that region, will that make all of you happy?
Somebody noted that Maine produces more power than is used in the state, could you give a reference to those statistics because I really just don’t believe you. The biggest power plant in the state currently runs on oil and is used only as back-up and when it is producing is good for about 150,000 homes, there was an article recently about it in the kj.
At an AWEA (American Wind Energy Association) conference in Portland this past year, a large part of the information was focused on “the money is there, it’s free for the taking (subsidized/low interest), we have a product that qualifies (regardless of actual performance and energy storage capabilities vs. capacity ratings), and the communities negatively affected by our grid-scale construction are our largest obstacle, so here’s how to deal with them and clear them out of the way so we can make all the money we can in this business while the getting is good”. How do I know? My husband was there, as a private citizen who paid his own dime on his own time to become even more informed about this industry. Yes, industry. With shareholders, CEOs, bottom lines, and market values. An industry which is only represented by numbers and text on lifeless paper to most who will reap great financial benefits, yet live their abundant lives elsewhere.
I am not naive. A business is IN business to make money. It would be foolish to do otherwise. Fortunately, some businesses earn their money and exhibit a conscience in the process. Some do not. Karen had a right to make her opinion known that she was disappointed in a “business as usual” attitude exhibited by Iberdrola Renewables. Others have a right to make their opinions known, as well. Certainly, some people will never see eye-to-eye, regardless of their right to discussion.
I do think it is very short-sighted, though, when people leave comments assuming those of us concerned with the fate of this land we steward are of one particular mindset or the other, as if our differences devalue our opinions. Our lifestyles, origins, topical educations, consumption habits ,and heartfelt passion levels are extremely diverse. Welcome to Maine’s wonderful microcosm of American attributes!
What Karen’s comment points out is that LAWS WERE CHANGED TO PURPOSELY EXCLUDE CITIZENS FROM A LOCAL DECISION MAKING PROCESS. The assurance that your voice counts in regard to particular aspects of your well-being is part of what allows you to sleep soundly at night in a country built on those types of assurances. Otherwise… I think I can see Russia from here. That some would deny others the hope of intelligent discussion and hard work to accomplish a collectively agreed needed change is disconcerting at best. If that were the case, my little female fingers and brain keyboarding this comment right now might not have the college education I so easily accessed in this country, nor could they have marked my voting ballot not so many years ago! Sad, but true, and thankfully altered by the opportunity for collective agreement.
I say, let the voices of the people be heard. Applaud those who care enough to research, speak out, and effect change toward a more harmonious balance. The state’s wind industry laws Karen mentioned were changed with essentially no input from the citizens, yet with great input from the corporations who benefit enormously from that change. It’s time the citizens have the opportunity to affect their own change, for their own collective good. One might call the petitions signed by those in Lexington and surrounding communities a decision Made in America. Thank you, Karen, for doing your part to educate others!
Energy production information can be found at:
http://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/maine/
For more information about windpower in Maine please read DownEast Magazine March 2011 Everything You’ve Wanted to Know About Wind Power. (Available online or at your local library) Keep in mind during that time the wind towers were 262 ft. not 500 ft.
Friends Of Maine’s Mountains has a list of 20 facts with citations.
Knowledge is power.