Next Tuesday the Land Use Regulation Commission will have a chance to revisit the wisdom of Solomon when they begin to hear testimony about whether to extend the nearby Kibby wind project onto Sisk Mountain’s as yet untouched ridgeline.
TransCanada, eager to take advantage of federal stimulus package money, wants to put 15 turbines along the entire reach of the ridge even though half of that ridge has been classified as off limits.
When money talks, though, nobody walks.
Maine’s lead conservation groups seem only too willing to feed another ridgeline into the TransCanada wind machine in northern Franklin County. This is despite the fact that there isn’t a shred of evidence that wind turbines will fundamentally or materially change Maine’s energy economy, slow climate change, or even materially benefit the state. In their breathless enthusiasm for the wind industry, wind power supporters seem uncannily willing to accept the industry’s claims at face value. If this goose is laying golden eggs, why is it that not even the Public Utilities Commission has been able to get actual power generation data regarding any wind site in Maine?
In its latest proposal to expand its wind operation in northern Franklin County, TransCanada would like to throw its project lines around most of Sisk Mountain, stopping just shy of the summit itself. Running largely north- south and sitting just above the completed Kibby project, Sisk would be a convenient grab for them. To some it might be just a question of a few more acres of infrequently visited Franklin County. Its 8 or so miles of ridgeline, just about all of it over 3,000 feet, could be home to another 15 wind turbines.
But Sisk is also home to several rare, sub-alpine plant communities and animals. The southern half of the ridgeline has a fir/heart-leaf birch forest and Bicknell’s thrush and lynx have been found on the ridge as well. An endangered mayfly breeds in the waters that drain the slopes.
Maine Audubon, the Appalachian Mountain Club, and the Natural Resources Council of Maine have joined together to propose a compromise to let TransCanada put 8 turbines on north half of the Sisk ridge but protect the remainder. TransCanada says they want the whole ridge to allow for the vagaries of turbine placement. But who stands up for the on-the-ground vagaries of plant and animal community placement – if not Maine’s environmental community?
And so LURC will face Solomon’s dilemma. All of the ridge for one or the other side, or cut it in half? As we puzzle our way through this let’s recall that we are not talking about cutting simple lines in half but real ecological communities. In recent years conservation principles have more often focused on protecting whole landscapes and ecosystems lest those communities become stranded and jeopardized by their isolation on smaller tracts. Cutting a ridge in half should not be the work of conservationists. While we wait and consider this application of Solomon’s wisdom the mountains of Maine might be thinking – with friends like these who needs enemies?
Steve Bien
Jay
Kibby is an ecological travesty that never should have happened. Leave Sisk alone! Leave the rest of Maine’s mountains and uplands free of industrial wind turbine desecration. We don’t need them. They are useless, There is no reason for the industrialization of the mountains, b;asting away the ridges, clearcutting, fragmenting wildlife habitat, inflicting silation and herbicide residues into the ecosystem. In place of our majestic mountains and pristine ponds, we will be left with huge, rusting relecs littering the landscape after the subsidies go away. The environmental groups should be ashamed to even consider supporting this proposed compromise. The environmental groups should realize that Big Wind is the enemy and should oippose siting a single turbine anywhere in this state.
Trans Canada is asking for a reappraisal of the hydro damns they own on the Connecticut River. Cleve Kapala, of TransCanada said, “I mean the plants are obviously worth less today than they were pre recession and pre-oversupply of electricity.”
Why, in spite of the oversupply and low price of electricity, would Trans Canada apply to expand their industrial wind plant on Kibby Mtn?
To enable Trans Canada and it’s investors to collect subsidies, tax credits, double accelerated depreciation, renewable energy certificates, and now direct grants, paid with our and our grandchildren’s tax dollars.
This is what industrial wind “development” is really all about. Without gov’t mandates and incentives, which we can ill afford, no one would consider building these useless monuments to gullibility and greed.
No matter how much or how little generation we have, industrial scale wind turbines will never make a difference. They are unpredictably intermittent and there has been no circumstance where building wind plants has resulted in the decommissioning of an existing fossil fuel facility.
Industrial wind projects divide communities, lower property values, and harm peoples health, wildlife, tourist and second home economy, and kill birds and now endangered bats.
Don’t these “environmentalists” realize that it takes 5,000 wind turbines to replace the energy of a 2400 MW nuclear plant or over 2,000 to create the energy of your average medium sized plant. AND, because the turbines only work about 25% of the time, we have to have the same traditional infrastructure. PEOPLE – smarten up. Don’t you hear what is happening in Greece for their foolish ways. Their situation mirrors Green Energy, building infrastructure that no one would ever pay for. The turbines only go up because of federal, state and local tax breaks. We are bankrupting our economy for some big dream that will turn into a nightmare. AND – if you appreciate nature and respect our land, you will easily realize that turbines are an ecological and environmental nightmare. Get off the koolaide and the green religion.
The Financial markets need the “seed”, however hollow, to develop Cap and Tax markets.
Feckless wind is the choice du jour.
Environmental Groups are scammers and in complicit in this market scam.
It is all about Green BACK, not Green.
Mr. Voorhees of NRCM , and others, are looking at working their way up the corporate ladder , on the backs of the environmental scam called Big Wind.
Feckless power, for thoughtless “Corporate Environmentalists”.
And the Cap and Trade market for the likes of First Wind and others is now being heavily looked at.
The U.K. Revenue & Customs office, or HMRC, also raided 81 premises in the U.K., said Hall. … None of the people arrested in Germany work at Deutsche Bank, Wittig said. … The U.K., France and the Netherlands have said they’re … ($58 million) tax fraud related to carbon credits trading. …
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-30/u-k-arres...
This is what it is about, creation of a corrupt carbon trading market. Check out Mr. Caffyn. Check out Kurt Adams in Maine.
SCAM!!