In the Words of a King-- "It's all about the View"

Former governor Angus King and his partner, Rob Gardiner have once again submitted a permit application to LURC for a 39 turbine grid-scale wind energy plant on Highland’s mountains, at the gateway to the Bigelow Preserve and the Appalachian Trail. Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission determined Highland Wind LLC’s application was complete on February 23, 2011, even though that application is NOT complete, as evidenced in news articles in Friday’s Kennebec Journal and Portland Press Herald.

Mr. King is wasting our tax-payer money by continually submitting permit applications which fall short of the requirements for completion. LURC staffers have already spent countless hours reading each of his applications. The Commissioners have already had to rule that HW LLC’s first application be pulled and the ‘expedited clock’ stopped. If ordinary citizens can read an application and determine that it is lacking, I assume that Mr. King, Mr. Gardiner and their attorneys know the same thing.

I suppose the applicants hope to have the missing data and documentation and road crossing permits in hand before LURC rules on whether or not to grant them a permit for their project—but that’s not the way this works. The burden of submitting a completed application rests with the applicant. Not with the LURC staff. Not with the interveners in the case. Not with the citizens of Maine. And yet, it is we who are paying the price while this limited liability development company tries to get its ducks in a row. The Section 1603 cash grants for these projects will expire in December, and those no-strings-attached grants are huge. Mr. King and Mr. Gardiner will lose out on millions of free tax-payer dollars if they do not receive approval, and soon.

So they play games and waste our resources in the hopes that it will all work out okay for them in the end.

I predict that it won’t. I believe that Mainers are waking up to the realities of this scheme to line over 350 miles of our mountain ridges with expensive and intrusive industrial turbines which produce power that is unreliable, intermittent, cannot be stored, and for which our grid was not designed. I believe that the people of Somerset County have the courage and the strength of character to stand up and make common sense decisions. Sound science and economics do not support the notion of mountaintop industrial wind in Maine.

The following quotes are from Angus King, taken from his video, “A Vision for Maine—Inauguration 1995”.

"We certainly can do tourism better. Just to our south, to the north, and across the ocean are millions of mobile, affluent and time-pressed individuals who would love Maine if we could get them here, first. But we must think strategically about tourism-- spreading out the seasons and the locations where we welcome visitors. In the process of rebuilding Maine, we must never compromise our environment... Our final natural resource is our QUALITY OF LIFE. We have what the world wants... creative and hard-working people, an unspoiled natural environment and a civil society that works..... We share a common heritage. We share a common stewardship of the land. We share a common pride in an extraordinary place called Maine....and the best of Maine-- a land of deep woods, jagged coasts and people of integrity--will endure and flourish."


The former governor wanted to encourage tourism. “We have what the world wants,” he said. I urge Mainers to visit First Wind’s ongoing destruction of Rollins Mountain and Rocky Dundee in Lincoln, in the shadow of Mt. Katahdin. Then picture the same thing happening all across this state. Estimates for this little rural corner of Somerset County are for upwards of 300 turbines. Everywhere we look, there they will be. Huge. Unnatural. Inefficient, intrusive, foreign-made machines. In every direction, we will see evidence of greed. Evidence of folly. Evidence of corporate-run state policies, rather than common-sense rule by the People. A tourist attraction? No.


This is another quote from Angus King, recorded in a meeting last May in Skowhegan.

"There's not a sound issue, there's not a health issue, there's not a bird issue, there's not a wildlife issue… No issues of wetlands.... we're not 'removing' anything-- we're MOVING...when you build a road, as I say, when you build roads, you cut out the high spots and fill in the low--we're moving a lot of earth, but nothing's being taken away from the mountains…”

This is an excerpt from the Highland Wind LLC permit application, submitted to LURC in December, 2010.

“A total of approximately 3.1 miles of existing logging roads are being rebuilt, and
approximately 15.1 miles of new roadway are being constructed. In addition, turbine sites must be graded to approximately level with no more than three percent cross slope. Table 12-1 below outlines the cut and fill requirements for the different portions of the Project. Roadway construction along with the 39 turbine pads results in the earthwork volumes listed below.”

Those turbine sites which must be ‘graded to approximately level’ are on the tops of Stewart, Witham and Bald Mountains, and Burnt and Briggs Hill. The total ‘cut’ from the project is estimated at 1,518,000 cubic yards. That’s more than 90,000 dump trucks’ worth of earth excavation for this one project. The ‘fill’ is listed as 1,438,900 cubic yards. It’s being blasted and excavated from the mountains, and then used to build 18 miles of slope-side roads and turbine pads. But, no. It’s not being ‘taken away from the mountains’.

And again from Angus King last May, when speaking about the Highland project:

"So-- it's all about the view. And the view is important because the Appalachian Trail goes over Bigelow....Stop by Mars Hill! It's cool! It really comes down to-- are we going to say 'no' to a half-billion dollar infrastructure project producing renewable energy because of the VIEW? I think that's the question. The interesting thing about this project--we're involved in some others-- the others have some different issues, but this one is really the view. And, you know...people throw in a lot of other stuff, but it's really about the view. What will the impact be? Well, it'll be visual--you judge.”

Mr. King, despite his continual assurances that this project is ‘all about the view’, knows better than that. His patronizing attitude is intended to gain him some support for his project. He hopes that if he repeats that tag line often enough, Mainers will look upon those of us who are opposing his project as selfish elitists who would put our ‘view’ before anything else. We who care about the big picture, and who have spent months researching the facts about industrial wind, oppose this project—and others—for a variety of reasons related to economics, the environment, residents’ healthy and quality of life, and Maine’s unique ‘quality of place’.

I once thought former governor King cared about those same things.

A Moment of Silence For Rollins Mountain and Rocky Dundee

Before First Wind.....


And after....

I’ve been single-minded over the last year and a half as I’ve made an effort to help educate Mainers about the realities of industrial wind, and as I’ve worked to halt the destruction of Maine’s ‘quality of place’. There’s no quick fix. This is a long and drawn-out battle and the opponent is a wealthy and powerful corporate lobby which enjoys the backing of some high government officials, departments and independent organizations.

As long and as hard as I’ve toiled though—there are many others in Maine who have been at it longer. Men and women whose battle scars are deeper and whose knowledge and experience far surpass mine. Citizens who are in a place--and who have a perspective--which I dread having to share.

First Wind is building their industrial wind facility on Rollins Mountain and Rocky Dundee in Lincoln. This financially troubled company did not have to prove they had the capacity to fund their project before the Department of Environmental Protection granted them a permit. The Friends of Lincoln Lakes have filed an appeal based on First Wind’s lack of financial capacity, but the blasting of mountain ridges and the building of new mountain-side roads continues, unchecked.

Here are two links which I hope you will check out. The first will take you to YouTube, where you will see a short DVD which I put together with my friend Tom Olds. This music video consists of photos of Maine, the way it is. Maine… the way it SHOULD be.

The second link will take you to photos snapped by my friend Brad Blake on February 20th in Lincoln, the land of thirteen lakes. These photos show First Wind’s Rollins project, currently under construction.

First—the “before” shots, and then--the “after”.

Our hearts are breaking as we watch the destruction of our high terrain areas for an energy source which is not reliable, is not constant, is not able to be stored, and is not needed in the state of Maine. This should not be happening. But the wind lobby did their ground work under cover of darkness—misleading Mainers about the benefits of Big Wind, and neglecting to mention the many negative impacts.

Now, in the light of day, we watch. Like an accident happening in slow motion, we can’t take our eyes off the scene of the tragedy. We don’t want to look—but we can’t help it.

But we can help keep this from happening again. To learn the FACTS about the plan to develop hundreds of miles of Maine’s mountaintops and to find out what you can do to help, please call me at (207) 628-2070, or email me at roomtomove@tds.net.

Let’s make this the last grid-scale wind turbine facility to be built in our state. Together, we can bring common sense, ethics and fiscal responsibility back to Augusta. By standing together, we can move mountains… or better yet—we can preserve and protect them.


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First Photo: Rocky Dundee before the turbines
Second: Rocky Dundee under construction, Fe. 20, 2011
Third: A Rocky Dundee ridge with waterfront cottages on Upper Cold Stream Pond below them
Fourth: Welcome to Lincoln--with turbine towers in the background

By Don Smith: Why I Chose to be Arrested at Rollins Mountain

********ROLLINS MOUNTAIN, LINCOLN, MAINE**********


My name is Don Smith. I am a native Mainer and I am 82 years old. I am a veteran and a grandfather. I was arrested and charged with criminal trespass at the Rollins Mt. wind project site in Lincoln on November 8. Five were arrested as we formed a human barricade to the site. Dozens of others braved the cold rainy November day to protest First Wind’s project.
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 is the complacent and complicit media in Maine. If we had just stood out there with signs, even the local reporter would likely have overlooked the event. By putting myself on the line to dramatize why this project is so wrong, it caught the attention of media far and wide.

It seems that most people understand utility scale (or industrial) wind power superficially, accepting wind power as “green” and “clean” and the panacea for solving energy and climate challenges. It is the result of years of masterful propaganda by the wind industry. Some of us have actually done a lot of research into industrial wind and have found huge negatives. By dramatically raising the visibility of the issue with the arrests, we are getting people to discover these negatives as the follow up dialogue transpires.


I have gained insights from my research into industrial wind. The wind industry would not exist without massive government subsidies. For example: the US Energy Information Administration reports that in 2007, wind received $23.37 per megawatt hour in subsidies; the next highest subsidy was $1.59 for nuclear. Those are our tax dollars going into something that doesn’t work.

We are putting up wind turbines in places where there isn’t enough wind to generate electricity. Look at the NREL map of wind potential in Maine. The area around Lincoln Lakes is all white. Look at the color code and white means “poor”. My guess is wind turbines are not about generating electricity, they are about selling a carbon tax in the form of Renewable Energy Certificates, raking in Production Tax Credits, and having the taxpayers pay the cost of construction.

Another reason I got arrested is to protest the proliferation of these industrial wind projects. I retired to live a quiet life on Caribou Pond, with a view of Rollins Mt. That ridge will have fifteen turbines, each 389 feet high. The total number of turbines will be forty on Rollins Mt. and the ridges of Rocky Dundee. An acoustics expert stated that the noise from these turbines will negatively impact hundreds of people on the lakes and nearby country roads, the same well-documented noise problems that have been experienced at Mars Hill, Freedom, and Vinalhaven.

I am not a NIMBY. I don’t believe these industrial machines belong anywhere in the rural landscape. Not in anyone’s yard---back yard, front yard, side yard. The noise issue is just one of many. If you could see the destruction of Rollins Mt. taking place right now, you would never consider this a “green” project. The DEP would fine me if I moved a rock at my home, yet they approved ridges being blasted away and scalped. They will never be the same. The Rollins project will blast away more than seven miles of ridges and clear-cut more than one thousand acres and install twenty miles of powerlines to tie into the grid.

That is for just one project. Without thinking through the ramifications, in 2008 the Legislature passed LD 2283, a horrible law to give favoritism to wind power. They chose an arbitrary figure of 2700 MW of installed capacity by 2020, which at a generous actual output of 25%, ends up being just 675 MW of intermittent, unpredictable, unreliable power. If Rollins is 60 MW, then it will mean 45 more projects like this to achieve that goal. Do the math. Based on the impact of Rollins, that means at least 315 miles of Maine ridges and mountains blasted away to install 1800 turbines; 45,000 acres or more of carbon sequestrating forest permanently clear-cut; and 1,000 miles or more of new powerlines. The price? Rollins’ pricetag of $130 million times 45 is a staggering $5.85 billion.

Why did I get arrested? To help bring forth what a folly this is and how damaging it is to Maine’s environment. Wind power is bad economics and bad public policy. It is far from “green”. The negative impacts of these projects on the environment and our quality of place far outweigh the pittance of good they might do for the planet.

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Top Photo-Dr. Gary Steinberg
Seond Photo--Don Smith being loaded into cruiser (taken by Brad Blake, I think...)
Third Photo--Brad Blake
Bottom photo by Nick Sambides of the Bangor Daily News

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This is an epilogue, of sorts. I spoke on the phone to Don Smith today, and heard a tale that was disturbing.

On November 9th, the day after the Rollins rally during which Mr. Smith got arrested, the Portland Press Herald published a very disturbing opinion piece.

Please read the PPH's "view" for yourself.

This is how the commentary started:

Protesters hoped that by stalling work on the Rollins wind farm in Lexington Township, they would draw attention to what they see as harmful development of Maine's wild places. Instead, they called attention to the self-centered and small-minded attitudes of some environmental activists and, ultimately, the ineffectiveness of bullying tactics used by groups...

And this is what Don told me this afternoon:

Don said the handcuffs were put on quite tightly before he was loaded into the police cruiser. After a few minutes, he complained that they were hurting and asked that they be removed. Of course, they couldn't do that. Law enforcement officers have standard operating procedures. Understandable, even if Don is an 82 year old man. He then asked if the cuffs could be loosened a little. An officer complied, but Don told me it felt like the officer tightened them, instead. Another cop noticed that Don's wrist was bleeding, and the gent informed them that he took medication to thin his blood. At that point, the officers decided to take Don to the hospital in Lincoln, where his cut wrist was bandaged.

Please read that opinion piece in the PPH. And then decide for yourselves who is bullying whom. Objective opinion piece from the newspaper which is owned in part by Governor Baldacci's brother? Gentle treatment of an old man who is standing up for what he believes? Who's the bully, here?

In case you've never noticed, I don't like bullies. Just thought I'd say...

Oh, and by the way.... readers left over 100 online comments to this op-ed containing factual information about industrial wind and the Lincoln project. Guess what? They've all mysteriously disappeared. Again.

We've got a big problem here in Maine. Luckily, we've also got Mainers like Don Smith.

Spinning in the Wind

A group of concerned Mainers gathered on Monday at Rollins Mountain in Lincoln. A violent storm had moved into the region overnight. It was cold, driving rain poured down… and it was windy.

I used to love the wind…

The Friends of Lincoln Lakes have fought a long and hard and expensive battle. Several weeks ago, they lost this fight—at least to outside eyes—and First Wind was given the ‘go ahead’ by Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection to start construction on their proposed project. Forty industrial wind turbines overshadowing the Land of Thirteen Lakes, and in the shadow of Mount Katahdin. And… for what?


Wind industry mouthpieces list off the negligible benefits and most Mainers… most Americans… heck! Most PEOPLE believe them! The industry claims economic benefits in the form of temporary construction jobs and increased sales for businesses in the ‘host’ communities. They tout the ‘free’ fuel of wind… while never mentioning the hugely expensive cost of building, maintaining and transmitting the power. Wind energy is anything but affordable, often costing up to three times more than conventional power sources. Wind industry execs state, shamelessly, that wind will reduce our dependence on foreign oil. They say it will bring American soldiers home. More falsehoods, but do most people question those statements?

No.

To our detriment, we have been conditioned to believe that which is told us by people in positions of power or authority. Spin doctors know what buttons to push, what catch phrases to use… how to tweak the ‘fear’ nerve or the sympathetic heart strings. Corporate trainers work their recruits, teaching them how to answer questions with just enough factual information to be believable, while not divulging the complete TRUTH to the common citizen. I’ve listened to these prevarications and misleading statements for a solid year. The wind industry has it down to an art. It’s bull$hit, but it smells sweet. Wind industry trainees are even taught how to deal with people like me. You know… those thorns-in-their-sides, pains-in-their-asses who show up uninvited wherever they go; sitting in their meetings, asking pointed questions, demanding proof, asking them if they will put their claims in writing…. That kind of person. I’ve heard tell we even have a name. Folks like me are called “MADGE”.

I wonder what that means?

Below is an excerpt from the Portland Press Herald. It is a fine example of the ‘spin’ corporate executives glibly apply when the need arises.

“First Wind spokesman John Lamontagne called Monday’s protest unfortunate. “First Wind is pleased to move ahead with the Rollins Wind project and put people to work in northern Maine during a tough economy. It’s unfortunate a small group of renewable energy opponents have chosen to protest that, but we respect their rights to do so,” Lamontagne said in a statement.

“This project will put more than 200 people to work during construction, and generate enough clean, renewable power for more than 24,000 homes in Maine. We’re proud of that.”

First off: Wind turbines do not and never will produce their nameplate capacity because the wind simply does not blow steadily every day and night… 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Actual production levels vary from 11-33%. Those 24,000 homes that could be electrified number, in truth, anywhere from 2,600 to 8,000. That’s a significant difference, if you ask me.

Mr. Lamontagne, whose name means “the high mountains”, is currently involved in shaving the tops off ours. Blasting, excavating, bulldozing… whatever it takes to build the roads and clear the turbine sites on our iconic and pristine ridges. Notice his choice of words when describing those valiant Wind Warriors who stood outside in the driving rain to participate in their lawful right to peaceful assembly. He labeled the demonstrators as “renewable energy opponents”.

Perfect! Just what I would expect! If you want to sway citizens who have not yet been educated on the real truths surrounding the plan to decimate 360 miles of high terrain ridges in a state with a poor inland wind resource, that’s the ideal tag to put on people who are anything BUT opponents of renewable energy! The 'windys' are good at their jobs. I’ve got to give them that!

The thousands of Mainers who are fighting to stop mountaintop industrial wind are not opponents of renewable energy. We are opponents of waste, and stupidity. We are against corruption and greed. We oppose sending the lion’s share of our hard-earned tax dollars overseas to countries like China, where the wind turbine parts are manufactured. We don’t believe in sacrificing a quality of place which is precious and unique in order to line developers’ pockets with cash for a power source which is undependable and intermittent, which cannot be stored, and which is incompatible with our grid. We oppose the destruction of our mountains, the fragmenting of wildlife habitat, and the carelessness and uncaring attitude which has made many of our fellow Mainers sick and anxious and unhappy in their homes.

But… what are Wind Warriors for? We are for sensible and affordable energy practices which are proven by science and economics. We are in favor of conservation and efficiency. We are supporters of our neighbors, and champions of our natural resources. And we promote—and expect-- honesty and integrity when dealing with our government and those corporations who desire to do business in this state.

I wasn’t at the Lincoln rally on Monday, but my heart was with my fellow Wind Warriors. We’ll leave the ‘spin’ to the wind industry and the administration which has decided to allow them to pillage and despoil our land.

In the meantime, if you want the FACTS, please come see me and I’ll point you in the right direction. We are up against a Goliath, but we are armed with the truth. And here in Maine, where the brave are denounced and branded as ‘renewable energy opponents’, we will not back down. We will not give up. We will not be intimidated.


We will WIN!


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Top Photo: demonstrators at Rollins Mountain, Lincoln, Maine
Middle Photo: New turbine pad under construction at Rollins, with Maine's highest mountain, Katahdin, in the background.
Bottom photo: A silly pic sent me by a friend in Mississippi
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It's time for a contest! The Friends of the Highland Mountains are putting on a comedy and music event to raise money for our expert witness fees, which we will need when the time comes for our public hearing. Please given me your suggestions for what the acronym "MADGE" stands for... and the winner, chosen by the Turbinator, my friend Tom (if he says 'yes' when I ask him, which he will... won't you, Tom?)will win two tickets to the event on December 4th at 7:00. Come on... this wind stuff is CRAP! Let's turn it into some FUN!!! Just put your suggestions in the comments section. Winner will be chosen on November 27th. MADGE: Meddling And Dangerous Gigantic Environmentalist??? oooh... not as easy as I thought!!!