"Proponents have praised First Wind as a conscientious creator of wind power, saying the Lincoln Lakes project would create as much as 60 megawatts of pollution-free electricity in peak winds".

The next time the above "Proponents have praised" passage is included in an article, would it please be possible to explain the difference between actual megawatts and nameplate megawatts so that the average reader, who likely doesn't know the ins and outs of industrial wind issues, is not misled? Similarly, because industrial wind complexes use tremendous electricity from the outside grid, would it be possible to investigate what this is and reflect it in a "net" number, i.e., actual electricity produced minus actual electricity consumed? Thank you.

"Proponents have praised First Wind as a conscientious creator of wind power, saying the Lincoln Lakes project would create as much as 60 megawatts of pollution-free electricity in peak winds".

Another request - the next time the above "Proponents have praised" passage is included in an article, would it please be possible to analyze the claim of "pollution-free electricity"? Because industrial wind complexes consume tremendous electricity from the outside grid and in Maine, much of this comes from gas-fired generating sources, it is not accurate to characterize wind complex operations as pollution free. Moreover, because the industrial wind complexes rely on the wind and the wind is always dying down, fossil-fuel backup plants must be kept on simmer (hot - using tremendous fossil fuel - burning it inefficiently in this state and producing no electricity) at all times - another reason why it is not accurate to characterize wind complex operations as pollution free.

Could you please explain this to the readers, who are otherwise continually being misled? Thank you.

Thank you Lynne Williams for representing Maine. And caring about the same things that average citizens do. ..like the right to enjoy a peaceful home.

When gov baldaci and the gang decided that towns could not decide whether they wanted a wind farm or not. Just trust them to make all the decisions effecting our every day lives, they crossed a line. They went over into a very unconstitutional area.

gov baldaci's gang and first wind proponents can only say nimby nimby nimby at our objections to their arrogant insensitive behavior.Lilke school yard bullies. But when you hear the Cowperwaites in Mars Hill talk about working all their lives for their retirement house...their golden years...to be spent listening to jet plane like noise..vibrations so severe windows are rattled...all the wild animals they enjoyed watching gone..Constantly tired for lack of sleep. If you are honest, you can look in their faces and see the fatigue. They trusted their local government when they were told the noise would be like a twittering bird. The wind farm was for Mars Hill. And then after the wind farm was built to be told be the very same experts who promised minimal noise, "You should not have known there would be noise." The power went to Canada. Their property taxes went down slightly for one year and then right back up. Their electricity bills sky rocketed.

You know our state had been taken over by those who do not care for the same things we do. Money and the promise of money has blinded them to common sense and reality. Replace them all.

Ummmm. Shouldn't the article have mentioned that the person suing the state is a candidate for governor? And is there another side to this story, or at least a comment or no comment?

There are real issues about wind power but the 'light flicker' really is not one. I have a 270 ft tall tower across the street with a flashing white light on top. here are times I wish it was not there (when I'm taking night photos) but it actually comes in handy on the weather front. I can se how thick the fog is or how hard it is snowing without turning on the outside lights. Those against the wind power, make sure you are not wasting electricity, so you are not protesting the generation of power you are pissing away. As a society we need to stop living a contradiction on the energy front, be it electricity or petroleum based power. We have electric bills over $100 from usage, then complain about environmental effects on the rivers we fish in. We crab about the price of gas or that we should not have troops in Iraq, but we have vehicles that do not even get 30 mpg. We should get our ducks in a row before we enter the argument arena.

Remove clean, efficient, consistent hydro dams, and mar the ridgelines with ugly noisy inefficient costly behemoths. When did common sense move away?

Capacity factors for wind power generators are averaging between 25 to 30%, meaning that the 60 megawatt Rollins Mountain wind farm will net between 15 and 18 megawatts.

In the utility industry, the catch phrase on wind generation is that it's "boutique and not base load". It's a challenge to dispatch, since the output from a wind generator is up and down with each gust of wind. I don't doubt that it can contribute, but I question whether we are making too strong a commitment to a very unreliable generator. And this notion that if you put enough of them up, there will always be some that will be generating? It's not higher-order mathematics. The numbers just don't add up.

Rockstar - it could be worse, you ought to live in a town that is fully regulated by LURC where the town has absolutely no say in the matter of these 400' tall eyesores being erected in an otherwise pristine and wilderness setting. Desk jockies in Augusta who "serve at the pleasure of the Governor" rubber stamp every wind power project that comes through. Why is it that no one in the state government questions why most of these projects are being built in areas that the U.S. Dept. of Energy rates as being "poor" for wind power potential. DOE has 7 classifications ranging from poor to outstanding and the majority of the projects in Maine are being built or proposed in areas rated as "poor". Does this make sense to anyone but our Governor? Dumb, dumb, dumb.

On 12/7/09 at 8:12 AM, CountyLumberjack wrote: "Ummmm. Shouldn't the article have mentioned that the person suing the state is a candidate for governor? And is there another side to this story, or at least a comment or no comment?"

What does that have to do with the debate? First of all, she's not sueing anyone. Her clients are. Secondly, if you had given this any thought, representing groups who sue state agencies doesn't exactly endear that person to the largest voting block in the state - state employees. So where does Ms. Williams gain from that action?

Northwoods-Maine. I do live in a town fully regulated by LURC. And just what is Marcia Spencer Famous' job there?

Why is it her husband, Norm Famous, is paid by the state or First Wind to conduct bird and bat studies and she is paid to allow wind farms all over ME.Same bank account getting fat.

We need to know if First Wind actually proved their ability to finance the building of Stetson I and II.Not to mention the Rollings project. Stetson I was foreclosed on and sold right after it was supposed to have gone online. WHICH IT DID NOT. Stetson II was financed out of stimulus funds illegally. That money was to go to wind farms online not build new ones.

Where is the Attorney General in all of this? Same place as Marcia and Norm. Rich and content. We are Illinois with pay to play.

Lynne Williams is going against the majority of state govt. by representing FoLL. That shows integrity and courage. She has my support for that alone.

I've been near wind projects on the Gaspe Peninsula and California. I live 1 and 1/2 miles from a paper mill. I can tell you for a fact that paper mills are many times noisier than windmills. Natural gas electrical generation is many times more noisy than wind generation.As a matter of fact there are so many industries that make more noise than windmills, it's a god damned joke to say the windmills are noisy at all.

Why should wind noise be treated differently than other "industrial' noise? Because you don't like to have it in your town, that's why. This is more "tilting at windmills" by the NIMBYs.

Rokstars said "We are Illinois with pay to play".

Do you mean Ilinois in the sense of Governor Blagodacci? Or Illinois in the sense of Ill-Noise?

More Nukes, less k00ks!

And in another article in the BDN today...a PR firm from Boston is visiting Millinocket to see if a public utility would be nice for them. Odd because this PR firm has a history of representing wind farms. Odd because Brookfield power and Indeck were subject to close to make room for First Wind's wind farms , ALSO OUT OF BOSTON , to go on the New England Grid. Which happened to be full when Steson was built.

http://bit/ly/3XMRV1 proves there is a bottleneck in Orrington so that the power cannot go to Mass. Where the real money is.

On 8/25/09 the Conneticut Attorney General came out with this press release

FERC granted request to see whether power plants manipulated the energy market by bidding to provide power they had no intention of delivering.(50 million dollars worth)

Power generators were paid or promised to deliver but had to ability or power to provide that power.(LIKE A WIND FARM THAT IS NOT ONLINE )

11/3/09 The Conn Attorney General argued before the Supreme Court to uphold the public's right to contest unreasonable and excessive electricity rates.

The case stems from a settlement between some New England power companies, regulators and federal authorities over new charges to rate payers intended to encourage power plant construction.

Wonder if wind energy corporations are getting money from our electricity payments to build wind farms and shut down older altrnative power plants? Sure looks like it . Because FERC will only turn over that information to the justice dept.If you aren't doing anything wrong, there is no need to be secretive.

jaygee..both LOL

Native 1710...Why did ME state law have to change because the Mars Hill wind farm was much louder than First Wind stated it would be. Even though First Wind paid for the studies. Then when all the other wind fams were being permitted, Marcia Famous did not take into account noise being louder in the winter with no leaves on the trees. ..mountainous regions or noise traveling over water. Eventually OOPS doesn't get it anymore.

Native 1710..And if noise was not a problem , why did Robin Cluky of DEP , continually state there had been no complaints. Even after she met with her boss, the regional director of DEP and families living around the Mars Hill wind farm. She was admonished to admit there were 10 complaints with follow up. She did not do that . I'll bet she still has a job.

Please define "industrial wind complexes use tremendous electricity from the outside grid". I am really thinking you belong in that group of "the average reader" since ALL generation stations use energy from the grid. Some even use it when they are generating.. such as Biomass plants.

Level the playing field and stop using attributes of ALL forms of generation to try to put wind in a noose.

A well sited wind farm will average 35-40%, not 25-30%. NO ONE is going to invest in a wind farm that does that.

NO ONE IS CLOSING TO MAKE ROOM FOR ANYONE. We have been over this before, why do you keep trying to force feed the same lies and untruths every time you post. You never have proof, and the only proof of anything you have ever had you posted a link for.. and it turns out it had nothing to do with what you thought it did. There is a serious lack of understanding about the way electricity is made, sold and bought. Until people understand those basic parts of the industry, they just end up looking foolish on here with misguided and factually incorrect statements.

By the same token, that Conn AG thing has been covered as well. It has NOTHING to do with First Wind and has everything to do with something called the Capacity Market. Thing of it is... Wind Power does not participate very heavily in that market. Get your facts straight.

Maine is not the only state with a renewable requirement for energy. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island... many out west. This is nothing new. Been around for a decade. It's not going away. We can either find a way to tackle the issue, or we can be the people that end up paying a higher premium on our light bills because our energy suppliers have to buy all of their renewable energy credits out of state. If you had any idea how this worked, you would not see it the same way.

What I find SOOO ironic is that the people against wind power would be the first in line to complain should their neighbor try to tell them how they can develop their land. Such a double standard. People just complain about anything that doesn't put money in their own pockets regardless of whether or not it is for the greater good of us all.

Goheels - The Federal Trade Commission has issued new guidelines designed to set clearer rules for disclosure in social media influencer campaigns.

The guidelines state that bloggers who have received money or "in-kind payment" tied to product reviews must disclose such deals to readers. Companies that refer to a research group finding about a product must disclose any relationship with that organization.

The new rules are the first update the FTC has made to its guide for testaments and endorsements in advertising since 1980. They bring into sharper focus the relationship of bloggers and brands. The FTC chose not to make a distinction between professional bloggers and amateurs. It also does not differentiate between paying cash and providing product samples.

Violators face fines of up to $11,000 per infraction.

You can't have it both ways folks. We can't reduce energy costs without producing it ourselves via hydro, geo, wind etc. Fossil fuel dependency is going to control our economy and political agendas until we can get some control on our energy needs. Everyone is in favor of alternative energy until they want to place it in their neighborhood. Personally, I think it would serve everyone better if we moved this offshore but in the meantime, this NIMBY attitude is foolish.

Hmmm. Blow up the dams, de-commission the nukes, disallow the wind farms, too many clouds for solar, and there is global warming from fossil fuels. Let's shut them all down, everything will be just fine, until the lights don't come on when we flick the switch.

Pinecone. ....Can you differentiate the different alternatives from each other ? For example. ..Indeck and Brookfiled , subject to close for wind power .Inceck is biomass , taken from saw mills etc. as scrap but with strict environmental rules. i.e. no styrofoam cups in the wood. Supplied year round jobs for woodsmen.As opposed to construction jobs for wind farms. They employ only a few regular employees; they are mostly out of state for fear of sabatoge. Because of the ruthless business practices of wind farm corporations.

Brookfield is hydro. This is more controversial..but the power plants are in place. They do not drive up prices for electricity. Nimby, nimby , nimby only works for an uninformed public. That is no longer the case. The anti wind farm movement is growing every day.

As you can see from the press release from the Conn. AG. Our electricity bills are going to pay for wind farms now. Not just taxes. Corporate welfare dads.There is money to be made just by building the monstrocities.

Goheels, you are such a wind turbine zombie! First Wind is a flim flam company headed by a former Enron thief. They want to destroy over seven miles of ridgelines and pollute the Lincoln Lakes with silt and herbicides not for electricity generation but to be piggies at the tax subsidy trough. They propose to build all of their sprawling industrial sites in areas that the US Energy Information Office wind map clearly shows is "poor" with a few dots of "marginal" and what local people know is lousy wind potential. They never, ever reveal their data because they would be embarassed with posting those results. They will be lucky to get 20% actual output in Lincoln Lakes, which translates to 12 MW, not 60 MW.

Its not about actual output, its about being able to produce income from the same kilowatt in three different ways: selling to the grid even if the grid doesn't want or need the power, gaining the 2.1 cents per kwh production tax credit, and selling the nameplate capacity as renewable energy credit. This is the scam the Enron-driven wind industry has created. The taxpayers and ratepayers will pay dearly for this.

In the press release dated 8/25/09 the Conneticut Attorney General states. The power generators were paid or promised to deliver but had no ability or power to provide that power. (like a wind farm that is not online)

Widespread antitrust violations. How long can our ME Attorney General turn her back on graft and corruption throughout ME state govt. , FERC and Iso New England. So far, only the Conn AG is actually doing something. The NY AG had to investigate First Wind due to many threats they were making to private citizens. He has investigated too long without bringing charges to be credible.The charges against First Wind in NY are:

1) Improper dealings with public officials and anti-competitive practices.

2)Alleged fraudulent representations within the SEC filing of factual assertations and claims.

3)First Wind is a named party in an eminent domain lawsuit and colludes with the Town of Prattsburgh, NY supervisor to illegally condemn private property for their wind project.

4)First Wind is a named party in three lawsuits by the Naples School District and the Prattsburgh School District

5) First Wind is a named party in legal action over the Lackawanna, NYSteel Wind project.

6) Alleged Anti-Trust collusion with other industrial developers for the purpose of market allocation and conspiracy to restrict or eliminate competion.

7) alleged fraudulent environmental quality reviews submissions and deceptive studies intended to mislead government agencies.(Norm and Marcia Famous come to mind ) No bats in Vilhaven. How convenient.

8) Alleged filing govt. false instruments, lareny, perjury and mail fraud.

9) Alleged bribery of public officials.

10) Alleged conspiracy to defraud taxing authorites.

The two counties where First Wind has put wind farms now get less money from the ME state govt. for schools, so the wind farms are actually costing money. With the TIF's that First Wind has in place, precious little goes to the state or counties.Laws are changed quickly to facilitate First Wind's building plans in ME. Makes you proud, doesn't it?

every backyard shoud have one.........than you could get rid of all the telephone poles and millions of miles of "UGLY" wires. No more electrical wires, no more phone wires (use cellular) no more cable wires (use satellite tv and internet)..........just a thought.....

sptrout...and twisted logic is a thought as well.

sptout - what you CAN put in everyone's backyard, or actually right next to it, is a properly weatherized home. It's unfortunate that the thieves in Thugusta support industrial wind the way we do. Perhaps if they wern't working for their friends in big wind, we would have seen the stimulus funds that were given to the big wind interlopers from away (that started their operation in Italy) given instead to Joe the Weatherizer.

Individuals should look at what they can do at the usage end. If someone feels a small windmill works and doesn't bother any neighbors, God Bless. Ditto for photovoltaic, solar water heating, passive solar, planting deciduous trees on the south side of the house, etc. Any of those things are their decision and they don't have to do them if a careful analysis tells them it doesn't make sense to them. The problem with big wind is it DOES bother neighbors. People in the industry love to divide and conquer by trying to call people Nimby's. My thought is before one sides with them and lines up against some poor person who's solitude has been destroyed by these 400' tall subsidy-sucking monsters, think about if it were your backyard and then think about applying the Golden Rule.

This is not a blog... it is a comment box. I am not a blogger, lobbyist, or industry shill. Believe it or not, there are people that can see further than the nose on their face.

As far as not being able to provide capacity to CT, it has NOTHING to do with a wind farm not being on line. It has to do with transmission capability. Do you think the grid operators at ISONE count on capacity from Stetson Mountain to power Hartford CT? Really? Surely you know better than that and SURELY you understand the capacity market in ISONE... not the energy market, but the CAPACITY market. Two different things. Just another tip off as to your inherent lack of understanding how this all works.

II think claiming FERC to be corrupt is a little on the slightly insane side.. same for ISO-NE. Both are boards drawn up of non-partisan members. No one from the industry has a seat on either panel.

The NY AG filings were not just against First Wind, but also Noble.. and others I believe. There was a code of conduct drawn up by which all wind farm developers were to comply before developing. I believe First Wind was the first one to comment and agree to compliance. Do you even read the results to these things before posting the original event?? This was dead a long time ago. There are websites out there OTHER than that hack site windaction.org.

Again.. look it up. The town of Mars Hill gained $500k/yr in revenue. Not exactly chump change for a class D school sized town. Not sure how many people live there, but their school is well known for their prowess in Class D hoops. What does the County they are in have to do with it at all? Stetson is in a township, so the money probably goes to Washington County. So tell me, how is there LESS money going into that county with additional funds coming in? Maybe I need to brush up on my basic math skills.

What laws have changed? Please point one out with supporting documentation... not just what you heard at the barber shop.

People against development in Maine.. the same people that complain about lack of development in Maine. What a wonderful group.

Goheels - national averages for capacity factors for generation sources bring in wind at 25 to 30%. There are some that do better, but there are plenty of wind generators that come in at 25 to 30. And investors? With the incentives available, investors are placing wind mills whenever and wherever they can be placed, including those yielding 25 to 30.

And as an aisde, nuclear power came in with the best capacity factor (again - a national average) with 92%.

Goheels said: This is not a blog... it is a comment box. Yup, and the law includes this. Now go climb a turbine shaft.

Jaygee---friends in big wind? Ha! That's the understatement of the year! Follow this, folks.

The head wind turbine zombie is Baldacci. For 3 years, Kurt Adams was his legal counsel, then Baldacci appointed him chair of the PUC, where he served until Sept. of '08 when he became Executive VP for Development for First Wind. Why do you suppose Baldacci has ceded the entire northeastern sector of Maine to First Wind!

The state deserves to be sued for the despicable "Expedited Wind Permitting" statute that was passed as "emergency" legislation, shot through the legislature before the unsuspecting citizens could have any input. What was the emergency? To bail out an industry that shouldn't even exist? This unconstitutional statute being challenged by Lyn Williams was the result of the Governor's Task Force (cronies!) on Wind Power, a member of whom was the primary author of the legislation. Juliette Browne wrote the statute that was rammed through by her husband Jon Hinck, the House chair of the Utilities and Energy Committee. Just who is Juliette Browne? Attorney for First Wind who has made many expensive trips to Lincoln to push First Wind's agenda.

First Wind also has friends in high places. This struggling company is backed by hedge fund D E Shaw. Follow this closely folks. Larry Summers is the director of the National Economic Coucil for Obama. This means he is the guy who has the power to give favors at taxpayers' expense. Before working for Obama, Summers was the part time managing director of DE Shaw. Before that, he was President of Harvard University. So, up there at Stetson Mt., the Stetson II project was essentially mothballed until September and Larry Summers gave First Wind $115 million gift from the taxpayers which included $40.4 million to do Stetson II. Just last month all the wind turbines zombies gathered at Stetson Mt. to celebrate! It gets worse, though. Baldacci's administration facilitated selling the renewable energy credits for Stetson to Harvard University. You think Larry Summers didn't have a hand in that, too?

Folks, if this scam isn't defeated, this crap will occur over and over again until rural Maine is covered with clearcuts and blasted away mountain tops sprouting thousands of industrial wind turbines. The investors become pigs at the subsidy trough; Baldacci gets a corner office at First Wind; the yuppie couple in Portland, Browne & Hinck, smugly think they have saved the world. The good people in rural Maine get to lose the peace, quiet, wildlife, and quality of place as Vacationland becomes Turbineland---the Way Life Should NOT Be!

Yo, rockstars - ALLEGATIONS? Is that all you have? Where is the proof?... the convictions in courts of law? One could make personal allegations about you of a heinous nature, and you would be right to scream and yell and object - because there is no proof and you may not have any convictions on your record. But the allegation would still be out there ... for another rockstar to quote as a fact! The "facts" that you cite are just "allegations" without a shred of substantiation. If you would object to personal attacks of a specious nature as to yourself, I trust you will cease and desist from these hyperbolic recitations against anyone else!

Remember when Dick Cheney said he got out of Halliburton to be VP? Halliburton kept on getting sweetheart deals from the govt. like no bid contracts. Overspending with no govt accountability.

D E Shaw Group owns 42% of First Wind. Does sweetheart deals, breaking the law with impunity and welfare corporate dads remind you of Halliburton?

When the allegations written in the above thread go on and on and on without any indictments...that is a tip. We had a change in DC alright. The faces are different.

steamship ...Although I appreciate the statistics, there has never been a scientific solution to spent rods. Burying them in the ground is not a nice gift to our grandchildren. Hauling them across country in big white trucks is not too safe for us.

johnyouney...allegations without proof? Sorry I did not provide links. Proof that the Stetson Mt wind farm is not online. http://bit.ly/3XMRV1

This document is a transcript of the US govt. vs. FERC over building the Stetson Mt wind farm when there is no room on the grid. (see above comment re. Halliburton) Anyway it states

The Iso has determined that the upgrades associated with the project cannot be reasonably expected to be completed by the start of the Capacity Commitment Period beginning June 1, 2010. (no transmission lines have been built since this litigation)

Iso New England determined that the Orrington South Interface would be overloaded after the addition of Stetson Mt Wind Farm project.

The Connecticut AG information came from his website under press releases for 2009. Scroll to the bottom and look for utilities.

The allegations brought against First Wind by the NY AG can be found at http://www.sec.gov/complaint/cf942sec9570.htm

If you have a problem with these links ..please say so. Again, apologizes.

Also , I am sorry I can't spell.

So.... having knowledge on the way the grid and energy markets are operated is an assumption that one is inside the wind industry?

Aside from that.. I guess this new blogger law only allows NIMBYs with an axe to grind to have a voice now? Please, post a link to this law so we can all interpret it. I would love to have a wind industry insider post on here as I am sure they have FAR more insight than any of us... but I am also sure that they are prohibited in doing so. BUT.. if this law exists, I am very interested in reading it since I think there are about 7 million blogger sites that need to be shut down.... windaction.org being one of them. Those clowns have been called out on the carpet more times than Tiger Woods.

You don't need to know ANYTHING specific about wind energy to shoot down the allegations on here about wind. Want to really make a statement? Disconnect from the grid and then you really have nothing to worry about anymore. You do have a choice in this.... just call your local utility and tell them you choose not to participate any more. Oh, but then you would not be able to hide behind the anonymity of the internet and permeate the discussions with half truths. You'd have to get a windmill to do that.

johnyouney....this is not hyperbole. This is hard cold facts that ME state govt. , First Wind,FERC and Iso New England do not have our best interests at heart.

goheels...I don't think you have knowledge on the way the grid and energy markets are operated.Never read anything about that in your comments. You did not believe that DEP changed law to allow the Mars Hill wind farm to operate. As the noise decible levels exceeded state law. You were going to call DEP and find out the facts. Never got back to us on that one. We want honest debate here...not childish antics.

We also want criminal activities prosecuted.

Johnyourney, concerning Stetson Mt. access and congestion. At the DEP hearing for the Rollins Project in Lincoln back in February, testimony was presented from inside sources at Bangor Hydro, CMP, plus information from ISO-New England concerning Bangor Hydro's Line 64 to which Stetson Mt., Brookfield's hydro, the Covanta biomass plant in West Enfield and two other hydro dams on the Penobscot River feed. Line 64 carries this to Orrington. All these sources stated that adding Stetson Mt's nameplate capacity to Line 54 overloads it, which is why Stetson is not on line.

In a Freedom of Access Act filing with the DEP, what should be discovered but a letter from Bangor Hydro stating in writing that Line 64 is overloaded. So, where is the output of Stetson II, built with Obama's gift of $40.4 million of your taxpayer money going to go?

Goheels, maybe you should realize that there are a lot of smart people who do due diligence in their research who post here. The nascent but growing movement to stop the scourge of industrial wind sites across rural Maine has attorneys, doctors, biologists, soil scientists, economists, businesspeople working together. Most importantly, are everyday folks who love rural Maine, who care about their surroundings, the ecosystems, and the natural resources. They provide the common sense and the judgement between right and wrong. They have decided to fight for their state and not allow its destruction for a pittance of electricity that this state doesn't even need, as we already generate more electricity than we use or will ever be using for decades to come. Let Southern New England generate their own electricity and quit making Maine a wind turbine colony!

I wonder if the people screaming NIMBY are near any proposed wind farm areas. Wind is not the answer, nuclear is. One nuclear plant = 8500 windmills in output. The wind power legislation was rammed through by the Augusta Club and I bet most of them if not all of them do not live near any proposed wind farms. The bottom line is we need our beautiful mountains left alone. They have much more value for tourism in the future, not to mention the beauty for Maine people to enjoy. The best of luck with this suit.

dearhornblower....eloquent.

Many readers have established that industrial wind is not right for Maine. It will only destroy Maine’s environment AND our pocketbooks. So let us leave that to the plains states where it MAY be more efficient.

Industrial wind power is not going to be useful until engineers find a way to store energy on a large scale. Fortunately nature has already done that. And Maine has an abundance of that stored energy. It is called trees.

Paper companies are going out of business and leaving Maine with huge surpluses of wood. Plum Creek has shown us what will happen to Maine woodlands if we do not have a profitable use for them. We have laws and policies in place to insure that our woodlands are managed in a sustainable fashion. We have people and machines ready to harvest wood. Let’s use this bounty which Nature has provided us to produce green energy. We already know that if we harvest some trees, others will grow faster. So we can produce energy AND store carbon dioxide in the growing trees. The ash can be spread back on the land to make trees grow even faster. We can use Maine resources to produce Maine jobs and Maine energy. The whole world wins.

I worked in the energy sector for 6 years. Unless you are an active energy marketer, I am guessing I have much more insight than you do, not to mention I still have many many contacts in the industry that are friends. These things are topics of discussion quite a bit. So, yes, I do have that knowledge you hope and claim that I do not.

What criminal activities? Can you please name them and back them up with links?

Stetson's nameplate is 57MW, if you look at the First Wind website.. and as I am SURE you know, transmission line capacity changes due to seasons as well as what the generators that are on that line are expected to make. Is there room? Probably not all the time, but since it is running and operational, I am guessing First Wind has secured at least SOME transmission. Whether it is firm or non-firm is certainly up for debate though.

Cool. So if no wind farms on mountains because they harm the natural beauty, I am all for banning ski resorts and ski areas since I don't ski. They are a complete eyesore. Let's PLEASE stop developing golf courses too, OK? What a waste of beautiful property. It's all about what you like and what is important to you.

Maine woodlands are being cut and the wood is being exported to Canada. Want to attack an industry? The wood industry is very low hanging fruit that could revive this aching economy.

I agree with Usecommonsense. Wood can help with the energy mix and it is carbon neutral. A good way to get landowners a market for low quality wood so they can improve their woodlands efficiently. Better that hundreds of alien looking towers that don't do anything when the wind does not blow.