OAKFIELD, Maine — The state’s top environmental agency approved a 150-megawatt industrial wind site on Oakfield Hills on Wednesday that will cost about $360 million.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s approval is the project’s final state regulatory hurdle, though a local group opposing the project is expected to file a civil court appeal. The project still needs a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit, said Alec Jarvis, development manager for First Wind of Massachusetts.
Town Manager Dale Morris greeted the news with satisfaction. The project, he said, enjoys vast support in Oakfield. Residents supported the project’s project tax agreement with an 80-20 town meeting vote and its community benefits agreement was approved 100-1.
“The fiscal value of the project is huge,” Morris said Wednesday. “On paper it has the potential to be a lot of good things for the area as long as it is executed in the right fashion.”
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court rejected a previous appeal of an earlier, smaller version of the Oakfield Hills project in March 2011.
As proposed by First Wind, the expanded and revised project will consist of 50 3.0-megawatt turbines that have the capacity to produce enough renewable energy to power more than 48,000 homes, First Wind officials said.
It is expected to employ as many as 400 construction workers for the year of construction, which is expected to start in mid- to late 2012, Jarvis said.
Once the project is finished, the tax agreement calls for the town receiving $14.7 million in tax revenues over 20 years and an additional $12 million in community benefits during that time.
Tax increment financing funds from the project will pay for several town projects, including:
• $2.5 million for construction of a public safety building that will house police and firefighters.
• $750,000 for three firetrucks.
• $7.5 million for road reconstruction.
The project’s financing is not yet assembled and won’t be until all permits are issued, Jarvis said.
Don’t take all of that money you will be getting and pee it all away.
I believe this is now the largest wind project in the state. Why is it that there has been virtually no reporting by any of the Maine media on this giant project which also has a 59 mile long transmission line, which I believe may go through wetlands? The only reporting was when the original 50MW project was being decided upon. The next 2/3’s with its devastating effects on pristine lakes is not news?
Yet if the wind industry runs a “wind blade challenge” event and 20 HS students show up to demonstrate their floating wind turbine models in a swimming pool, the industry-manufactured event gets full press coverage?
Is there anybody out there who sees this as terribly wrong as I do?
It is funny that this project went sailing through with little mention by the media. Yet, Plumb Creek gets destroyed by the media on a daily basis.
3 mgw per turbine?? What a joke. If you want to disrupt the environment, then why not put in more (renewable) hydro dams. More megawatts and less maintainence.
Don’t wait for the Maine media to report on anything that would be damaging to wind development or to show any curiosity about the unsupported claims made by the wind lobby.
An article was published in the Portland Press Herald today in which a special interest coalition pronounced that an expanded RPS (wind power mandate) would ease our dependence on foreign oil. Of course, there’s absolutely no logical reason that it would. But, did anyone at the PPH ask them to explain how that’s possible. Of course not. It might make the special interest group, and wind power, look a little silly. Can’t have that.
Maine media is lazy. This newspaper and the Bangor TV stations all read verbatim from the First Wind news release or quoted officials who are in First Wind’s pocket. We’ve tried and tried to get them to look at the other side of the story but that’s wild take initiative.
Google Sambides. He loves industrial wind.
Wind power is empty economics enabled by pernicious public policy. For the financial benefit of a tiny few, it is a rigged game that misappropriates math and science and falsely exploits the well attentions of a naive and trusting public in the name of a greater good. It is neither great nor good.
Without massive government supports forced upon us, with costs borne by the taxpayer, the ratepayer, the sufferer and the environment, it would simply not exist.
To this charge, the wind merchants exclaim “give us time, we will one day be able to stand on our own”. But this is a fraudulent claim which can never be made good, short of a fundamental change in the laws of physics.
This dog won’t hunt. Ever.
The push is on….
http://dailybail.com/home/obama-considering-larry-summers-to-head-world-bank.html
How about using some of that money to compensate the people that will be negatively affected by industrial windmills…somehow, I think the town does not really give a crap about them…Greed at its finest…..
Time to look into property tax reduction. My property on the pond is about to be worth a whole lot less.
There goes my Father’s ancestral farm! Tried to buy it, but my aunt (by marriage) thought this was better.
The “police” don’t need a building. There has been nothing more than an occasional constable and state trooper in town for years. If the town thinks that this will be the golden goose to return them to prosperity, they just don’t see the writing on the wall. None of the towns in that area will be able to turn back the clock with this type ‘development’. Not sure, but I read that all that power will go to Canada and Cape Cod anyway, and not one electron will be used to stabilize the cost of electricity for locals.
Beware the carpetbaggers, they only want to make money and run.
As the great grand-daughter of William Sewall, who trekked these woods with TR which to date have been highly ranked with the two pristine lakes Mattawamkeag and Pleasant (1A and 1B by the State) the 704 people who opposed the decision made by 80 voters in Oakfield and the fact that part of the lakes are preserves and hold high populations of wildlife such as bats and eagles, herons and loons, as well as many animals and bird species we are very disappointed by this short sighted decision that even the Sierra Club said to the DEP was a wrong decision due to the pristine value of these lakes and the negative impact on the wetlands, as well as the fact this is a low wind area on maps. Once our forests are blasted and destroyed as they were in Mars Hill, once the noise comes, as it did in Vinylhaven and everywhere else- Lincoln Lakes- the money being poured in may not seem like the only thing to report- which to date is the stand BDN has taken on this very sad and wrong decision for so many reasons.
Many lake owners wrote letters to the DEP pleading with them to reconsider this application. Besides property values and the red flashing lights at night, this will impact the economy of businesses on and near these lakes which have been run by families for generations. Short sighted for sure for the humans and nature nearby.
I wonder what the Amish will do with all the free electricity :-/
They’re moving away. Some have already re-established themselves in Waldo County. This is a social injustice and is so unnecessary.
Again the DEP has let us down. They need to change there name to the DED Department of Enviromental Distruction. These people are a disgrace to there cause I would like to Know how many of them have a financial interest in the wind projects.
Maine’s ethics law is so weak that you’ll never know. We have to wake up and demand that Gov. LePage fortify the ethics law (and the AG’s office).
48,000 homes being powered by this project. Really? Show us one Maine home that’s being powered by industrial wind today.
Over 700 people who either live year round, or own property in the vicinity of the proposed project, signed a petition against this project. The golf course and its beautiful views will be forever changed and may even be forced to go out of business. The yoga retreats will doubtlessly come to an end. The bats, decimated by white nose disease, will be further threatened. The bald eagles, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service are also threatened. Exactly what does it take to get through to this agency? The DEP should be embarrassed to continue to include the work “environmental” in their name, much less the word “protection.” Shame on you, DEP.
I am heart sick about what is happening to my home. And nobody in state government cares. Our beautiful lakes are just prostitutes under Gov. Baldaxci’s fast tracked wind projects.
There is a current threat to unleash the DEP on the UTs for the purpose of wind development permitting. As a resident of the UT, I can’t imagine a worse prospect.
State law will have to be changed. With current laws, Maine has essentially mandated the sprawl of wind turbines across rural Maine – with no actual work done prior to be certain that this was a good idea. Our state’s energy plans were hijacked by the NRCM, Maine Audubon, Environment Maine and the wind industry lobby. And now they’re wanting to tighten the screws even more with their plan to push for even greater wind power mandates with an expansion of the renewable portfolio standard.
At this point, it no longer even matters if wind development is a good idea, our de facto state mandate requires us to take it. Call your representative and senator if you’ve had enough of this!
“The project’s financing is not yet assembled…”????
Hmmm. Last I knew, a developer had to prove financial capacity before they received approval for a project. What’s up with that? Perhaps the attorney appealing the permit will touch on that issue.
Has First Wind used the same financial statements and list of assets to prove ‘capacity’ as they used during the Bull Hill application process?
How about the Bowers Mt. application, still in process at LURC?
Wasn’t it First Wind which pulled its IPO in August of 2010 because it couldn’t interest investors?
“The project’s financing is not yet assembled…”
And yet DEP rubber-stamped the largest wind development in the state of Maine, to date.
Buzino is right- if you read their upbeat description of this project on their website they say the power will go to NEW ENGLAND..that does NOT mean Maine – there is NO benefit to Mainers and this is not the technology to get any of us off foreign oil- this reporter told me on the phone “you guys always lose” but even if we do losing does not make us wrong..life is not that black and white. It is sad and shocking that the disadvantages of this project have not been covered by any major media- all they talk about is $ $ $ and there is NO such thing as free Money..as one of our supporters said ” A manmade natural disaster”- with proof from the communities that already have it.
“Americans know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Oscar Wilde
This permit is ripe for appeal. The wind law is intended to protect Maine’s “Quality of Place” by providing special protection for “Scenic Assets of State or National Significance”. It is not enough, however, for a place to be recognized as a SASNW. The DEP must determine the “significance” of the SASNW, which implies that some scenic assets are superior to others. The DEP failed to do this.
The value of Mattawamkeag Lake as a scenic resource is elevated substantially by the
acquisition in 2003 by the Bureau of Parks and Lands, using state and federal
tax dollars, of conservation easements on 7 miles of lakefront, 3 miles of riverfront, and fee purchase of Big Island and 27 acres at Bible Point. Both the applicant and Mr. Palmer fail to discuss the importance of this acquisition by the State of Maine and by doing so significantly undervalue the significance of Mattawamkeag Lake. From the joint announcement of the US Forest Service and Maine Dept of Conservation about the acquisition:
“The three part acquisition valued at $894,700—a 3,148-acre conservation easement, the 126-acre fee purchase of Big Island, and the 64-acre fee purchase of Long Point—was acquired by the State of Maine with a Forest Legacy grant of $500,000 and a Land for Maine’s Future Program grant of $256,200. The remaining value was covered through a bargain sale by the landowners. Over 7 miles of undeveloped lakeshore is included in the purchase, along with 3 miles of frontage on the West Branch of the Mattawamkeag River. “Through this purchase, we have ensured that Lower Mattawamkeag Lake will forever retain its wild character and guaranteed future public access to these lands for fishing, hunting, boating, and camping,” stated Maine Department of Conservation Commissioner Patrick McGowan.
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/legacy/legacy_places/me/pdfs/me_05_2003s.pdf
The Expedited Wind Act requires specific steps to evaluate a scenic resource of statewide significance:
“…whether the development significantly compromises views from a scenic resource of state or national significance such that the development has an unreasonable adverse effect on the scenic character or existing uses related to scenic character of the scenic resource of state or national significance. Ch 34-A, 3452 (1)
“Evaluation criteria. In making its determination pursuant to subsection 1, ….. the primary siting authority shall consider:
A. The significance of the potentially affected scenic resource of state or
national significance”.
The DEP’s determination of the significance of the scenic resource value of Mattawamkeag Lake must take into account the commitment of the state and federal governments to enhance the
protection of this lake. In making this determination, it is not necessary that these conserved areas be identified as historic sites, or given any special designation by the Expedited Wind Act as
Mr. Palmer contends in response to concerns about Bible Point.
The DEP has a responsibility to recognize the importance of Mattawamkeag Lake while complying with the wind law! It should fulfill that responsibility by:
1. Finding that Mattawamkeag Lake is protected by the wind law as a scenic resource of statewide significance and that adverse scenic impacts must be considered;
2. Finding that the overwhelming majority of testimony from interested parties was in opposition to this project due to its effect on the lake, including respondents to a survey at the boat launch, and
that this project therefore violates the sensibilities of the average person;
3. Finding that there is no mitigation (screening by trees or topography) that could reduce the negative scenic impacts;
4. Finding that this lake has extraordinary significance as a scenic esource of state or national significance as defined by the wind law. It achieved this extraordinary significance as a “Legacy Place” and a place to be protected “in the future” by the expenditure of $756,200 of public funds.
The wind law requires that a high standard be used to determine if a wind project has an “unreasonably adverse” effect on a resource of statewide significance:
“A finding by the primary siting authority that the development’s generating facilities are a highly visible feature in the landscape is not a solely sufficient basis for determination that an expedited wind energy project has an unreasonable adverse effect on the scenic character and existing uses related to scenic character of a scenic resource of state or national significance.” Ch 34-A, 3452
Mattawamkeag Lake meets this higher standard by virtue of its recognition as a “Legacy Place”, to be protected in the future by the actions of the state of Maine and the federal government on behalf of the citizens. DEP and Mr. Palmer failed to provide a thorough and objective analysis of the impact of this project by overlooking the enhanced significance afforded by this acquisition.
The conclusion by Mr. Palmer and the DEP that the adverse impacts of this project on a scenic resource of state or national significance are not unreasonable is not proven and conflicts with the facts. The preponderance of the evidence and an objective interpretation of the intent of the wind law must lead to a denial of this permit on the basis of its unreasonably adverse effect on Mattawamkeag Lake.
Nixk Sambides…. Have you not been a journalist following wind projects long enough to know enough to tell both sides of the story? How nice of you to use the First Wind talking points and mascarade them as “news.” It’s been apparent for some time that you have never met a wind project you didn’t love, but did you pass journalism 101?
This great news is not so great for many of us living on the lakes. How about looking into First Winds finances and if they can survive w/o government subsidies. And perhaps the ruination of two beautiful lakes and a way of life.
First Wind & subsidiaries build wind projects that fail to produce energy, yet developers continue to collect public subsidies.
US House of Representatives Budget Committee
Chairman Paul Ryan
‘The Empty Promise of Green Jobs
The costly consequences of crony capitalism’ (excerpt):
“First Wind Holdings, received a $117 million loan guarantee in March of 2010. First Wind withdrew its initial public offering in October of 2010, due to a lack of investor demand. 11 According to the Boston Globe, investors shied away from the company because “First Wind owes more than $500 million, loses money on a steady basis, and reports a negative cash flow.”12 11 According to the Boston Globe, investors shied away from the company because “First Wind owes more than $500 million, loses money on a steady basis, and reports a negative cash flow.”12
http://budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/GreenJobs9222011.pdf
The Night sky………..the red lights emit and impact views farther than 8 miles from source.
Night Sky once was protected.
As someone from out-of-state who visits this area of Maine yearly for its pristine, untouched natural splendor, this concerns me. Some of the happiest moments of my life have occurred as I enjoyed the areas in and around Lake Mattawamkeag. By allowing this type of industrial development so close to the lake, it won’t just harm the environment, but will seriously hurt any tourism dollars the area would receive.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the Bangor Daily News or any other media in Maine to be objective. Frankfort residents were foolish enough to invite them to a hearing during our moritorium and then ordinance process and they spun it to make the residents supporting regulation look like fools. Now that we actually have an ordinance and are facing litigation from the out of state wind scammer scumbags the BDN is no where to be found. Surprised ??? Not me
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2011/12/01/news/midcoast/frankfort-wind-ordinance-passes/