Times have changed
The letter from Sarah Nelson really hit home. She told how she met her nephew, an airman, at the Portland Jetport, and how a handful of people thanked him for his service and, the next day, a complete stranger paid for his meal.
How times have changed. My husband Bill was in the Korean conflict and also was in the Vietnam conflict. When he came home, he asked me not to tell anyone that he had been in Vietnam; this was in 1970 and people were ugly about that conflict. My husband was a career airman, he did not volunteer either tour of duty, he was sent over and that was his duty.
He is now 79 years old and wears a cap that says he served in both of those countries. People now thank him for his service and shake his hand. It always brings a tear to my eye. I am very proud to be his wife for 57 years.
Lois M. Farr
Dover-Foxcroft
Embrace wind power
I want to respond about the proposed First Wind energy project which would involve installing 50 wind turbines in northern Maine. I understand there is concern by some that these turbines would visually impact the area, including the views from a nearby lake. But there’s a compelling case to allow this project to come to fruition. When compared to alternative plants, the impact of, say, a hydroelectric dam, an oil- or coal-fired plant or, heaven forbid, a nuclear power plant, the wind tower project is the cleanest, least invasive and least expensive way to generate power.
I’m not just saying this because the wind farm isn’t in my backyard; in fact, if a company wanted to build a wind farm in Carmel, I’d sell them the land in a heartbeat (if I owned it), with one condition: I’d stipulate that all year-round homeowners be given a quarterly rebate for electricity charges to their homes and businesses, of an amount sufficient to really matter — say 33 percent of their electric bills. This should soften the blow.
Wind power is part of our energy future. It’s time to embrace it as a much cleaner energy option than past technologies and show the country that Maine people are ready for new ways to embrace the future, while we decrease our dependency on big, noisy, messy ideas we’ve used in the past.
Allan White
Carmel
Highway runs through it
If you would, please picture this: a multilane highway and possibly a pipeline running through historic sites and your hunting camp, wood lot, sugar bush, hay ground, pasture, farm fields, fishing hole, barn, business, backyard, home, serenity and solitude.
It’s not quite the image of life as it should be in Maine’s “hollow middle.”
But if the proposed east-west corridor from Calais to Coburn Gore is constructed, this is the reality those of us in the way will look upon.
Bruce McAfee Towl
Dover-Foxcroft
Top haphazard
After reading the BDN’s April 11 article “Dover-Foxcroft residents to vote on budget at town meeting,” I felt one quote attributed to Town Manager Jack Clukey required a response. When talking about increasing the Dover-Foxcroft budget by well over a quarter-million dollars, he stated, “I think our intention is all of this will go into paving.”
Think? Isn’t this a rather haphazard, casual, unplanned approach to requesting over a quarter-million dollars from taxpayers? Don’t they deserve a more researched, well-thought out plan for significantly raising their property taxes in a time when their costs are spiking on gas, heating fuel, groceries and anything else they must purchase?
Hilda Mulherin
Dover-Foxcroft
Unhappy former constituent
State House candidate Lisa Miller’s recent BDN OpEd on the Department of Health and Human Services was not surprising. It was however, disappointing.
Ms. Miller attempts to deflect her own culpability for the department’s deplorable condition, which happened during her years in office. She also tries to deny the dramatic growth of the program by cherry-picking statistics from years with less dramatic growth.
But the blame does in great part belong to Ms. Miller. During her time on the Appropriations and the Health and Human Services committees, the welfare program MaineCare (Medicaid) was expanded well beyond its original intent of providing health care to the truly needy. Maine now has one of the highest percentages of its population on Medicaid in the country. This irresponsible expansion put not only those who depend on this program for care at risk, it shook the very foundations of Maine’s health care network.
During Ms. Miller’s tenure, Maine also witnessed — and is still paying for — the astounding debacle that continues to be the DHHS computer fiasco.
Lisa Miller’s legislative legacy to the people of Maine is hundreds of millions of dollars of hospital debt, massive waste and a MaineCare system that is eating up more revenue than any other state department.
Dissatisfied residents voted Ms. Miller out of office in 2010. Attacking her opponent in this derisive way makes clear she has learned little in the past two years about the realities of the state budget. Nor has she learned about taking responsibility for one’s actions.
Gregory A Hodge
Jefferson
LePage unloads again
I’m writing in response to the April 4 BDN article regarding Gov. LePage’s interview with Phil Harriman on WGAN Radio. The governor talked about how he “keeps hitting a wall with the Democrats” regarding many of his legislative priorities. I am very concerned that our governor called Sen. Justin Alfond a “little spoiled brat.” He also compared Justin to his grandfather and said he was “very fortunate that his granddad was born ahead of him.” I’m having trouble trying to understand what that comment has to do with the governor’s lack of getting his agenda through the Legislature.
I was brought up to defend and advocate my political views, while at the same time to respect those who have different views. The governor’s name-calling and his suggesting that a person’s family has anything to do with his lack of ability to get others to share those views has no place in politics. What kind of message did those comments send to the residents of our state and our state’s young people?
Can you imagine the work we could accomplish at all levels of government if we spent more time working on solutions together? This doesn’t mean that we need to abandon our own political views. It does mean that all sides often have to move off their starting points and arrive at what is best for all residents of the state. This will take an honest effort by all political sides.
John Parola
Ripley
Bruce McAfee Towl
If this highway follows the currently proposed route, Pickerel Pond and the lodge there will be gone.
I’m disgusted we are even thinking about this boondoggle.
Hilda Mulherin
You don’t own ANYTHING in the USA, you just rent from the government. …and every once in awhile the rent goes up…. Usually in the middle of a recession when “tenants” can least afford an increase.
Gregory A Hodge
Although this Medicare problem goes all the way back to the McKernan administration, I agree that all legislators (from both parties) who have been there over the last 20 years share blame.
If the citizens of this state want change, (and in my opinion change is necessary) they need to vote out ALL incumbents. They also need to do this a couple of times so the office holders get the message that they are not royalty, but employees. Employees who currently work for a very angry board of directors…. Us!
John Parola
We voted him in. He’s got two more years plus. We also sent the Democrats packing. Their forty year run is over for the time being.
Funny how “compromise” was not the word of the day all the time The Democrats held the State house, and both branches of the legislature. Now all of a sudden everyone wants to sing Kumbaya, hold hands and make nice. Bull poo poo. We’ll make nice AFTER we change things a bit…. and as Obama said (be4fore he was elected) “Change is long overdue.
Mr Snyder, you seem to approve of the guv’s lack of manners, rudeness and downright ugly behavior. I doubt either side wants this type of conversation with the governor…he is suppose to be the leader? What a joke, he is an embarrassment to the people of this state.
prim and proper havent got this state on its feet yet. It is about time we got someone in there that wants to make the needed changes and does not care if it rocks the boat a little WAY OVERDUE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK LEPAGE
Surely he can accomplish something without the name calling, bullying, putting people in need down….for someone from his alledged upbringing, you would think he would have an iota of sympathy for those down and out….someone must have given him a hand along the way, if his childhood story is true.
News Flash… “someone from his alleged upbringing”KNOWS the score. I have no problem helping my neighbors who need help, but institutionalized charity is a sham and a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Rude and crude certainly won’t improve things in Maine, but that’s the governor’s plan. What a disaster LePage has turned out to be!
This is a State of Truck drivers, loggers, warehouse loaders, fishermen, and people who change the sheets on motel beds so our “guests” won’t get all smelly. Most of us don’t mind a good fist-fight if the cause is righteous.
I have my disagreements with the Governor, but “his style” isn’t in that column. During the last four administrations (stylish outwardly friendly, and even debonair) my taxes on my property have gone from the hundreds to the thousands. Thanks to my local governments they have not increased as fast as they have in the places governed by nice mannered, plastic-faced, people in suits.
I say kick their @$$
Harry, my dad is a logger, my dad was a fisherman, my dads is a Republican, but he also knows, that you don’t get allot when you disrespect people. There is a time and place to use course words, and that’s behind closed doors. When your the Gov. you are suppose to know how to act in public.
I assume you prefer that politicians find nice ways to call others bas**rds, such as “my esteemed colleagues”, rather than what they mean.
I think I would prefer honesty.
So you are telling us that when you appear to be “nice,” you are being dishonest. The real you is mean-spirited and obnoxious, like LePage. That’s important to know. But it’s not true for most other people.
No, I usually try to be honest when posting, or speaking with people that I don’t know, but some times it is hard to bite my tongue and not make enemies.
LePage has made very few new enemies, those that hate him now are the same people that hated him as mayor of Waterville, and probably did not like him when he was at MARDENS.
I was predomintaly refering to lying cheating politicians, but yes I believe the majority of people self censor so as to not insult others.
Personally I would prefer knowing that someone thinks I am a SOB rather than expect that person to be a friend right up to when they plant a knife in my back.
I, on the other hand, would like it if we were genuinely nice to one another. I don’t expect that kinfe in the back that you seem to expect, because I have a pretty good opinion of my fellow humans.
except those who post here whom you criticize….endlessly.
You and I and others do engage in give-and-take on these pages. I notice how much you tried to argue with me about the Gwynne Dyer column when I agreed with you about declarations of war, and raised some open-ended questions, and suggested that unintended consequences will be unknown. I thought it was a friendly conversation until you insisted on an argument, and “shouted” a quote from Washington in all capital letters.
I’m a Democrat but just finished posting a compliment about the Republicans in the legislature on another one of these pages. So yes, sometimes I criticize, sometimes I thank people, sometimes I agree, sometimes I ask questions — But I notice that even when I agree with you, you want to argue with me. So maybe you’re projecting.
Actually, the Medicare problem goes back to the Johnson administration. While the stated purpose of almost every social program, such as Medicare, were admirable they all have gone from helping the “most vunerable amongst us” to covering far more people than originally intended.
When voting for “change” you must understand what the change will be. I don’t think that the average voter anticipated the change that they voted for in 2008.
True. We were hoping for more change than we got, like a real national health care plan, not Obama’s Romneycare. Still, Obama has been a lot better than the alternative.
At least Romneycare was probably Constitutional, at least federally.
Constitutionality will be decided by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, whether they are correct or not.
If the SJC decides that Obamacare is unconstitutional they are right wing conservative activists and if the decision is that Obamacare is constitutional they are the smartest judges in history. Right?
Not what I said. The Supreme Court will have a conservative majority whatever they decide. A conservative majority is a conservative majority.
You say “the Medicare problem” goes back to the Johnson administration. Medicare goes back to the Johnson administration. Yet my conservative Republican sisters don’t regard their medicare as a “problem,” they just don’t want “the government” to mess with their (government-run) Medicare. I’m looking forward to having a Medicare problem of my own in a few years.
John Parola–Governor LePage called Senator Alfond a ‘spoiled little brat, he called all who protested his removal of the Labor Dept. mural ‘idiots’, he calls everyone who falls on hard times ‘welfare bums’ or ‘welfare queens’–he accuses everyone but himself and his daughter as being part of the problem.
Most of us realize that it is the governor that is the problem and we intend to cure our voters remorse by relegating him to lame duck status by voting out all ALEC members, Norquist pledgers, and tea crazies this november.
well yes wouldnt it be much easier if we all got brainwashed into believing in your left wing liberal ways NOT!!!
What exactly is ‘left wing liberal’ about civility and compassion?
Liberal compassion gave us the Violette, McCormick, and the Maine bond bank fiascoes. Surely ypu don’t think we’vve uncovered them all yet? Ever wonder why our taxes are so high?
Abuse of the public trust is not limited to one party. Witch hunts seem to be concentrated on the party out of power at the moment.
Our court system put Mr. Violette in jail, rightfully so. The only court Ms McCormack and Mr. Lenna have been tried in is the court of MHPC, WVOM and ‘As Maine Goes’. Liberal compassion allows us to consider them innocent until proven guilty.
Witch hunts are concentrated on the people how have been abusing the taxpayers. Coincidentally they happen to belong to party that has been in power for the last 40 years. Go figure.
So, only the people of one party ever abuse the system — you seem to have blinders on. Ever heard of Washington, D.C.?
But they are us… wouldn’t you say?
Thanks for making me smile. :-) Yes, they are us. And some of us behave badly.
We’re talking about the alleged “witch hunts” in Maine that have just begun to expose the corruption of 40 years of Dem rule here. I know it’s tough when the facts don’t support your argument, but please try to stay on topic.
Yes, I understand the topic. And when any one party stays in power too long, a certain level of corruption seems to take place. It’s not that one party is morally superior and the other party is morally inferior. It’s — well, it’s that power tends to corrupt.
YUp, just like Zimmerman who you’ve already sentenced to death. Your screed doesn’t pass the straight face test….call me some derogatory names, but be inventive ….go read HUFF post.
Speaking of brainwashed …
The major problem I have with LePage is his foul mouth, and his general disrespect for other people. This week he is getting on the case of his fellow Republicans, saying they are not what they claim to be (Republicans?). He’s a bully who always wants his own way, and when he doesn’t get his way, it’s everyone’s fault but his.
And this is exactly who many of want for governor…SOMEONE WHO GETS THE JOB DONE IN RECORD TIME.
…or have you forgotten when Gov. Baldacci finally blew up and said NO MORE DAMN REPORTS.
That’s all we ever get from you liberals…study reports , crony capitalism, and the insidious growing regulatory slime you spread on every part of American life.
You seem upset.
You had me until the ‘tea crazies’ label; making you just as much a word bully as LePage.
Lois M. Farr..
My hat is off to your husband…
Be proud of him..
Yes, our thanks to the men and women who serve, and have served. Thank you to Mrs. Marr for telling us about her husband Bill. At the time of the very divisive debate about the War in Vietnam, some protestors mistakenly took out their frustration on the returning troops. Yet the troops served their country. It was the politicians who made the decisions about the war. We should always honor those who served honorably.
Allan White. There is no place in Maine for bird choppers. Get it straight. It is not “our part.”
While your at saving all the birds, you might want to outlaw picture windows or make it mandatory that they have netting up to stop the birds from commiting suicide by flying into them. Also have all domestic cats euthenized.
That’s an asinine, red herring type of answer. What we don’t need is the destruction of our uplands for something as useless as wind power. This happens to have the side effect of substantial impacts on migratory bird populations and especially raptors. Factor in loss of bats from barotrauma from low frequency noise emanating from these 45 story machines being imposed in wildlife habitat. You are correct, I have had a bird or two hit my windows in my home and I have hit them with my car. Why do we deliberately need to add bird and bat slaughtering machines to our beautiful state? Wind power is an economic and scientific scam backed by poor public policy.
If you do not enjoy Maine’s outdoor activities, please do not ruin the state for those of us who do. Just because others do something wrong does not make it right.
Natural gas could well give us at least 150 years of bridge fuel. I believe the question is bridge to where?
The history of science teaches us that at any point in time, the future holds technological breakthroughs that even the most imaginative science fiction writers cannot think of.
There will be something, rest assured. And with today’s computerization and Internet-enabled collaboration, the time to get to the next breakthrough will surely be shortened.
An “all of the above” energy strategy as touted by self serving pickpockets like Angus King is nothing but a feelgood thought created by the subsidy-reliant present day wind industry so they can have safety in the herd and not be singled out for their gross inefficiency.
Those subsidies that are the artificial life support of wind, a power source that rightfully died over 100 years ago and has been revived as a subsidy zombie, would be more effectively used for R&D towards the coming true breakthroughs that will turn the paradigm inside out.
Our assumptions today are electricity-centric. The future likely holds promise of breakthroughs where electricity itself becomes a quaint thing of the past.
Gregory, a very insightful letter. Gov. LePage is doing a great job in leading the state out of the disaster of decades of liberal, progressive/communist policies. We can’t afford to let people like Ms. Miller to slither their way back into being in charge of anything.
Oh, the commie card again. Shades of McCarthy.
When did we ever have any Communists holding office in Maine? I realize you’re not in Maine, that you’re a long way away. I suppose that gives you an excuse for your complete cluelessness. But if we had ever elected a Communist, it would be national — and international — news.
The problem really is that very few politicians will truly express their beliefs.
We have a large part of the “left” in this country that professes to be “Progressives” but they never say what they want to progress to, outside of plattitudes such as compassion , a better world and diversity, but are willing to allow government to have more control over the people thatbdon’t have the ability to control their own lives..
There are also some on the “right” that claim to be for liberty, responsibility, and acountability but are willing to allow government have more control over the people that don’t have the ability to control their own lives.
Please tell people what your ideal world would like.
Ideal world? If you want me to describe Utopia, I can’t do that. Utopia doesn’t exist. In the 1800s a lot of well-meaning people tried to establish utopian communes, but outside of a few small religious communities, these socialist experiments didn’t work.
I’m a former small business owner, a genuine capitalist. Capitalism, for all its flaws, works best. Of course, we want some reasonable regulations to protect the people from the power of the big multi-national corporations — we want clean air and water, safe food, saftey standards in the workplace, a social safety net like medicare and Social Security, etc.
A national health plan like Britain’s or Canada’s would be a big improvement (they spend less moneyand get better outcomes, like a better infant mortality rate and longer life span).
Obama’s Romneycare plan, and the current Republican do-nothing-about-this-mess- just-go-back-to-where-we-were-two-years-ago approach, are not as good as the Canadian or British or French or Scandanavian health systems — or almost all other industrialized countries. Obama tried to give the Republicans what they said they wanted, but because he was proposing it, they didn’t want it. So this is an imperfect world.
I like the world we have. It’s imperfect, but humans are imperfect. I like the United States of America — I like our Constitution and most of our laws. Term limits on Congress might be a good thing.
Less bickering and less partisanship in Washington would be nice, and a less “conservative-activist” Supreme Court would please me. The Citizens United decision, which turned the election process over to the SuperPac big-money boys, has hurt our nation. If Scalia and Thomas decided to retire and spend more time with their families, that would be okay with me.
It would have been nice if President Obama had stuck closer to some of his campaign promises. I would have liked it if Congress had let him close the prison at Guantanimo. It would have been good if George Bush 43 hadn’t loaded us down with tons of debt and two badly-managed wars and then an economic free-fall. Obama took quick and decisive action, and it helped, but a faster recovery would please me.
More compassion among my fellow human beings would be a good thing. I’m not asking for much.
I think the Tea Party is just the latest incarnation of the John Birch Society of the 1960s, and of the Know Nothing Party of the 1800s, but in a free country we have to put up with the nuts.
So, for all its faults, I like the time in which I am living, and the country into which I was born.
Utopia? no but where does government intervention end.
Outside small isolated groups socialism/communism has always failed. Every time it has been tried.
I don’t think that anyone wants water or air polution, everyone wants safe food, even the most callous capitalist would want unsafe working conditions.
I am sorry, but social Security, medicare, and national health care are not allowed by the Federal Constitution, If that is truly wanted the Constitution has to be changed.
Do other countries have better medical systems, I do not think so, what many of these countries have is a less hectic lifestyle, a more restrictive government, better diet, less population … It is not socialised healthcare.
Most of the medical advances come from the US and not from Great Britan, Sweden, France or Canada. Our medical system funds far more research than any other country and probably as most of the rest of the world.
It would have been nice if Clinton had not gutted the defense budget and allowed the tragedy of 9-11 forcing Bush to rebuild the military and get us into a pair of poorly executed and unnecessary wars.
What do you want us to do with the prisoners at Gitmo, it would have been nice if we tried them as terrorists and rid the world of them but …
Some of the tea party members can probably be likened to the JBS, but I think that the average tea party members would agree with much of what the average occupy member has to say.
I do not believe that the tea party are flat earthers nor the American party of the mid 1800’s any more than I believe that the average Occupy Movement member is a communist that wants to destroy the US.
I too am glad that I was born in the US and for the most part am glad that I grew up in the 60’s as bad as the 60’s and 70’s were politically and I deplore that our country has been divided by political opportunists that seem to want to divide us so that their elitist cabal can take over and therefore rule the world yea I know that that sounds crazy but that seems to be what is happening/.
You asked me for my ideal world and I answered — this one is pretty good.
~ You and I agree that socialism doesn’t work. I’m an actual capitalist.
~ You claim that Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional, but no Supreme Court, Republican President, or Republican Congress has ever agreed with you. Your notion is just looney. Sorry, just calling it what it is.
~ You just don’t have a clue, apparently, about the fact that Canada, Britain, and almost all industrialized nations have “socialized” health care plans, spend less per person than we do, and get better medical outcomes. Please educate yourself about the rest of the world.
~ Maybe you’re thinking, “He said socialism doesn’t work, but he wants ‘socialized’ health care.” True. We have socialized highways, a socialized army, socialized libraries, socialized police departments, and a socialized fire department as well. Some things we just have to do together as a society. A patchwork of private insurance companies paying for the health care costs of most Americans, while leaving many without any insurance, has been a disastrous system.
Private enterprise in industry and retailing works better than classic socialism — the collective ownership of the means of production.
~ When we torture prisoners and violate human rights, we become like our enemies and lose our credibility as a free nation. The tortures at Abu Ghraib, and the place where the Bush Administration began those techniques, Guantanimo, were a black eye on our claims to be the leader of the free world. Closing Guantanimo, fair trials for the accused, and justice under American laws is the solution — You might not want that, however, because you probably don’t believe in the ability of of the U.S. Justice system to seek enough vengeance. But that’s just the point of a justice system in a free country. It’s not about vengeance, it’s about justice. If you want legalized vengeance, they have plenty in North Korea.
~ So, I’m glad that I’m an American, living in the land of the mostly free and the home of the brave. My ideal society is almost the same as we have now. Thanks for asking.
I guess we will have to disagree on health care.
If you can find anything that allows the federal government to control health care I would grant you it’s constitutionality but I would still feel that it is a bad idea.
Of course no political entity in this country is going to say Social Security should be gotten rid of, too many people rely on it, and most of those that rely on it thought they were paying for it for their entire working life. It may have been started with good intentions but we can see now that like ANY government program it will, and has, grow to be a financial monster.
Guantanamo Bay should have never been used to house war criminals, they should have been dealt with in place; tried convicted, or not, and either released or executed.
I do not see capital punishment as revenge, I see it as the right thing to do. Would you advocate putting rabid animals, or animals that maul humans into cages? No, they would be put down for the good of the public (general welfare), and animals don’t have the ability to judge right from wrong but humans do.
1) Yes, I guess we disagree on health care. Britain, Canada, France, etc., get better outcomes for less money with their government-run systems. The Constitution gives the federal government the right to regulate commerce, and we all participate in the commerce of health care by virtue of the fact that everyone is eventually in the health care system — we all grow old, get sick and/or injured, and we all die.
So yes, the federal government does have the constitutional authority. On the other hand, the federal government probably did not have the constitutional authority to make the Louisiana or Alaska purchases.
2) I’ll agree with you that we got into a jam when we started using Guantanimo as a prison. The problem was we didn’t want to just execute every person we captured (or kidnapped from various places around the world) because, in fact, some of them turned out to be innocent, like the German auto salesman we kidnapped when he was on vacation in Serbia. If we just executed everyone on the spot, we would would be betraying our constitutional principles. So we sent them to Guantanimo for interrogation, including torture, and for long-delayed trials. Quite a few people turned out to be completely innocent, but we don’t like to talk about that. That’s why our Constitution restricts the power of the government and protects liberties. When we betray those principles we look to the world like hypocrites.
3) Capital punishment — a new topic. When you execute someone, if you later find out you were wrong, there’s no going back. My opposition to capital punishment is partly based on my religious principles, that (as Jefferson said) we are endowed by our Creator with rights that include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The state can take away our liberty if we break the laws, but that liberty can be returned to us when we have served our time. Taking the life that our Creator endowed us with is irreversible. Sure, if someone killed my wife I would want vengeance. But that’s why I shouldn’t be on the jury. The legal system is there in part as a check and balance on my desire for revenge.
You suggest that killing someone is more humane than holding them prisoner in inhumane conditions — a good point. That’s one reason I want to close Guantinimo, and house the prisoners in humane prisons in the United States.
Lois Farr, John Parola: good letters.
“NO” to the East-west highway that will, as usual, NOT bring prosperity to Mainers, but $$$$ to the multinationals as they transport oil/propane/gas/ WATER – out of and through Maine to – everywhere else.Change the sign – “Maine, the way life USED to be.” And Maine – “OPEN to CORPORATE Business”.
I’m for more business in Maine, and more jobs — and a much needed better east-west route can help. Why do you oppose jobs for Maine?
I suspect that halving the time that it takes for Canadian truckers to go from the Maritimes to Quebec will bring any jobs to Maine. My guess is that there would be fewer jobs after the highway is built than there are now.
Unless a casino is part of the plan I don’t expect the highway to bring any more tourism either.
Many, many times I’ve had to travel east-west across Maine, and have wished I had a better route.
Your solution, if I understand you correctly, is for Maine to have second or third-rate infrastructure, so that businesses won’t want to locate here. It’s an interesting approach, one that works pretty well for the Congo Republic, I hear.
I have traveled outside the I-95 corridor many times and wished that there was a better route to whereever I was going. But that is truly impractical.
Do I want Maine to have second and third rate infrastructure? heck no. But there are better ways to make the infrastructure better. Rather than build a road that is not going to really help the people of Maine, why do we not rebuild the rail system and lower the traffic on the highways, make the roads last longer, lower polution … Some trucking will always have to be done but if instead of having hundred thousands oflong haul trucks operating the trailers were loaded onto flat cars and shipped by rail to central transshipment centers the trailers could be off loaded and trucked to their destinations.
To be to do this would help the Maine economy by making our deep water ports more useful and allow Maine to become a link in the world economy rather than a small backwater dead end.
Ah, a big government liberal in disguise!
(Just kidding!) :-)
I said nothing about government funding passenger rail. Besides there are hundreds of miles of abandoned rail bed that could be rehabed and used by rail companies for tolls
Oh, you want passenger rail that no one pays for. ‘Cause you know private railroad companies won’t do it. No profit. Slick plan — a railroad built by no one. It just appears miraculously.
As opposed to a multi lane highway that is built by no one?
Passenger rail is just a side benefit, if it is warranted. The point is to move freight.
I am not sure how it would be financed but it would be far less expensive than the proposed East West highway.
Multi-lane highways are built by us all, together, acting as the government. You say you want a passenger railroad to be built, not by the government, but by people you know won’t build it — private industry. Private industry requires a profit. You want them to build and operate passenger rail service at a loss. Not going to happen. Unrealistic suggestion.
Please pay attention. PASSENGER SERVICE WOULD BE A BYPRODUCT of freight rail service, not the goal.
The rail system could be built by the government but I do not advocate for it, as I do not advocate for a government built East West boondoggle.
Please pay attention. PASSENGER SERVICE IS A MONEY LOSER. The reason the federal government created Amtrack was because all of the railroads were getting out of the money-losing passenger business. Amtrack (like our highways and airports) gets subsidized by the taxpayers. That’s how Amtrack stays in business.
You want the railroads to get into a money-losing business. Good luck on that.
I don’t think opposing a project such as this is necessarily opposition to jobs in Maine. Maine seems ready to jump at anything that makes the slightest promise of creating jobs. It doesn’t have to be many jobs. It doesn’t have to be good jobs. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be permanent jobs. We’re like a state standing on a corner with a cardboard sign reading “Will do anything for jobs.” Is Maine’s statewide self-esteem that poor? We seem willing to give away just about anything for a chance to gamble on a few jobs of unknown quality or duration.
We’re already degrading some of this state’s best assets with mountaintop wind turbines just so we can get a few months of construction work per project. It’s short-sighted. Are there REALLY large numbers of high quality permanent jobs that pay well coming with a new highway? Or, is it just one more public works project being dictated to us by the company(s) wanting the contract – with the obligatory jobs bonanza claim? Let’s find out before we throw our next “hail Mary” pass.
Yep them roads that are there now are plenty. Don’t need to fix them up because they are only being used for young people packing up and moving elsewhere. Looking for jobs that will pay them a living wage. Probably someplace with easy access to good transportation infrastructure.
Hell if we had left Rt. 9 alone there wouldn’t be as many retirees comming into Washington County buying up all those cheap houses.
Don’t need to fix up them pot holes or soft (non-existant) shoulders. If someone drives off the road, that’s their tough luck.
Good letter, Mr. Hodge. I’m glad that former Rep Miller wasn’t allowed to get away with that op-ed that ridiculous opinion piece that was supposed to be “facts.”
Dear Mister White: I know the mainstream media has sold wind power as green but if you track the manufacture of the huge industrial turbines from China, where they produce toxic wastes filling up lakes there and use rare mineral for their creation, to the carbon imprint getting them to their destinations and the efficiency of the wind turbines in the hilly wooded areas of Maine you would discover that they are not clean and not green. I suggest you educated yourself to the facts – wind power will not get us off fossil fuel and the health impacts (major sleep disturbances, heart issues, headaches and more) on humans and the murderous effects on wildlife are both brushed off by the wind industry and the politicians and companies getting rich off of the,
You are right you do not live in these areas where flashing red lights disturb areas that are considered highly ranked for their pristine values and people cannot enjoy their cabins on lakes because of the damaging audible and low frequency voice. Obtain a copy of the movie WINDFALL when it becomes available to the public in May and I think you will be surprised by what you learn, environmentalists in Bar Harbor were are few weeks ago when they had a showing there. Giving people who live near them less electricity rates is NOT a tradeoff for health and if the wind energy were not a risk they companies would not have people they pay off who have complained to sign gag statements ..any decent lawyer will tell you that is immoral. Unfortunately it isn not illegal.
Obama wants to say it produces new jobs..but it is the kind of temporary construction jobs he has also made created repairing roads- in the long run the jobs created are low in number except for the executives raking in the bucks..and their claim it will help the local economy and surrounding towns does not add up.
Wind and the way it is being approached in Maine is terribly short sighted…and yet the relentless wind companies march on despite informed citizens speaking the truth of their overall impact economically and otherwise.
Baldacci was the ruination of beautiful untouched rural Maine with his expedited wind law.
Natural gas could well give us at least 150 years of bridge fuel. I believe the question is bridge to where?
The history of science teaches us that at any point in time, the future holds technological breakthroughs that even the most imaginative science fiction writers cannot think of.
There will be something, rest assured. And with today’s computerization and Internet-enabled collaboration, the time to get to the next breakthrough will surely be shortened.
An “all of the above” energy strategy as touted by self serving pickpockets like Angus King is nothing but a feelgood thought created by the subsidy-reliant present day wind industry so they can have safety in the herd and not be singled out for their gross inefficiency.
Those subsidies that are the artificial life support of wind, a power source that rightfully died over 100 years ago and has been revived as a subsidy zombie, would be more effectively used for R&D towards the coming true breakthroughs that will turn the paradigm inside out.
Our assumptions today are electricity-centric. The future likely holds promise of breakthroughs where electricity itself becomes a quaint thing of the past.
Allan White says ”
This should soften the blow.
while we decrease our dependency on big, noisy, messy ideas”
Allan admits there is a blow when GRID scale WIND turbines are erected with-in 2 miles of homes.
The GRID scale WIND turbines are BIG, Noisy and Messy.
WIND = 75% does not blow, 10-30% loss in transmission and a 5% draw on the GRID.
WIND is a failure.
You are wrong – commercial wind turbines produce power 80% of the time – that is real world experience.
Wind turbines are NOT inefficient.
The maximum Betz efficiency of wind turbines is 59% and commercial wind turbines achieve 72% of their Betz efficiency – for a conversion (wind to electricity) efficiency of 42%. Which is better than the thermal conversion efficiencies of nuclear and coal-fied power plants – and equal to the best thermal efficiencies of state-of -the-art combined cycle gas-fired power plants.
Go to Freedom or Roxbury Pond and try to hear the turbines 2 miles away – you can’t.
30% transmission losses and 5% draw on the grid?
Hysterical Fairy Tales with no basis in fact.
Yessah
What an entire crock of bull! The only way you can make a stretch that “commercial wind turbines produce power 80% of the time – that is real world experience” is to say somewhere in the world, the wind is blowing on a turbine and creating electricity. All you need to do is go to the FERC website and the USEIA website for real hard facts. At the FERC site, you will find Maine wind power sites coing in consistently at below 25% capacity factor every quarter. Nation-wide, the ave. capacity factor is 27% according to USEIA.
All people need to do is observe wind turbines in operation – they will see with their own eyes that the anti-wind folks are full of it.
You confuse capacity factors with turbine output and availability.
A 3 MW turbine operating 24/7/365 at 1 MW would have a capacity factor of 30% – even though it was producing power all the time.
Some of us know better.
Please try to keep up.
yessah.
Please provide us with the month by month output of the Stetson turbines to convince us?
Nosah.
I have never seen anyone spread as many lies or misrepresentations to promote wind as you. Do you work for the wind industry or profit somehow from it? Wind power development is ruinous to Maine!
Agreed. Either he makes money from wind (maybe a fat cat Portland lawyer, a farmer selling his neighbors down the river, a hired gun ornitholgist who OK’s bird kills by claiming none happen, etc.) or he is just likes to indulge in pathetic trollish pleasures.
RE: Embrace Wind Power
It will take many more Oakfield size projects to deliver the amount of power of a single nuclear or coal plant AND the wind power couldn’t replace any of those plants supplying base load power, the core of our electric energy production. So, we’ll not be saying goodbye to any of those conventional plants anytime soon because of wind power.
Perhaps some wind power WILL be a part of our energy future. That doesn’t mean we should treat it as though it is THE energy future of Maine when there’s not a shred of evidence to suggest that it will, or even could be. Politics gave wind power its current “most favored” status in Maine – it wasn’t earned because of its performance potential. So, let’s not give away the state’s greatest assets in a manner that is so disproportionate to what wind power is going to return.
Mr. White from Carmel, you “embrace” wind power development in Maine? I suggest you go to Mars Hill, Vinalhaven, Freedom, and Lincoln and give a big hug to those turbines that have driven the impacted residents to increased health problems and solutions like sleeping in basements, moving away id they can, and lawsuits.
To “embrace” wind power development is to advocate for our uplands to be blasted and leveled and permanently clearcut so that the wind developer can reap taxpayer subsidies that are 50 times greater per Megawatt hour of production than any other form of electricity generation. To “embrace” wind power development means to take the most beautiful state in the eastern USA and turn it into a sprawling industrial site featuring machines as tall as Boston skyscrapers. Is this the vaunted “Quality of Place” that the Brookings Institute says is Maine’s greatest asset?
To “embrace” wind power development is to guarantee that we add billions of dollars of additional grid infrastructure and to send our electricity bills sky high as we are forced by RPS mandates to increase the use of expensive, unpredictable, unreliable wind power.
Wind power development is a lousy deal for Maine for way more reasons than these cited above. For more information, go to http://www.windtaskforce.org, brought to you by the citizens of Maine, not the propaganda machine of the wind industry.
Have the citizens of Mars Hill, Vinalhaven and Freedom voted to remove those evil wind farms.
Nossuh
They provide those communities with revenue and, on Vinalhaven, the evil wind farm has significantly reduced electricity costs.
Wind power displaces more expensive electricity produced by conventional power plants and reduces greenhouse gas emissions – and wholesale and spot prices of electricity.
yessah
You continue to spin lies! Wind power does not displace more expensive electricity produced by conventional power plants and reduces greenhouse gas emissions – and wholesale and spot prices of electricity. Completely untrue.
In Germany, Spain, Iowa, South Dakota and Colorado – wind power certainly does displace more expensive power from conventional sources – and reduce wholesale and spot prices in those markets.
A recent report commissioned by ISO- New England also concluded that wind power would displace more expensive electricity from fossil fuel-fired power plants.
So sorry to burst yer bubble.
not
yessah
Denmark energy costs have risen 300% with 6000 wind turbines.
Here ya go
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/16/markets-iberia-power-idUSL6E8FG8NH20120416
The glowing report cited did not say for how long the energy was produced. At 3.48 AM a big percentage of the country’s energy was produced, while most were sleeping and the factories were down for the night. A big % when demand was at the lowest. Maybe Spain hired some unemployed Enron traders to make the books look good?
I have never seen anyone spread as many lies or misrepresentations to promote wind as you. Do you work for the wind industry or profit somehow from it? Wind power development is ruinous to Maine!
Hard to believe that some people still think that wind power is simply some pretty little windmills slowly and silently blowing in the breeze. I used to be one of those people. But I became educated to the truth. These are monster size 500 foot tall wind turbines (the size of the Washington Monument) and there will be fifty of them built in the Oakfield and Island Falls area by First Wind out of Boston. These monster wind trubines will overlook 2 of Mains’s most pristine wilderness lakes forever destroying their Natural Beauty. They will also destroy wetlands, wildlife habitat and thousands of acres of forests. And the little energy they produce will be sent south of Maine to heat the homes of people in Massachusetts.
They are also built with billions of dollars of tax-payer money. Do you like our huge federal deficits? The wind industry needs these billions of our tax money because wind power is not energy efficient – especially on forested ridges in the interior of Maine. Wind power will also drive up your electric rates because of Maine’s unreasinable renewable power legal requirements.
I have not yet even mentioned the serious corruption that the wind industry has caused in the State of Maine – where politicians have passed laws to require wind energy and then immediately leave office to go work for the wind industry and make millions of dollars in salaries and stock options – think Angus King, Kurt Adams, Angus King, Jr. etc, etc.
Please educate yourself with the facts before its too late!
Nuclear power plants in Georgia are being built with $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees. Wind power opponents have no problem with that.
The spent fuel form Maine Yankee costs $10 million a year to maintain – thanks to Ronald Reagan, we the taxpayers own that spent fuel and will ultimately bear most of the cost of its disposal. Wind power opponents have no problem with that.
The GOP fought to protect the $4 billion per year they get in subsidies from the taxpayer. Wind power opponents have no problem with that.
Maine’s inland waterways are contaminated with mercury and acid rain from coal -fired power plants – that threaten loons and other aquatic critters. Wind power opponents have no problem with that.
Wind power opponents have no problem with mountain top removal coal mining – its not in THEIR back yard.
Real world experience in the US and EU clearly indicate that wind power REDUCES electricity costs (spot and wholesale prices).
Hydro Quebec is operating, building or planning 3100 MW of wind power capacity – to sell to the US market.
Vermont is paying $69 per MWh for electricity from Hydro Quebec – compared to $55 per MWh for electricity from the Rollins wind project. LePage and his sycophants seem have a problem with that and want Maine rate payers to buy high priced wind and hydro power from Socialist Quebec – when we can produce cheaper wind power here in Maine.
There’a a real scam for ya.
yessah
I have never seen anyone spread as many lies or misrepresentations to promote wind as you. Do you work for the wind industry or profit somehow from it? Wind power development is ruinous to Maine!
To Mr. Allen White: you say that you wouldn’t mind if there pretty little wind mills were in your back yard. OK – now imagine that these pretty little wind mills start growing taller and taller – to the height of 500 feet and now have a 300 foot blade that reverberates everything in your house and prevents you from sleeping. Also consider that there will a huge bright red strobe light on top of each one of these 500 foot tall wind turbines that will shine throughout your house and will be seen for nearly 50 miles in every direction. And then every morning you can go outside your house and pick up the dead birds that have been killed by the massive wind blades. Do you still say that you wouldn’t mind having these pretty little wind mills in your backyard?
I’ve been to wind farms in Maine, Pennsylvania, Denmark and New Zealand and never saw a dead bird killed by any of them.
Radar studies have clearly indicated that the vast majority of birds flying near wind farms avoid them.
A recent UK study concluded that bird mortality by wind turbines was negligible.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/12/windfarms-damage-bird-populations
Loss and fragmentation of breeding and winter habitats, pesticides, predation and brown cowbird parasitism are responsible for the decline of songbirds in the US since WW2.
Not wind turbines.
yessah
I have never seen anyone spread as many lies or misrepresentations to promote wind as you. Do you work for the wind industry or profit somehow from it? Wind power development is ruinous to Maine!
Nope – the opponents spread the lies and disinformation.
and when someone calls them on it – the claim you’re a “shill”.
I ain’t
yessah
UMPI will be thrilled to learn that their turbine produces 80% instead of the 11% they have mistakenly posted.
I urge everyone to please go see the movie “Windfall” or you can Google it on your computer. It uncovers the deceptive practices that the wind industry pulls on small towns. They are like drug dealers selling drugs to poor young children with promises of money and prosperity and then they get you hooked to the thought of bright red fire trucks and new garbage trucks and then you realize you have sold your soul when they start constructing their massive 500 foot tall wind turbines and destroy the peace and tranquility of what once was your peaceful little community. And now your property values have dropped by 50% because who in their right mind would want to live next to a 500 foot tall wind turbine with a bright red strobe light on top that will shine for 50 miles in every direction and send out sound waves that will prevent you from sleeping at night?
“The concept proposed by Vigue calls for a 220-mile toll highway that
starts in Calais, follows the Stud Mill Road to Costigan, just north of
Old Town, crosses the Penobscot River, then heads northwest to LaGrange,
Milo, south of Dover-Foxcroft, Monson and The Forks before connecting
to Route 27 and crossing the Canadian border into Quebec. ” (http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2012/04/09/news/bangor/private-east-west-highway-under-study-differs-from-federally-designated-corridor/)
I agree, Mr Towl, with your concerns about what the proposed road will do to the environment and to peoples homes and businesses if they happen to be in the way of the road, whatever that turns out to be.
It also appears there will be some “taking” of public roads for this “private” project. For instance, the Stud Mill Road doesn’t start in Calais; it starts around Princeton, about 20 miles north of Calais, and runs west. In order for this private road to connect from Calais to the Stud Mill Road, are they going to take part of Route 1?
Hopefully, the state-financed “feasibility” study of the project, will clarify the proposed route so that we can begin to have an informed debate and decide if we support or oppose the proposed road.
When Mr. Miller recoils in horror at the prospect of restoring thousands of Maine dams, he fails to tell us why.
Is it because he doesn’t want poor people to fish for food in mill ponds? or to use the dam impounds as fisheries for edible species or species on which larger fish feed?
Or is it because of how small hydro plants improve water quality through oxygenation, filtration of invasive species and plastics, or by mitigating the effect of silting due to flooding?
Or perhaps it’s because these dams store water so vital for restoring the forests which once lined stream banks; forests so vital to removing CO2 and other air pollutants.
I guess he doesn’t even know that a wind farm can make global warming worse by removing vegetation which converts CO2 into life sustaining oxygen and stores carbon. An Australian study showed that a hectare acre (2.47 acre) of trees(approx. 833 trees) would sequester 190 tons of CO2 by year 100. A typical wind turbine site might remove that many trees when you consider the clear cuts for access roads and transmission lines. A dam will nourish a major reforestation effort; while a wind farm not only doesn’t clean the air but makes air quality worse by removing trees.