CARROLL PLANTATION, Maine – Gary Campbell feels good about his chances.
The president of the Partnership for the Preservation of the Downeast Lakes Watershed, Campbell said he hopes that First Wind’s second application to build an industrial wind site atop Bowers Mountain will get rejected like the first.
“I am a bit disappointed that First Wind has come back with a new proposal,” Campbell said Friday, “but I am confident that we will prevail because the new proposal, although it contains fewer turbines, [features turbines that] are 30 feet taller than in the old proposal, and they have moved them to slightly higher ground.”
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection typically holds public meetings to weigh projects, but Commissioner Patricia Aho opted to hold a formal public hearing in fairness to all parties and to help the agency with its process, agency spokeswoman Samantha Depoy-Warren said Thursday.
The Bowers proposal is the first to be subject to a DEP public hearing, she said. No date has been set.
A First Wind subsidiary, Champlain Wind LLC, submitted a second application to build atop Bowers Mountain to the DEP in October. The second proposal features 16 turbines instead of 27, company officials have said. The first proposal was denied by the then Land Use Regulation Commission in April in the first significant victory against a wind developer by a Maine anti-wind group since they started fighting projects proposed by First Wind about five years ago.
Campbell and John Miller, who is the organizer and spokesman for the two-week-old Carroll Citizens for Bowers Mountain group, said they were pleased that the DEP opted to hold a public hearing.
“It is a good thing because finally we are being heard,” said Miller, whose group has 22 members. “I have sent emails and letters to everybody from Gov. LePage to Patricia Aho and it is about time that people with no voice get heard.”
Several members of Partnership for the Preservation of the Downeast Lakes Watershed, several area wildlife guides, and owners of several tourism-related businesses spoke against First Wind’s first application with LURC.
First Wind spokesman John Lamontagne, meanwhile, said his company is hopeful that the DEP will approve the new proposal.
“This project is significantly changed from the initial project that we proposed in that it has about 40 percent fewer turbines but will generate a similar amount of energy,” Lamontagne said Friday.
If the radar technology involved gets Federal Aviation Administration approval, the turbines would be equipped with warning lights that would turn on only with aircraft approaching, Lamontagne said.
The radar equipment is common in Canada and Europe, he said. The project also has support from 133 petition signers, including Carroll Plantation Town Clerk Anita Duerr, who urged DEP in a separate letter to support the second project.
More than 1,000 people have signed a petition opposing the project, Campbell said. Residents of Grand Lake Stream also voted to oppose the project, he said.
“We asked repeatedly for a public hearing, we made a case for a hearing, and a lot of our membership wrote letters asking for a hearing,” Campbell said. “One of the main advantages is that everyone is testifying under oath. We get to cross-examine them and they get to cross-examine us. It is a good exchange of information and DEP will be there.”
The project, if approved, would be built within three miles of Pleasant, Shaw, Duck and Junior lakes and eight miles from Scraggly, Keg, Bottle, Sysladobsis and Pug lakes.
In their 27-page decision rejecting the first proposal, LURC commissioners said they relied heavily on testimony from the area’s guides that the turbines “would reduce the likelihood their clients would want to return to the area and thus [the turbines would] adversely impact their businesses.”
The area’s small businesses include sporting camps, lodges and housekeeping cabins, hunting and fishing guides, and retail and service businesses that cater to tourists.
Don’t blame me, I never voted for Angus King, never!
Hats off to the Grand Lake Stream Guides. Who in his/her right mind would want to go to the Grand Lake Stream area for peace and quiet and to enjoy the beautiful wilderness setting and want to see or hear those ugly wind towers.
Wind towers aren’t that ugly
16 machines that are 459 feet tall, more than twice as tall as the tallest building in the state of Maine do not belong on on ridges in scenic areas. It is called industrial blight and is totally incompatible with the “Quality of Place” exemplified by the Downeast Grand Lakes.
What all other ugly structures should those be banned also
Why are paintings of mountain landscapes devoid of wind turbine blight? Could it be that landscape painters, perhaps the ultimate authorities on scenic values, find them ugly and out of place?
Please, by all means, put one in your backyard and rotate with it.
Great, so we can hear the ATV’s and powerboat motors instead,
You mean First Wind will be under oath? That would be worth the price of admission! I hope someone asks them if their windmills will reduce the cancer rate in Carroll like they told us at our meeting with them in Feb 2010.
First Wind has a legacy of twisting facts, deceit, and zealously hyping their projects. The one time they couldn’t get away with it was when LURC held a hearing and they were CROSS-EXAMINED UNDER OATH. Thank you, DEP, for following this process again and let the truth of this bad application come out.
Thank you to everyone who wrote and requested a public hearing. Here’s to logic and common sense prevailing with another and final denial to the Bowers Mountain Wind project.
It does seem rather strange that FW never ever wants things on paper …….There mouth piece will be cruising the streets again here in Carroll……and were did they get 133 sigs at anyhow I dont think Xs Count
i would like to thank the BDN for giving us our time to speak on our side of this issue …And to D.E.P.For holding the hearing …Seems as if there are good people out there .Also like to thank Gary ,John and the guys for fighting for what they believe in and standing there ground against all odds
If FW gets shot down, I can’t help but wonder how long it will be before they come back with some other Brilliant proposal.
As long as the Production Tax Credit (or some other way to scam taxpayers) exists and as long as pandering politicians MANDATE that we have high cost intermittent wind power shoved down our throats, First Wind will seek access to every ridge that Haynes & Gardner own up in this neck of the woods. It is not about generating clean electricity, it is about collecting subsidies while we increase the $16 trillion National Debt.
“The radar equipment is common in Canada”, According to the developer in the US of such technology, there is only one site in Canada< the Talbot Wind Farm, testing the use of radar enacted lighting.
First Wind is one of the most arrogant companies involved in the wind power scam. As long as they can be in cahoots with Haynes & Gardner for access to the northeastern Maine ridges, they will keep at it—that is, until the Production Tax Credit ends. Wind power cannot compete and we don’t need it. It is only the subsidies and the mandates that keep First Wind going for these destructive projects. Let’s show them that NO means NO, whether they are going in front of LURC or DEP.
I disagree with the ” Haynes and Gardner” part of your statement. I agree with the rest of it though.
If there is an opportunity to make a profit available then more power to them.
It is not an issue concerning wood harvesting , It is an issue of building turbines.
I would direct my grievances at The wind industry not the logging industry.
Actually, I have no problems with Haynes & Gardner in their role in the timber resources industry. I believe very much in sustainable harvesting of our forests. It is a great resource and timber harvesting provides thousands of jobs.
My point about their connection with the wind industry is that both companies own the vast majority of the ridges that First Wind covets. If they were not willing to lease their lands for these projects, then the projects wouldn’t be built. Same way with Wagner in western Maine.
One last comment. I understand that a lot of loggers are pretty darned upset that the wind industry gets away with blasting away ridges and all that goes into the site preparation with a lot less scrutiny than the timber industry. These guys have a strong sense of right and wrong.
I guess that we all do. I just hope that we can win this one again. We have put a lot into it.
It is time to put an end to the wind power scam. We do not need these projects. ISO-New England just announced that growth in demand for electricity will be FLAT for the next 10 years. Carbon has been reduced in recent years not because of wind power but because plentiful, inexpensive natural gas has reduced coal fired plants. Stetson I & Rollins are two First Wind projects just 15 miles from Bowers Mt. Production figures from the FERC website show that for the last 12 months, Stetson I & Rollins had 25% and 24% capacity factors. This is miserable output and why would anyone think Bowers Mt. will produce any better?
This is an unacceptable trade off to destroy world class Downeast Grand Lakes region for useless wind power projects.
Let’s hope this remarkable area can be protected once again from this pointless, development.
Its really time to consider all the pro’s and con’s. Everything from true cost factors of wind energy to actual reductions in atmospheric CO2. I don’t think that any more industrial wind energy projects should be built unless total lifecycle CO2 studies show an actual benefit to the planet. That CO2 analysis should factor in all environmental effects. I believe that honest work would show no benefit whatsoever
Wow, someone with an empirical bent here!
Do not worry, economics and science have never been factored into the process of being “green” has it?
Why start now?
Talk to your US Senator Angus the self-server King, and ask him to sponsor your study will you please?
–He will forward the request to his son, Junior, of First Wind.
I really dont understand. Its not a nuclear cooling tower. Its a windmill. They look awesome and the only time you notice then from a distance is when the light blinks. Why are the working great in europe but here they cause health problems?
Exactly, Sean. It’s NOT a nuke. People only think the windmills are pretty until they learn how unnecessary, useless, and unsustainable they are. A nuke might be ugly too, but its benefits exceed its impacts. These wind projects cannot and will not replace or even displace conventional electricity generation. The Wind Lobby has a hopeful public BELIEVING that they can. It’s a bum steer. Learn these facts and the windmills start looking a lot less pretty: http://www.friendsofmainesmountains.org/learn/20-facts-about-wind
Tell russia and japan that
Japan is realisitc, Their nukes are bieng rebuilt , and more are on the way.
Small regionlized nukes are also on the way in the US, with shale gas/fracking ever increasing, to power us into the next century.
You miss the point Sean. You can’t cut down a pine tree with a hedge trimmer.
Yes but we clear cut forests and they grow back.and i am amazed that you would say a nuclear power plant has less environmental impact than a wind mill!! You push your own agenda so hard you will say anything.
Dont understand the argument about destroying the landscape. Worse case cant we take them down and the trees grow back? Its not strip mining.
I go to the woods to escape the modern world. Turbines are bringing the modern world to the woods.
its a windmill, not a Dennys. it just sits there. it doesn’t bring modern anything. But like you guys say, a nuclear reactor is better. must be because of all that radioactive wind the windmill produces????
Spending time in several different countries can change the way a person thinks — the way a person sees things. People who have lived as a civilian in countries where sustainable energy is not ridiculed have an altogether different outlook on the way life should be.
Most of the comments on this page remind me of the answer my old neighbor Percy Jones gave when asked if he’d ever been outside of Maine. He said, “Yep, been to Portland.”
The humble Farmer
Percy’s joke is an old one.
Europeans are up in arms about wind turbines.
The hearing process for wind projects was deliberately removed in
2008: LD-2283 denied us our rights from the start. It has taken 4
long years to get a few of them back!
Wind stooges like ex governor Baldacci, and now S E N A T O R
Wind Shill King have lied and deceived concerning wind projects for
years.
The wind scam should have been stopped years ago, but the laws
were changed to protect the scoundrels ,denying do process to
citizens from the start.
If you like the “socialized democracies” of Europe, move there.
In spite of the last election here, the US is still a constitutional republic. (Hopefully).
Humble, you’re all wet on this subject. The things are useless and unnecessary.
go Gary and yes thank you DEP…we have the same issues in Oakfield Wind …very valid arguments for preserving our area for the lakeside businesses and private camps and the many who travel distances to enjoy our pristine historic lakes. I hope the DEP does the right thing here. (and wish they had for us).
The same liars at First Wind, with taller turbines, larger impacts and bigger lies concerning lighting to placate the public.
This project should never have gotten this far, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED!
The collusion of First Wind with DEP is evident.
The hearing is being “delayed” because First Wind needs the Production Tax Credits to do the project. Congress hopefully will deny them , and then watch the scoundrels delay ,or drop the project.
NUKE power…. Oh, I can feel the radiation already!
Apples and oranges again. Nukes are for base load power. Wind turbines don’t do base load. They don’t do peak load. They don’t do marginal (regulating) power. They are like a garnish radish on the dinner plate: they make you feel better about your expensive purchase, but you wouldn’t eat it and even if you did, it has no nutritional value.
.
Concerning DEP having “good people”, that is naive.
They have bought shills for a disgusting law PL-661 (Expedited
Wind) that should be thrown out and the DEP should be in the lead
with real science, and economic impacts of these feckless, damaging
Enronesque wind projects in Maine.
They (DEP) are merely bureaucratic stooges of an outrageous public
policy disaster in Maine.
Thank you, DEP, for allowing the citizens of Maine to have a real voice in the industrial wind siting process on Bowers Mountain. Patriot Renewable’s Saddleback Ridge industrial wind project, which would directly impact Mount Blue State Park if built, warranted only a public meeting in the DEP’s eyes, in spite of the resident’s plea for a public hearing. Well over one hundred people showed up and spoke against that project, but all for nothing. A public hearing holds a lot more weight. This is a big step forward toward true democracy. A public hearing will eliminate all the falsehoods (like the radar technology which hasn’t been approved or implemented yet) often spouted by the wind industry. They will be under oath.
Why the heck are you “thanking” the DEP for a damn thing. This is our state, DEP works for us!
The DEP has become a shill for the wind lobby.
Under oath ..Hmmmmmm now they have to prove unprovable lies
Ask anyone in Carroll if First Wind has Offered any jobs to anyone of them .That is a NO Ask Any Carroll Resident if the So called benefit package is going to help them feed their family or pay there bills or anything else.NO No No The only ones who are going to benefit from that package is the Town Officials .Corporate Welfare From Wind Companies is not the answer..Jobs are First Wind Does not create Jobs in Maine they Keep their own ….First Wind is the Biggest Wind Bag in Maine They promise unknowing or uneducated Communities a diamond full of lies and the town folks end up with the piece of coal and told to wait ..WAKE UP MAINE
Last time I had Checked Massachusetts has Mountains .Why is it they park them here in Maine ????? .Maine is already screwing up the environment .We don’t need outside help .
First Wind ……..Second Fracking …….Third Oil Rigs