Friends of Maine's Mountains News

With today’s 5-0 vote, the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) handed First Wind Holdings LLC of Boston its first ever denial of a wind energy development permit.  The project would have placed 27 forty-three story tall turbines on prominent ridgelines in Carroll and Kossuth in the Scenic Downeast Lakes Region.

“LURC’s decision to deny the Bowers project is true to its founding principles and Comprehensive Land Use Plan” said Kevin Gurall, President of the grass-roots opposition group Partnership for the Preservation of the Downeast Lakes Watershed (PPDLW).

The area most impacted by the proposed project, the Scenic Downeast Lakes Region, includes a network of some two dozen lakes including Pleasant, Scraggly, Junior and West Grand Lakes. For more than a century, sportsmen and families from all over the country and abroad have come to the region to enjoy a wilderness experience devoid of industrial development. It is home to more than a dozen classic Maine sporting camps and boasts the largest concentration of Professional Maine Guides in the State.

In June 2011 LURC held a two-day public hearing on First Wind’s permit application. In a remarkable turnout for a small community, 374 citizens testified, over 90% of them speaking against the project.  Opposition also came from The Maine Professional Guides’ Association, The Grand Lake Stream Guides’ Association and The Maine Sporting Camp Owners’ Association. Gurall explains, “The Scenic Downeast Lakes Region is almost entirely dependent on sporting- and nature-based tourism for its survival.  Anything that takes away from the wilderness experience will affect tourism which will in turn cost many residents their jobs and their businesses. Clearly this is not the place to build an industrial wind project.”

The siting of the project was controversial from the beginning. Within eight miles of the project site there are nine lakes that the State of Maine has designated Scenic Resources of State Significance. Two of those earned Maine’s highest rating “Outstanding for Scenic Quality”.  Four of them are within three miles of the project site. In its landmark decision LURC acknowledged that the decision turned on the project’s failure to meet the Wind Law’s scenic impact criterion.

First Wind’s Director of Communications, John Lamontagne, has said that First Wind will modify the application and resubmit it later this year.  PPDLW spokesman, Gary Campbell responds “We are prepared and committed to defending the region again should they submit a revised plan. The folks who live and make their living in this watershed are convinced that it would be impossible to build an industrial wind facility here that would not seriously hurt the local economy. Even the LURC Commissioners went on the record to express doubt that First Wind can modify the plan enough to bring the project into compliance with the statutory scenic impact limits.”

Gurall continued, “We’d like to thank the LURC Commissioners as well as the members of PPDLW and the hundreds of Maine citizens who stood in agreement with us.  Every day, more Mainers are waking up to the false promises of the wind industry, the extremely flawed Maine Expedited Wind Law, and the financial liability of these heavily subsidized projects.  Just because this state’s previous administration gave away the henhouse, doesn’t mean that we should not or cannot go back and review, analyze,  and make adjustments to the wind law.  Nature-based tourism is so vital to the state’s economy that we cannot afford to risk it in order to feed an insignificant amount of high priced wind energy into the ISO New England grid.”

More information at   http://www.ppdlw.org

CONTACT:    Kevin Gurall   kevin@ppdlw.org

CONTACT:    Gary Campbell   gary@ppdlw.org

Today, at a special meeting at the Four Points Hotel in Bangor, the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) voted to deny a permit to First Wind of Boston (Champlain Wind LLC) for their proposed Bowers Mountain wind project.

FMM commends PPDLW, a grass-roots citizens’ group organized to preserve a region rich in scenic natural resources. The Downeast Lakes region has a centuries-long history of traditional commerce founded on nature-based tourism. Due to PPDLW’s leadership and the participation of hundreds of citizens across Maine, the area’s natural resources, history and primary economic engine have been successfully protected.

LURC Commissioners considered the benefits and drawbacks of the Bowers wind project over the course of many months. This was not a decision arrived at lightly. FMM appreciates LURC’s diligence and patience and the commitment Commissioners have shown as they juggled the misguided directives of the Wind Energy Act with Maine’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

Long before the decision document was signed by LURC, John Lamontagne, Director of Communications for First Wind, stated that the company will modify the Bowers application and resubmit it later this year. But Maine citizens–especially locals and tourists to the Downeast area, as well as professionals whose jobs depend on the region’s rich scenic resources–know that such impacts cannot be mitigated with a “modified” project.

If it becomes necessary, FMM will most assuredly stand behind PPDLW, which has vowed to continue to protect the extraordinary Downeast Lakes Watershed from the adverse affects of industrial wind.

Contacts: Chris O’Neil, 590-3842 or Karen Pease, 628-2070 or 340-0066

This week, the Noise Rulemaking Changes (LD 1793) sailed through the House and Senate without opposition. The rule-making proceeding was initiated in the summer of 2010 when Maine's Citizen's Task Force on Wind Power brought a citizens’ petition to the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) requesting a closer review of the current noise rules and proposing a 35 decibel night time noise level. Rufus Brown, attorney for FMM, assembled a team of experts and presented a solid case for enhanced protection from wind turbine noise emissions.

Despite steadfast opposition by the wind lobby, Attorney Brown prevailed upon the BEP–encouraging them to heed the testimony of experts, of citizens and of those who are currently suffering from the effects of wind turbine noises. In September 2011, the BEP provisionally adopted a new rule but with more permissive noise standards than had been sought by the petitioners.  Maine’s Attorney General determined that the rule would need legislative review, so Maine citizens had to wait until February 2012 for the case to be heard in front of the Legislature's Environment & Natural Resources Committee. The Attorney General and the Secretary of State will need to perform their routine enabling duties before this new rule becomes fully effective.

While this rule change is less restrictive than what citizens had originally requested and what leading experts believe is necessary to protect health and quality of life, this law is a definite and positive step in the right direction. Due to this new noise standard, any future wind projects proposed to be built in Maine will most likely not be sited as close to homes as has previously been allowed. The new rule will not apply to existing wind projects or those already permitted under the old noise standards.

FMM applauds the 125^th Legislature for its acknowledgement of the potential harmful effects of wind turbines and thanks all who contributed to the effort of bringing about these more protective rules.

As we observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we’re reminded of freedom, fairness and equality. We’re reminded of valor. Dr. King, who was shot down in the prime of his life, had the valor to stand up for what he knew was right.

We’ve all heard Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” American Civil Rights speech. Seventeen minutes of power and passion. His words are still relevant almost 50 years after he addressed 200,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

Dr. King also gave us these inspiring words:

“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”

The hundreds of citizens across Maine who are bringing the facts about industrial wind power to their fellow citizens have been dismissed by a nervous Wind Lobby as “a vocal minority.” As Mainers take an interest in this important topic, multitudes are coming to the conclusion that wind is not the panacea we believed it to be when developers first came to town. Before long, it will be the majority who are supporting a science and economics based energy policy, which also protects Maine’s environment.

As we work toward that goal, FMM thanks those in our “creative dedicated minority” who work to make Maine—and the world—better.

Award-winning documentary “WINDFALL” in Maine during February

The excitement is building as people all across Maine are learning that Laura Israel’s award-winning documentary, Windfall, is coming to a neighborhood near them!

This description of the film is from Windfall’s website:

Wind power: it’s clean; it’s green; it’s good.

Or is it?

Wind power…it’s sustainable…it burns no fossil fuels…it produces no air pollution. What’s more, it cuts down dependency on foreign oil.

That’s what the residents of Meredith, New York first thought when a wind developer looked to supplement the rural farm town’s failing economy with a farm of their own – that of 40 industrial wind turbines.

WINDFALL, Laura Israel’s richly photographed feature-length film, documents how this proposal brutally divides the people of Meredith as they fight over the future of their community. Attracted at first to the financial incentives that would seemingly boost their dying economy, many residents grow alarmed once they discover that the 400-foot high windmills slated for Meredith may bring side effects they never dreamed of. Opposition intensifies when they discover that the fiscal model for wind energy development produces huge profits, not for host towns like Meredith, but for a mysterious group of outside investors, aided and abetted by huge tax breaks and Wall Street sleight-of-hand.

Israel also turns her camera on Tug Hill, New York, another small upstate town, where wind power is a done deal. Tug Hill’s 195 wind turbines create low frequency “whomping” sounds and strobe-like effects, which have significantly downgraded the quality of life and in some cases, the health of wind turbine neighbors unable to sell their homes. Meanwhile, the Meredith Town Board pushes to put their wind turbine plan through.

With wind development in the United States growing annually at 39 percent, WINDFALL is an eye-opener that should be required viewing for anyone concerned about the environment and the future of renewable energy.

STAY TUNED as FMM’s WINDFALL COMMITTEE makes arrangements to show this documentary around the state. Mark these dates in your calendar:

The Strand Theater in Rockland - Saturday, March 3^rd at 2:00PM and Sunday, March 4^th at 3:00PM.

Please check FMM’s website often. We will update it with new venues, dates and times as details are available.

Tim Sample at the Harraseeket Inn – Saturday, March 17^th at 7:00 pm

On St. Patrick’s Day, Friends of Maine’s Mountains and the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport are welcoming Maine Humorist Tim Sample to the Casco Bay Room. Please join us for an evening of entertainment, laughter and camaraderie. Chase the winter blues away, Yankee-Style.

Proceeds benefit FMM.

A Downeast humorist.

A lovely setting.

A roomful of friends.

And green beer.

We dare you to beat that combination!

Space is limited, so please reserve your seats soon! For tickets information, please visit our website at http://www.friendsofmainesmountains.org/ See you on March 17^th. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.

Wind developers have recently resorted to spreading their money around within the communities where they hope to build grid-scale industrial wind facilities. From snowmobile clubs to fire departments to historical societies, and from fuel assistance funds to youth programs to libraries; if there is a need in a community where a wind developer wishes to build, the developer has become proficient at finding and meeting that need.

FMM President Chris O’Neil called this tactic “an attempt to buy local goodwill, political favor, and ultimately, votes.”

It came as no surprise to the state’s leading conservation/energy organization that Patriot Renewables has made several donations in the Dixfield - Carthage area, because Patriot would like to build industrial wind projects in both towns.

“These characters come to town knowing how contentious their massive projects will be, so they do a little advance work. Look at the recent wars in Rumford and Peru,” said O’Neil. “Now that we’ve succeeded in dispelling their old myths about wind power being green and useful, they’ve resorted to seducing voters with money. And sadly, Maine law allows this bribery because there’s a statutory presumption that wind power is necessary and useful at all costs.”

The River Valley Area has been particularly hard-hit in the last three years as developers including First Wind, Patriot Renewables, and Angus King’s Independence Wind have targeted the mountains surrounding this River Valley Area. O’Neil said the wind developers’ motives are not so pure. “They try to seem benevolent in these towns, but their donations are only a small investment toward major payoffs that are made possible by the generous State and Federal programs which bestow millions of dollars on wind developers.”

O’Neil cited the recently constructed wind projects at Record Hill in Roxbury and Spruce Mountain in Woodstock to point out that wind developers will stop at nothing in their zealous pursuit of ratepayer and taxpayer handouts. “For developers to throw $20 thousand to this youth group and $10 thousand to that rescue service is a pittance when we realize that he stands to get hundreds of millions in government largesse, even if his wind project fails.”

Mainers should have raised a brow when Patriot Renewables gifted Eleven Circles, a youth action group, with $10,000.00. Eleven Circles is most likely a worthy organization; but its co-owner is the daughter-in-law of the Dixfield Town Manager.

Similar donations have happened all across Maine since our Legislature rezoned 2/3 of this state in order to expedite wind development and smooth the way for a high impact electric generation source that has never proven its worth.

“Maine citizens should not be taken in and should not kid themselves,” O’Neil said. “These wind speculators have stormed in and divided communities. Town officials have had their integrity called into question. Citizens have felt uninformed and disenfranchised. Landowners have found it hard to resist the promised payouts. Let’s call a bribe a bribe.”

“Sooner or later,” O’Neil said, “these towns will say yes or no to wind power. Patriot watched the citizens in Rumford and 20 other Maine towns study the issue, learn the facts, and protect their communities. They can’t afford to have towns protecting themselves.”

Questioned FMM’s President: “If towns like Dixfield and Carthage pass comprehensive ordinances protecting the health, well-being and property values of their citizens, do you think any of those charities would be the recipients of these payouts?”

Here's a great idea for New Years Day.  The Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands will offer free admission at open State Parks so you can get outside and enjoy YOUR public lands.

Four easy and fun First Day Hikes, led by park staff at four different Maine State Parks, will take place on Sunday, Jan. 1.  All the hikes are free.  In fact, no admission will be charged at any open Maine state park on New Year’s Day.  At the Wolfe’s Neck hike, L.L. Bean will be providing free snowshoes for hikers to use.  For more information, please click here.

We at FMM spend a lot of time reminding the public that Maine's wild regions and mountains are irreplaceable treasures unlike any found east of the Mississippi.  Maine's brand - our calling card - depends on that increasingly rare quality of place that is so-enhanced by our great outdoors. Sometimes we natives forget how special Maine's natural resources are.  That is why FMM works so hard to educate the public about the high impacts and low benefits of development that is neither useful nor necessary -- development like mountaintop wind power.  Lots of well-meaning Maine people still look up at a wind "farm" and assume that the sprawling project is harmless, green, cheap, clean, etc. Even people who value the mountains sometimes assume that the losses are acceptable because there must be lots of gains from wind development. We are doing our best to educate the public about the truth, and that education will help protect Maine's environment and economy.

But there are people among us who are difficult to reach.  They are not just Mainers who mistakenly believe that wind power can deliver material benefit; no, they are also people who simply do not place a high value on mountains, natural resources, and Quality of place. Nobody can truly weigh the cost of spoiling Maine's natural resources unless one values those resources.  So the more of us who can get out and experience Maine's Quality of Place, the easier FMM's mission becomes.  First Day Hikes is one small way we can enhance our efforts at education and appreciation.

Another concern of ours is a generational phenomenon that has kids increasingly staying indoors. They can easily find hours of "activity" and "recreation" in the living room, thanks in part to marvelous technological advances.  We worry that a generation growing up unexposed to Maine's bountiful natural treasure could be the generation that allows it to be spoiled, or squandered. You've heard of youth programs like "Hooked on Fishing," where adults get kids out to experience angling, and hopefully spawn a lifelong love of that experience.  It works.  Even if all the kids do not grow up avid anglers, they own an irrevocable affinity for things outdoors, natural.

Maine's First Day Hikes can instill a similar appreciation in kids (and in kids at-heart).  We encourage you on New Years Day to take advantage of this marvelous opportunity. And to seek similar opportunities all year round.  If we do not instill in our kids a sense of pride and appreciation for the great state of Maine, then one day Maine might not be so great any more.

I have a friend who grew up in another state.  He had the good sense to attend a Maine college, and for the last three decades he has called Maine home. He and I find time in our hectic lives to get outdoors and discover Maine mountains every chance we get.  He missed it as a kid, but he got "the bug" in college, when he took a phys-ed elective that required a climb of Tumbledown, which sits in a Maine Preserve overlooking a magnificent landscape:  Webb Lake and Mount Blue State Park to the east, and in the other direction, a span of mountain treasures from the Mahoosucs through Rangeley to the Bigelow Range.  He knew right then what he never knew in that other state.  He has since maintained a deepening appreciation for our mountains and other special places. We are lucky he got the bug at a time in his life when he could have found all sorts of other distractions.  How much easier it is if we get kids out there.

So start a new Tradition in 2012:  share Maine's natural resources with someone. Especially a kid.  And if New Years Day doesn't work for your schedule, make it a 2012 resolution!

Thank you for your continued support in the New Year as FMM works to educate the public about the true benefits vs. impacts of mountaintop industrial wind, and as we help shape a sound, scientific and economics-based energy policy.

For more information on "First Day Hikes" and other Maine outdoor opportunities, click here

Chris O'Neil, President

Friends of Maine’s Mountains

On Thursday, November 17, 2011, citizens of Highland Plantation, and Lexington and Concord Townships held a press conference in the Hall of Flags in the State Capitol in Augusta.

A majority of the residents in these three communities have signed petitions stating that they are opposed to grid-scale wind turbine facilities within their borders. In 2008, the Maine Wind Energy Act passed as an emergency measure and citizens in Unorganized Territories (UT’s) found that their communities had been rezoned to allow industrial development in the form of wind energy plants. For decades, the residents of lands within the jurisdiction of the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission had a voice in their communities’ futures. Extraordinary projects such as grid-scale wind development were not permitted in UT’s without a change in land use standards – a change that was first subject to public comment.

Two developers set their sights on the mountains of these small, rural communities. Highland Wind LLC, owned by former governor Angus King and former president of Maine Public Broadcasting, Rob Gardiner, has twice submitted applications to LURC to construct a wind energy facility on the ridges of Highland Plantation. The developers pulled their most recent application in May 0f 2011 after Agency Review comments filed by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIF&W) expressed grave concerns about the project’s impacts on local wildlife. “(T)he collective wildlife concerns detailed above demonstrate that this is not an appropriate locality for an intensive wind energy installation such as that currently proposed by Highland Wind Power.” The complete MDIF&W comments can be found on LURC’s website at:

http://www.maine.gov/doc/lurc/projects/Windpower/HighlandWind/Resubmittal/CompiledReviewComments_1.pdf

At the time of withdrawal, Mr. King informed LURC staff that it was Highland Wind LLC’s intent to resubmit another application in the future.

Iberdrola Renewables of Spain, the world’s largest operator of wind energy facilities, indicated it plans to submit an application to build The Fletcher Mountain Wind Project in Lexington and Concord Townships. Ignacio Galan, chairman of Iberdrola Group, told the Portland Press Herald that ‘If Maine signals that it’s no longer friendly to wind power, the global energy company will expand elsewhere.’ The Concord and Lexington petitions make it clear that these communities are not friendly to Iberdrola’s plans. Iberdrola is urged make good on their threat to expand elsewhere. Certainly, they’re not welcome in these Somerset County Townships.

At the press conference residents publicly requested that Highland Wind and Iberdrola Renewables abandon their development plans and respect the will of the majority of the community members. They also delivered copies of their petitions to Governor LePage’s office, where Kenneth Fletcher of the Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security was on hand to receive them. The citizens requested that the Governor to use the power and resources of his office to remove Highland Plantation, and Lexington and Concord Townships from Maine’s Expedited Permitting Area. Supporting their efforts are members of their local state delegation: Senator Rod Whittemore and Representative Larry Dunphy. Members of the Somerset County Commissioners’ office also spoke in support of their constituents.

Said Gerald York, Commissioner for District 2, “A decisive majority of the residents in three Somerset County communities have signed petitions stating they are opposed to industrial wind turbine projects. As a Somerset County Commissioner, I respect and support their position.”