Big wind alternatives
Bangor Daily News, www.bangordailynews.com 21 August 2010
I would like to thank the BDN for running Naomi Schalit’s three-part series about the forces and questionable politics which created LD 2283, Maine’s expedited wind power law.
It was an excellent example of responsible journalism.
The wind industry says it has spent $750 million in Maine to date. I don’t doubt that figure, but it has created very few new, permanent full-time jobs. Much of this money has gone to existing law firms and consulting firms and the few large construction companies that have the technology and scale to erect 400-foot-tall industrial machines on our mountains. Much stimulus money has also gone overseas to purchase wind turbines.
Mainers need jobs, but those jobs will not come when wind-generated electricity raises our electric rates. Add to that the high cost of unneeded transmission lines about to be built across our state to accommodate the wind industry ($1.5 billion), and we will further discourage good employment opportunities from being attracted to Maine.
A better solution – companies such as Backyard Farms that created 200 new permanent jobs in the town of Madison because of access to inexpensive hydro power from a local power company, Madison Electric Works.
Maine generates 55 percent of its electricity through renewable hydro and biomass sources, and Canada is ready to send us the cheap renewable hydro power we need to attract jobs.
Let’s follow the recent lead of both the Connecticut and Massachusetts legislatures, and just say no to industrial wind power.
Greg Perkins
Holden
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/08/21/big-wind-alternatives/