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No wind for Maine
Credit: Sun Journal, www.sunjournal.com 21 August 2010 ~~
With reference to Jeremy Payne’s column of Aug. 15, I can only state as someone who works in the power industry and has worked on wind farms, we are certainly getting what we pay for from people who support wind power in Maine.
Most states do not even attempt to permit a wind project on the most visible mountaintops. Here in Wyoming, where I am currently working, they would tar and feather you for submitting such a proposal, yet there are thousands of wind towers here. And, go figure, they are mostly in valleys and along the plains.
We have valleys and plains in Maine but it is an added cost to a developer to prove return on investment and secure financing to place them in the potato fields of Aroostook or in the Siberia Basin of Carthage.
Also, we need a $5 billion grid improvement with another $7-12 billion package needed down the road to accommodate transporting wind power on the Maine grid. We are only 250,000 ratepayers versus millions in other states to spread this cost over.
We are paying an unbalanced share of costs to support a generation source that is being sold out-of-state so our politicians can tell everyone we’re a green state. All of this while we are currently ranked as having the third highest electrical rates in the nation and are No. 4 for green energy production!
What is broke? What problem are we fixing? What genius in Augusta developed that brilliant energy policy?
Tom Powell, Dixfield
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