February 1, 2011
Maine
Maine
Maine activists challenge TransCanada’s Sisk Mountain permit
The Maine Public Broadcasting Network, www.mpbn.net 31 January 2011
The Maine Public Broadcasting Network, www.mpbn.net 31 January 2011
The Friends of Boundary Mountains is asking the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to review state regulators’ decision to award TransCanada a permit to expand its Kibby Wind Power project to nearby Sisk Mountain.
A group of local activists is challenging state land use regulators’ approval of TransCanada’s proposal to build 11 wind turbines on Sisk Mountain, in northern Franklin County.
The group, Friends of Boundary Mountains, says Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission made an error when it awarded TransCanada a permit to expand its existing Kibby Wind Power Project to nearby Sisk Mountain. The group says it’s filed a petition with the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, asking the court to review the decision.
The group’s spokesman, Bob Weingarten, says LURC reversed an earlier decision rejecting the permit after TransCanada offered changes to the project. But Weingarten says LURC didn’t allow the group to question the company about the changes.
“It’s clear the changed proposal never received the required scrutiny by LURC that the original proposal did, otherwise it never would have passed muster,” Weingarten says in a statement.
FBM says in addition to failing to fully examine the impacts of TransCanada’s amended proposal, LURC excluded data about the existing Kibby Wind project’s productivity, which the group says “refutes TransCanada’s projections and predictions about how much electricity the Sisk Wind Project is likely to produce.”
LURC initially denied TransCanada a permit for the $100 million wind power project atop Sisk Mountain, but after the company scaled the project back from 15 to 11 turbines, LURC ok’d the project earlier this month.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/02/01/maine-activists-challenge-transcanadas-sisk-mountain-permit/