I would like to thank Professor Mark Anderson for his common-sense comments on America’s questionable and probably foolhardy gamble on wind power (“Dangers of rushing into the next clean energy fad,” BDN OpEd, March 29). Our elected officials should heed his words and work quickly to rescue Maine from its misguided wind policy before more of our state’s unique value is sacrificed for so little return.
Prof. Anderson is spot-on with his comparison of wind power to ethanol. Wind power is Maine’s ethanol program. It’s our bridge to nowhere. It’s the conduit through which federal taxpayers’ money flows into Maine to feed a few large construction concerns and a handful of other discrete interests. It seems to be the opinion of Maine’s wind promoters that wasting federal money isn’t really wasteful when it’s wasted in Maine.
Wind power is apparently very exciting for those who accept their public policy and spending without plausible explanations, accountability or facts. Many of us who used to think ourselves more fortunate to live in the hills and mountains of rural Maine have our eyes – and minds – wide open, and what we’re seeing and learning is not the least bit exciting.
Perhaps it’s because most Mainers will never have to live under these taxpayer-funded white elephants that so many of them never ask the simplest of questions about this illusory energy source. If they did, the knowledge gained would be transformative. A public educated with the truths of wind power could prove lethal to Maine’s current wind policy.
Alan Michka
Lexington
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/04/02/wasteful-wind-power/