July 21, 2011
Maine

Opponents protest outside as new wind project is dedicated

Written by Mike DeSumma, www.wcsh6.com 20 July 2011

After months of construction, a wind project is now up and running in the Lincoln area.

Boston-based energy company “First Wind” officially dedicated its Rollins Mountain Wind Power Facility Wednesday morning. Roughly 40 wind turbines now dot the Rollins Ridgeline running through the towns of Lincoln, Winn, Lee and Burlington.

Company officials expect the project to generate enough electricity to power 23,000 homes a year in Maine but groups opposed to the project say it will prove costly to the environment.

They held a protest outside of the project site.

“This is a great fleecing of America,” said Mike Thurlow, whose North Road home looks out at the Rollins site, “our tax dollars are subsidizing this project and probably our tax dollars will wind up taking these down when they’ve spent their time on our mountains after our mountains have been basically raped.”

“This project has met or exceeded all of the local and state in some cases federal standards on citing,” said “First Wind” CEO Paul Gaynor, “so I don’t begrudge them {the protestors} to have their perspective but I’m comforted by the fact that we’ve done this the right way.”

“First Wind” is now looking to develop another wind farm on Bowers Mountain in the Ellsworth Grand Lakes Region, which has also generated strong opposition from opponents of onshore wind.

Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission is expected to rule on that project later this year.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/07/21/opponents-protest-outside-as-new-wind-project-is-dedicated/