January 7, 2012
Letters, Maine

Let the locals be heard

Bangor Daily News, bangordailynews.com 6 January 2012

A wonderful part of Maine is about to be ruined by a sprawling industrial wind power development by First Wind. 459-foot-tall noisy wind turbines will surround Pleasant Pond, which is one of the most beautiful lakes in Maine, and Mattawamkeag Lake, which is wild and undeveloped, so important to wildlife that the state has conserved much of it, including the historic Bible Point, cherished by President Teddy Roosevelt. Desecrating these places for something that works so poorly, that they wouldn’t go up without taxpayer subsidies and mandates. I don’t want to have my power bill go up just because some “green” zealots force us to use expensive wind power!

It started with the smaller project the state Department of Environmental Protection rubber-stamped in Oakfield, rubber-stamped because of the horrendous law passed in 2008 that has rammed these projects down our throats that we common everyday people can do nothing about. The Oakfield project was to be 34 turbines, 389 feet tall, 1.5 megawatts each. First Wind wants to expand that to 50 turbines, 459 feet tall, 3 megawatts each.

The Maine DEP is allowing them to amend the permit they approved and not allowing anyone to have a say. If this is an entirely new project, DEP should cancel the permit they issued and tell First Wind to start a new permit process and allow the citizens the right to have their say.

It begs the question, which came up again and again in the contentious permit process for First Wind’s Lincoln area project, does the wind developer have more rights than the local people?

Phyllis Goodine

Island Falls


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/01/07/let-the-locals-be-heard/