PUC made wrong call
Bangor Daily News, bangordailynews.com 24 April 2012
Maine government must not support PUC big wind-power investments.
The Public Utilities Commission said yes to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of new investment in an industry that is falsely claimed to be clean. This is no cause for celebration. People have been told that there are two major complaints about wind power and that they can be overcome.
The first is that industrial turbines are an eyesore on pristine rural ridge tops. The second is that they produce power that is more expensive than other sources of power. These two arguments can be easily overcome by not installing industrial turbines at all, however there are many more reasons for not investing in industrial wind turbines, e.g. devastation of tourism; millions of birds and bats slaughtered each year; dealing with “bird taking” permits, their oversight and monitoring; strife in communities and in meeting a community’s needs; unbridled corruption in industry, state politics (PUC) and town politics; corruption among financial, Audubon and other institutions; devastation of wilderness, mountains and wildlife; personal economics ruined, destroyed property values; foreign control of our resources; exporting electricity when we already have more than we need; higher taxes and electricity rates; remote wilderness and mountaintop fire danger; management, oversight and decommissioning; noise, flicker, lights and their effects on health, human and otherwise.
Maine should continue to seek a balanced energy policy that includes conservation and a variety of sources.
Bob Baker
Portland
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/04/24/puc-made-wrong-call/