Highland wind
Bangor Daily News, bangordailynews.com 11 May 2012
In May 2011, a press conference was held to announce that a majority of Highland Plantation’s residents signed petitions opposing the grid-scale wind energy facility proposed by Independence Wind, owned by Rob Gardiner and, until March 18, 2012, U.S. Senate candidate and former Maine Gov. Angus King.
Gardiner and King had just withdrawn their second application for the project after the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife submitted a review stating that the project in Highland was “not an appropriate site for this development and consequently poses a significant adverse impact for wildlife resources.” Residents requested that the developers abandon their plans to build an industrial wind complex in Highland.
Gardiner and King never granted Highland residents the courtesy of a response.
In February 2012, Highland representatives sent letters to the developer. Again, we cited our majority vote, stating our resolve that Gardiner and King respect the will of the people and abandon their project.
Again, the developers showed their contempt for Maine people by not responding. When speaking of the Highland project in an April 2012 interview in Mainebiz, Gardiner said, “We decided it was time to give it a rest.”
We’d like to know whether the developer intends to discard plans to build the Highland wind project or his words are a red herring. We granted Gardiner and King an audience every time they wanted one. We deserve the same respect. We’d like the developer to assure us that all plans to construct a wind energy facility in Highland have been permanently abandoned.
Rose Staton
Highland
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/05/13/highland-wind/