Open for business
Bangor Daily News | bangordailynews.com 18 July 2012
Maine, the way life should be. Now that Gov. Paul LePage has opened it for business, we must double our efforts to preserve that way of life.
Imagine 20 years from now looking out on Passadumkeag Mountain. Instead of a pristine natural environment of incomparable beauty, there are 14 inoperative, rusting turbines, 459 feet high – taller than any building in the state.
I never expected to be opposed to wind power. At Tuesday’s county commissioner hearing on tax increment financing (money accrued by tax dollars from the proposed turbine project), I learned that these turbines are an old, inefficient technology that is not projected to last and that the project will only create 225 temporary construction jobs and 5-7 permanent technical positions.
The energy from these turbines won’t even benefit Mainers. We were told to be happy with the meager 40 percent of the TIF revenue we’d receive and that the project might not be viable if we demanded more. Adding insult to injury, commissioners assumed that funds should be allocated for further development of the Unorganized Territory. I am a UT resident. Am I alone in not wanting to see Maine’s UT further developed? Isn’t it bad enough that big red blinking Xs on the turbines will flash all night every night?
Let’s do our homework about wind power. This is not green energy as we want it to be. It’s a wake-up call about corporate greed, the bullying of disenfranchised residents and exploitation of Maine’s natural resources.
Esu Anahata
West Lake, Township 3 Northern Division
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/07/19/open-for-business/