November 4, 2013
Maine

Friends of Maine’s Mountains begins petition for moratorium on industrial wind

The Maine Wire | www.themainewire.com

Opponents of industrial wind power began a petition drive on Thursday as part of their effort to persuade Gov. Paul LePage and the Legislature to repeal Maine’s Expedited Wind Law and place a moratorium on future wind power projects.

The initiative, known as “Saving Maine”, was a project of Friends of Maine’s Mountains, a group of Mainers who regularly criticize the construction of large wind power turbines in rural Maine.

Project organizers describe their effort as follows:

“The beautiful State of Maine is being attacked from all sides by huge industrial wind projects that dynamite and clearcut our ridges, destroy birds, bats and other wildlife, sicken people and drive them from their homes, ruin property values, impact visual beauty and outdoor recreation, decrease tourism, and will cover nearly a million Maine acres with vast transmission line networks, clearcuts, and howling towers 50 to 60 stories tall.

“These monstrous projects do not lower greenhouse gases or fossil fuel use because wind is so erratic that fossil fuel plants must run full time to back up wind generation. Numerous scientific, environmental, and utility studies in many countries have shown that industrial wind projects do not lower greenhouse gas emissions or fossil fuel use, and often increase them.

“But states like Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, whose residents don’t want wind turbines there, are now planning more huge turbine projects in Maine. The out-of-state energy companies and investment banks that develop these projects make billions of dollars from electricity rate increases, and from American taxpayer subsidies added to our $17 trillion national debt.

“Mount Katahdin will be surrounded by a 100-mile wall of huge wailing, flashing turbines. Dozens of Maine’s famous and beautiful mountains will be covered with turbines.

“Even worse, these projects are excluded from full environmental impact analysis. The Maine Expedited Wind Law, passed without debate or a recorded vote by the 2008 Legislature, prohibits consideration of the many serious impacts of industrial wind projects, and limits citizens’ rights to oppose them.”

You can sign their petition here.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/11/04/friends-of-maines-mountains-begins-petition-for-moratorium-on-industrial-wind/