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Are we selling our birthright?
Credit: September 24, 2016 | www.centralmaine.com ~~
I note with concern the Sept. 16 article by Tux Turkel, “New owner arrives amid fight over wind.” My concern is that the 26-turbine wind power project extending from Parlin Pond east along Misery Ridge, described in the article as going forward with a new developer, is only one of two massively disruptive projects under development in this unspoiled region of our irreplaceable forestlands. The second proposes to place another 26 wind generation towers overlooking Indian Pond.
Anyone who has found peace and recreation in the forests between The Forks and Jackman should take an interest in the permitting and regulation of these projects, which as Turkel states in the article, will generate electricity to be sold in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Except for that power lost along the proposed 26.5-mile transmission corridor cut through the forest to link with the CMP station at The Forks, not 1 watt will light or heat a home in Maine. I refer readers to the website of Moosehead Region Futures Committee, www.mooseheadregionfutures.com, for detailed specifications of the two projects under consideration.
As paper mills close and the forest products industry scales back, tourism and outdoor recreation industry is major life force in the Maine economy. These projects, if permitted and no matter how carefully constructed, will alter the experience of this huge portion of forestland, an asset that, of all states on the Eastern seaboard, only Maine has manage to preserve.
Generation of wind may be clean and renewable, but should Mainers surrender their birthright to send electricity – and the profits from its sale – to other states?
David Hedrick
Waterville
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