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.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="7648 http://www.themainewire.com/?p=7648">3 Comments
Maine should be filing fraud charges against this industry for the undisclosed slaughter of millions and millions of protected species and for using bogus research to cover it up.
Every wind industry and FWS estimate regarding wind mortality is based upon the industry’s own bogus research. In other words none of it is accurate or reliable.
I suggest that all readers take a close look at this article that analyzes the Wolfe Island wind turbines in Canada “San Diego Loves Green – OPINION: HIDING WIND TURBINE BIRD SLAUGHTER”.
Here are some highlights……………………. “mortalities officially recorded
in the industry’s two 2011 6 month reports totaled 442 birds, 24 raptors and
533 bats. In reality, after taking into account the various methods used to
minimize carcass counts, the Wolfe Island turbines are actually slaughtering
644 raptors, 21,512 other birds and 29,831 bats!”
“Based on carcass locations reported, searchers only examined a total area equivalent to about 1/6 of a 50-meter search radius around each turbine (1/6 of 7,854square meters or 0.33 acres) – when they should have searched a
200-meter-radius area (31 acres), an area 94 times larger.
“In my expert opinion, the 86 Wolf Island turbines are killing over 50,000 birds and bats a year, including many vitally important species. This is more than 250 fatalities per MW, and more than 500 per turbine”.
“Properly designed and executed studies would show similar numbers – with far more species showing up on the mortality lists, beyond the few listed in the
official reports”.
The rigged methodology for these mortality studies is typical of the studies conducted by this industry in North America.
In 1997 the wind industry claimed the primary reason for bird/turbine mortality was because of their lattice towers. The fact is that the industry’s turbine blade tips rotating at 150-200 mph were and still are the primary reason species are killed. They also claimed that the industry’s advanced wind turbines could supply all the electricity in the United States. How has that worked out for any country? It never will. Then so there wouldn’t be environmental opposition to the development of wind energy, they rigged their studies with methodology to hide mortality.
Read below………………
This statement below was made to Congress in 1997.
Report to Congress
ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1998
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 1997.
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
WITNESSES
HON. FEDERICO PENÁ, SECRETARY OF ENERGY
THOMAS P. GRUMBLY, UNDER SECRETARY
Mr. HOFFMAN. “The fact of the matter is that birds get killed when they
roost on the towers that support the wind machines, and their vision is so
acute that they see their prey and don’t see the rotating blades which are
moving very fast, and so they take off after prey and fly through the blades
without even realizing the blades are there. So the real problem is, how do
you keep the birds from roosting on that wind support structure before they
ever go off after their prey? And we’re learning that there are certain sounds,
there are certain colors, and there are certain kinds of support structures that
don’t allow birds to roost.
For example, if you look at some of the older wind machines, they’re on flat
structures. The birds like to roost on those horizontal struts. If you put in a
cylindrical support tower, they don’t do it, and you can really reduce the
number of birds that are killed.
Part of the problem also is the kind of birds you’re killing in California are golden eagles, and if you kill one eagle in this country, it’s a serious problem.
We’re trying to reduce that mortality rate, so there won’t be an environmental or any other opposition to wind, which is a very important energy resource for this country. We can open up the wind resource in this country with the advanced wind turbines we’re developing and basically supply all the electricity in the United States, if you tapped all the potential that was there”.
From a bogus EIR or EIS submitted on behalf of the PDV (Manzana) project to Kern County: “In addition, no suitable foraging or nesting habitat were identified at the project as a result of more than 5,000 hours of biological surveys conducted at the site”. Here is the truth………….Large mammals, turkeys and livestock can all be found at the project site. These are sources of food for condors.
Here is another statement I found in the Final EIR or EIS for the Manzana Wind Project. “Scientific literature also suggests that diurnal vultures, such as the California condor, are not at substantial risk for collisions with wind turbines”. In addition, data on comparable species, such as turkey vultures, indicate that they skillfully avoid turbines, the report claimed: “As turbines are in an area with high visibility, condors could be expected to be able to avoid collisions with wind turbines at the project site.”
These statements are typical of the deception used by the wind industry for their projects.