Maine has been treated to a near non-stop barrage of demands that we acquiesce to the lucrative demands of the wind turbine and solar panel lobbies for the sake of saving the environment.
However, the impeccably dressed lobbyists who frequent the State House corridors, advocating passionately about global warming or climate change, often neglect to consider the significant environmental costs associated with the technologies they claim will offer environmental salvation.
Unfortunately for Mainers, the headlong sprint toward wind turbines and solar panels has caused policy makers to overlook the dire health implications of the environmental externalities produced by wind and solar technologies.
As the 132nd Legislature begins to consider the likely slew of proposals related to industrialized offshore wind power and a further expansion of the farm-land devouring solar subsidy program, we must keep in mind the health implications as well as the theoretical benefits. As a member of the Energy, Utilities, and Technology Committee, I am compelled to highlight the potential risks these technologies pose to our environment and public health, risks that demand a serious reconsideration of Maine’s current energy policies.
Wind Energy: A Double-Edged Sword?
A new report, which comprises a comprehensive review of approximately 3,000 studies titled, “Effects of Microplastic Exposure on Human Digestive, Reproductive, and Respiratory Health: A Rapid Systematic Review,” has brought to light the disturbing health risks associated with microplastics.
For those unfamiliar with the term, microplastics are tiny particles of plastic, 5 millimeters or smaller, that result from the breakdown of plastic materials, like waste materials, industrial products, and – yes – solar panel and wind turbine components.
In case you didn’t already have enough to worry about, these microplastic bits are ubiquitous in modern society, and now we know that the risks of exposure to these tiny toxins include increased cancer rates, infertility, and lung damage. These tiny plastic particles, which pervade our air, water, and soil, are not just a byproduct of traditional pollution but are also emerging from our so-called “clean” energy solutions. Maine’s lawmakers would do well to heed these researchers warnings.
Offshore wind turbines, often hailed as a green solution, are shedding microplastics into our marine environments. In some cases, such as with the recent 300-foot Vineyard Wind turbine blade that exploded near Cape Cod, the pollution is obvious. But even when the turbines function properly, they introduce microplastics via a process known as “Leading Edge Erosion,” according to a current paper from the Technical University of Denmark. The blades, battered by harsh weather, release these particles, which contaminate our commercial fisheries and easily find their way into filter-feeding seafood, like clams and oysters, and other coastal ecosystems. Onshore turbines also contribute to this problem, albeit to a lesser degree, but with the proliferation of wind farms across Maine, the scale of impact cannot be ignored.
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Moreover, the financial burden of wind energy in Maine is significant, with costs far exceeding initial projections, making it an expensive choice for ratepayers. The maintenance of these turbines, considering their environmental impact, adds another layer of cost and inefficiency. In other words, thanks to the inefficiencies inherent in offshore wind technologies, Mainers will be paying through the nose to spread the very microplastics we will later consume in our seafood.
Solar Energy: Not the Sunshine Solution We Hoped For?
Solar panels, while less reliant of plastics, come with their own environmental risks, which are often downplayed by the lobbyists and industry insiders who stand to make substantial profits through the expansion of Maine’s expensive solar subsidies. Present in almost all the solar panels proliferating across Maine are toxic materials, such as cadmium telluride (CdTe), lead, and others depending on the model deployed. While much of the environmental side-effects of manufacturing solar panels is “out of sight, out of mind” because they’re usually made in developing countries, that won’t be the case with the eventual decommissioning and clean-up.
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Under ideal circumstances, solar panels can last perhaps 25 years, but enduring Maine’s rough winters will doubtlessly limit their lifespan. When it’s time for them to be retired, someone will have to be responsible for the cost and labor involved with decommissioning those panels, and it likely won’t be the people making money on them. Already, Maine’s congressional delegation has directed taxpayer dollars into northern Maine in the hopes of someday having the capacity to deal responsibly with the hazardous waste from Maine’s solar buildout.
Just like Mainers will be paying higher energy bills and taxes to pollute the Gulf of Maine with the microplastics that will wind up in our bodies thanks to turbine subsidies, the solar industry will catch us coming and going with higher costs. First, we’ll pay the stealthy Solar Tax embedded in our monthly electricity bills, then we’ll pay anywhere from $40-$200 to recycle the panels at a taxpayer-funded facility. Lastly, while we can’t put a cost on this, Mainers will also have to deal with the moral and ethical implications of blanketing potential farmland and wilderness areas with products often manufactured with the benefit of slave labor in western China.
A Case for Nuclear Energy
The conversation around energy in Maine should pivot towards nuclear power, which offers a cleaner, more reliable, and less space-consuming alternative. Modern nuclear technology, with small modular reactors (SMRs), provides a scalable solution with negligible greenhouse gas emissions and no microplastic pollution. The Maine Yankee plant, decommissioned in 1997, left a legacy of safe, clean power generation for decades. The waste, securely stored, contrasts sharply with the ongoing pollution from renewables.
The Cost of “Green” Energy
The push for wind and solar, primarily driven by subsidies and political agendas, has not only proven to be economically burdensome but also potentially harmful to public health. The environmental and health costs of microplastics, coupled with the inefficiencies and high costs of renewable energy, are compelling reasons to reconsider our energy strategy.
Moving forward, Maine must abandon its approach to its arbitrary and unachievable renewable energy goals. We need a sober reassessment of wind and solar, considering all environmental and health impacts, not just the reduction of carbon emissions. Additionally, it’s time to promote nuclear energy, viewing it not as a relic but as a viable, safe, and clean solution for Maine’s energy needs. Above all, our policies must prioritize the health of Mainers over political or environmental dogmas.
The cost to our health, environment, and wallets from wind and solar is too high. Maine can lead by example, choosing a path that ensures our energy future is both sustainable and truly beneficial for our citizens. It’s time to embrace nuclear power as the cornerstone of a genuinely clean energy strategy for Maine.
In Maine’s 132nd legislature, Republican lawmakers, including myself, are pushing bills to shield Maine ratepayers and our environment from further exploitation. Will the Dems keep bending over backward for lobbyists and their cronies, or will they grow a spine and put Mainers first for once? Only time will reveal their true colors.
Amen and thank you Reagan. I would add that solar panels are ugly and displace trees, which are nature’s carbon sequestration mechanism.
i submit that Maine is so sparsely populated, has so little heavy industry and is so heavily forested that it is already at “net zero”, even if you accept the logic of climate change. Maine isn’t even part of the problem.
Thank you Rep. Paul. Climate Derangement Syndrome is really hurting Maine
“Will the Dems keep bending over backward for lobbyists and their cronies, or will they grow a spine and put Mainers first for once?”
The short answers: ALWAYS and NEVER respectively.
The governor has no plan for all the bad chemicals she is spreading through Maine and the foolish people who take a free gift from her, the state.
Entropy and enthalpy rule not some short-lived words of non-scientist lawmakers.
Where are all the environmentalists? Recall how excited they got when they went after Maine’s lobster industry because a right whale died in 1984 due to entanglement in a lobster line.
With all the steps involved in creating and bringing a windmill to actually producing energy a windmill or large scale solar farms they will never in their lifetime produce the same energy that it takes to creat them. They also have a lifespan. Where are these companies now getting rich going to be when they are not functioning. Who will bear the cost of removing these monsters from our ocean. I think we all know who.
Throw in all these towns who have received state give away money for climate initiatives. How many of the programs created in these little kingdoms will actually be remotely measurable for saving the earth besides a few lightbulbs here and there. Does it make sense to spend 40,000$+ to save a few hundred dollars. We cannot allow twisted liberal reasoning to ruin our towns and our state.
In the big picture, whatever we do in little ole Maine will not even be measurable on a global scale.
Meanwhile China and India and others are racing to build new coal fired plants. Would not a focus on that be much more effective in bringing these countries to policies we have had for the last 50 years or so.
Climate change is a political hoax on the people. If the bleeding heart liberals don’t write our history it will be told to future generations as to how they have been gaslighted starting at a young age in our schools.
We need to participate. Keep a close eye on these now liberal controlled town councils. it’s going to be on all of us if we don’t stand up.
As long as there are more millions to be made by the Pingrees , the Kings , and the Mills tribe , we will be chained and locked to this windmill nonsense .
We are rapidly becoming a place the REAL Mainers can’t afford to live anymore because of runaway taxes and energy costs .
Only fools believe that an electric car they can’t plug in anywhere , and a heat pump that spins the meter right off your house , will solve the worlds problems .
The “ environmental pollution “ caused by the people of rural Maine is a yellow spot in the snow .
I thought we were all going to die from PFAS anyway . First they told us with a big smile that it was safe to spread all these municipal sewage wastes on our fields . Now we are all in a panic .
I JUST WISH I could go buy an incandescent light bulb , but Barack put an end to that also.
Now I’ve got a state of the art , energy efficient , save water , clothes washer that isn’t worth a ————
Maine has a bunch of idiots driving our bus . .
On the subject of cramming wind projects down the throat of Maine people by outsiders, Avangrid, parent company of CMP, has received $425 million to build a transmission line to bring wind project(s) generation out of Aroostook County and ISO-NE, a puppet of New England States Committee on Electricity’s (NESCOE) is about to issue a Request for Proposal to transfer this 1200 or more megawatts of wind out of Maine to Southern New England.
Another NECEC, but this one will hit Maine ratepayers right in the pocketbook.
This one can be fought in the PUC, the Maine Legislature, the DEP and at the local level.
who is going to pay for the bad chemicals? Not the Governor, she knows the law, but not natural law. Typical Lawyer.
Why are the Solar and Wind Power owners not required to post bonds which approximate the expected costs of remediation at the “end of life” of the systems? As the systems mature and as experience allows, the amount of the bond could increase or decrease accordingly.
Such a bond would be similar to bonds used in states with active mining – those bonds also provide for site restoration and remediation by those that benefited – the owners.
The “ owners “ will simply walk away and let the tax payers clean it up .
They will take our money and go
There is NO question that this will become a nightmare at some point in the future . Good job Augusta …. Keep up the good work !
The Maine Yankee site is ripe for small modular reactors that are designed to be the safest energy assets available per MWh. Reuse of that single site for advanced nuclear energy would cut Maine’s carbon emissions by about 70%. We have ample data at this stage to understand the environmental impacts of wind and solar… those impacts are reasonable for remote areas that do not have easy access to transmission lines. But the southern coast of Maine is where most of our population lives and where most businesses are based.
I’m proud to call my company, Solestiss, a Maine based company. I’m less proud to have my company building small modular reactors across the border in Canada where Maine then imports a significant amount of our energy from.
I would love to support a bipartisan educational presentation on how the Maine Yankee site can be reused for safer and cleaner nuclear energy infrastructure. Let’s trade PFAS in our farmlands for the peaceful use of atoms to generate power.