Maine: Open for (Wind) Business...

Maine is at a cross-roads. This weekend marks the beginning of our summer tourist season. Tens of thousands of people from the metropolitan centers in the northeast and beyond will be traveling to Maine to experience "the way life SHOULD be". As the cost of manufacturing has driven many Maine businesses to locate elsewhere, we have come to rely more and more upon our tourist industry. It is an important source of income. In addition, those who travel here to experience all we have to offer are the best source of free advertising we could hope for.

This is copied from a blurb put out by Maine's tourism industry: "Neither our executive nor legislative leaders can ignore the $530 million that the industry contributes annually to the general tax fund. Nor con they overlook the more than 170,000 jobs the industry provides to Maine families statewide. And they cannot be anything other than ecstatic by the state accounting that shows Maine tourism to be a more than $ 10 billion industy. In 2009, for instance, astonishingly we welcomed more than 34 million visitors, and through September of this year (2010), more than 22 million guests have visited our state..."

Will the industrialization of 300-400 miles of Maine's iconic summits dampen the enthusiasm of those who travel here "from away" to spend their hard-earned money so that they can enjoy Maine's natural resources? Can Maine afford to cater to one industry--which provides a product which is unreliable and intermittent, and which will cause Maine rate-payers to pay higher electric bills, while only bringing a handful of permament jobs?

Is our leadership doing the citizens of Maine an injustice by their support of the industrial wind lobby? Have we sacrificed something irreplaceable in our rush to swallow the propaganda that the wind lobby feeds us?

Would scientific and economic studies show that 'wind' looses on a 'cost vs. benefit' analysis?

Maine may be "open for business", but if that business is wind at any cost, how many nature-based enterprises will fail? How many sporting camps, guide services, family campgrounds and the like will take a hit when our natural resources are devalued and compromised?

We all hope such a day never comes. But if it seems imminent, what will we do to prevent it?

It's something to think about.

I wish you a peaceful and relaxing Memorial Day weekend. God Bless those who have sacrificed so much for our freedom.

Kaz