Merry Christmas, from Your Friendly Neighborhood Wind Developer

From snowmobile clubs to fire departments to historical societies, and from fuel assistance funds to youth programs to libraries; the wind industry in Maine has a long history of spreading its money around the communities wherein it hopes to build grid-scale industrial wind facilities.

The latest example of a wind corporation’s ‘largesse’ here in Maine can be found in the River Valley.  Patriot Renewables (PR) is the owner of controversial wind projects at Beaver Ridge in Freedom and Spruce Mountain in Woodstock.  This same developer is hoping to build additional wind turbine developments in area communities, including Dixfield and Carthage.  So it came as no surprise to read in the 12/21/2011 edition of the Sun Journal that Tom Carroll, PR’s project coordinator, was handing out hefty checks to local organizations. 

http://www.sunjournal.com/news/business/2011/12/21/eleven-circles-receives-10000-patriot-renewables-l/1130779

Still, I was stunned by the blatant nature of the largest contribution made last week.  Eleven Circles, a youth action group, is no doubt a worthy recipient for a $10,000.00 donation.  But the impartiality of Maine’s town governments and town officials is crucial as we watch communities struggle to remain cohesive through the process of writing ordinances and considering the development applications submitted by large and wealthy corporations.  Should we not have serious questions when Patriot Renewables ‘supports’ a business owned by the daughter-in-law of a Dixfield town selectman? 

Other area recipients of Patriot Renewables’ bounty were Ludden Library, the Webb River Snowmobile club, the Poodunk Snowmobile Club and the Carthage fuel assistance fund.

Corporations like to call this ‘being a good neighbor’.  Patriot Renewables said they were looking to ‘help to fill a void in the area’.

Let’s not kid ourselves.  First Wind, Patriot Renewables, Trans-Canada, Iberdrola and other wind developers looking to build facilities aren’t passing around tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars because they care about our youth, or our poor, or our winter recreation enthusiasts.  They target communities which will be deciding whether or not to approve their development permits.  The people of Dixfield and Carthage are being ‘romanced’, just as the citizens of Mars Hill, Danforth, Stratton, Woodstock and Lincoln were.  If Dixfield and Carthage had already passed ordinances restricting the placement of industrial wind developments, the odds are that deserving non-profits in the area would not have been the beneficiaries of those much-needed donations.

A bribe is a bribe.  Towns such as Dixfield and Carthage should design and institute ordinances that take into account the health, property values and quality of life of their citizens.  Then they will see how quickly a wind developer decides that there are other towns which need a ‘good neighbor’ or have ‘voids’ to be filled.   

Iberdrola's Many Costly Voices

Iberdrola Renewables–a subsidiary of Iberdrola Group and the owner of CMPC–is poised to become a major player in the industrial wind energy plan for Maine.  But before Maine embraces this foreign company and the product it’s selling, there are some crucial questions which must be answered.

Wind energy is expensive in many ways—both to tax-payers and to rate-payers.  Our neighbors in North Carolina are discovering the same thing.

This excerpt is from the December 15^th edition of the Charlotte Observer:

“The developer of the largest wind farm ever proposed in North Carolina says the project has stalled because no utility wants to buy the power the project would produce.

“Iberdrola Renewables, having put more than three years into a 31-square-mile wind farm near the coast, this week began notifying property owners and public officials…that the project is on hold indefinitely. If built, the Desert Wind Energy Project… would have ranked among the largest wind farms in the country.

“… the Spanish company has been unable to find a buyer for the power output of Desert Wind.”

No purchaser for wind power?  Is this due to the price wind will cost?  Or are there other disadvantages to wind power which makes it undesirable?

In trying to protect its investments and promote its agenda, the wind lobby has been vociferous about the jobs “wind” is bringing to our state.  Thus far, experienced local construction companies like Reed & Reed and Cianbro have been contracted to build the developers’ wind facilities.  However, the November 28^th issue of Renewable Energy Magazine reported that another Iberdrola subsidiary, Iberdrola Engineering and Construction, is moving into the wind facility construction business in the United States.  Iberdrola has been awarded two construction contracts for wind developments in the region—in Groton, NH and Hoosac, MA.  That begs the question: If Iberdrola is successful in getting permits for wind facilities in Maine will they import their own crews to build them?

Another lamentable detail:  When CMP customers write checks for our monthly electric bills, we’re sending them to a processing center in New Jersey.  We’re not mailing them to Augusta as we did for decades–back when CMPC was a Maine company, instead of a Spanish one.  Why is it that Iberdrola out-sources this traditional source of employment for Mainers?

Add to that; the fact that CMP intends to lay off dozens of employees once it has completed installing smart meters across the state, and one has to ask:

Is this foreign company looking out for the best interests of Maine’s citizens?

   

You Are Not Welcome Here

My family doesn’t post our property.  We never have, for as far back as I can remember.  My grandparents owned many acres, as did my parents, and there was never a “No Trespassing” sign posted on trees. 

My husband and I are lucky enough to own 70 acres of forest.  We feel fortunate to be able to step off our front porch and take a walk in the woods and we want everyone to have that same freedom and ability.  When I was a child, almost all of Maine was ‘open’.  It was rare to see a “No Trespassing” sign and Mainers were able to roam the forests and fields and mountains to experience that ‘quality of place’ and quality of life that is so integral to our contentment. 

A shiny silver Ford pick-up drove out of the driveway to our orchard.  That was not a big deal.  It happens all the time in November, since this is the height of deer hunting season.  The truck then proceeded up the road and stopped beside our house.  Since my husband has just gotten into his Blazer to take our son to work, he got out and walked over to the Ford.

He noticed the GPS antenna mounted on the front of the hood.  He asked the driver what was up.

The driver informed my husband that he and his partner were ‘fixing the positions’ of residences in the area for a survey they were conducting.

Mr. Pease asked them who they were working for.

The driver informed him that his client wished for its identity to remain confidential.

Mr. Pease said, “Oh.  Iberdrola, huh?”

The men became deer in the headlights.  Kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar.  They shut their mouths.  Stick a fork in them—they were done!

It’s easy to have the last word when the other party won’t speak—but the words my husband uttered could not have come easy, nonetheless.  He’s the kindest, gentlest, most generous man I know.  But he meant what he said when he told those wind industry surveyors that they were not welcome on our land--that he knew he couldn’t prevent them from using the county right-of-way to invade our privacy or help a foreign company threaten our way of life, but he could forbid them from stepping foot—or driving tire—onto our property.

This is a tough battle we’re fighting.  We don’t have anything against those men—not personally.  Those contractors are Mainers who are “just doing their job”.  But as a friend from Vinalhaven said of the construction workers who built the Fox Island Wind turbines near his island home: “YOUR job has ruined MY life.”  Those six words sum it up quite succinctly.

That shiny, decked out Ford (and yes, I went outside and got their license plate number) which was driven so nonchalantly onto the property we generously share with all may very well have been purchased with money earned by work that was done for an industry which is negatively impacting the lives of hundreds of Mainers.

So, no.  We don’t post our property, and unless something drastic occurs--we won’t.  But let this be public notice that anyone working for an industrial wind developer--whether directly, or indirectly as a subcontractor--is not welcome at The F.A.R.M.  If you’re going to try to plot and plan how to sidestep the wishes of more than 77% of the residents of Lexington Township, you’re going to have to do it without our help.  If you don’t care that we have stood together and said “NO!” you will not be the beneficiary of our largesse.  We will not harbor you, we will not welcome you—and we will not hesitate to firmly escort you off and arrange for your transport to the county jail if you come onto our property without having express and written permission from my husband or me.

I can't make this any clearer.  You are not welcome at The F.A.R.M. and you are not welcome in Lexington Township.  Or in Concord, or in Highland.  Accept defeat, please.  You are not welcome here and I am just one voice of many asking you to respect us and abandon your plans for wind developments in these three communities.

Voices of Somerset County--A Press Release

Once again, the names Lexington and Concord are in the forefront of a People’s right to self-determination.  As the Colonials did in 1775, the citizens of these Maine communities are facing what would seem to be an overwhelming force from abroad.

  But citizens in Lexington and Concord Townships--and in Highland Plantation, too--will not be intimidated.  We're taking a stand.  Speaking up.

And saying "No!"

PRESS RELEASE

Who:  FRIENDS OF THE HIGHLAND MOUNTAINS

When:   November 17, 2011; 11:00 a.m.

Where: Hall of Flags, State Capitol, Augusta, ME

Contacts: Alan Michka; (207) 628-2014 or 860-8714; Karen Pease; (207) 628-2070 or 340-0066

RESIDENTS OF THREE SOMERSET COUNTY COMMUNITIES ASK GOVERNOR LEPAGE TO HELP THEM PROTECT THEIR HOMES AND QUALITY OF LIFE FROM MULTIPLE WIND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS.

A majority of the residents of Highland Plantation and Concord and Lexington Townships are expressing opposition to the wind development plans of former Governor Angus King’s Highland Wind LLC and Iberdrola Renewables, a subsidiary of Spain-based Iberdrola SA, and the largest operator of wind turbines in the world.  Highland Wind LLC is backed by the Yale University Endowment.

In an ongoing petition effort, a majority of the voting age residents have, so far, signed petitions stating their opposition to industrial wind development within their respective communities.  In Lexington, seventy-seven percent (77%) of residents have already signed.  Many of the communities’ non-resident property owners have also shown their opposition by signing the petition. 

In 2010, Ignacio Galan, chairman of Iberdrola Group, told the Portland Press Herald that “If Maine signals that it’s no longer friendly to wind power, the global energy company will expand elsewhere.”  Alan Michka, a resident of Lexington says “The Concord and Lexington petitions make it clear that these communities are not friendly to Iberdrola’s plans.  Hopefully, Iberdrola will make good on their threat to expand elsewhere.  Certainly, they’re not welcome here.” 

Many Maine towns have passed ordinances that effectively restrict wind power development within their borders.  Plantations and unorganized townships such as Concord and Lexington, however, have no legal means to protect their communities with such ordinances.

“If 51% of the registered voters in any Maine town came out against a wind development, it would not be permitted,” says Karen Pease, another Lexington resident.  “It simply would not be built.  Period, end of story.  In this case, we have 77% speaking in opposition.  Rural areas of Maine have been targeted for industrial development, and citizens who live here were not allowed to have a say before these Unorganized Territories were rezoned.  Our communities have spoken decisively.  We do not want grid-scale wind facilities to be built within our borders.  We must not be disenfranchised simply because we live in rural Maine.”

At the conclusion of the press conference, copies of the petitions will be delivered to Governor LePage’s office along with a letter asking the Governor to use his executive powers to remove Highland Plantation, Concord and Lexington from the state’s Expedited Permitting Area (EPA), thereby fully restoring the voice of residents and property owners in the future of their communities.  Removal from the EPA does not prevent wind energy development, but requires the developer to secure approval for a change of zoning, an action that allows the residents to weigh in on the proposed change.  Petition results and an appeal for support will also be delivered to key legislators, state agencies and the Somerset County Commissioners in an effort to draw their attention to the residents’ effort to protect their community from the negative impacts of industrial scale wind development.