The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of a doubt, what is laid before him. – Leo Tolstoy |
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| Documentary “Windfall” in Bar Harbor We have received the following email message from Attorney Lynne Williams announcing that the documentary “Windfall” will be at Reel Pizza in Bar Harbor on Saturday, March 31, 1:30 PM. She asks Eastbrookers who are willing to join her in answering questions at the showing, to contact her. Here is the full text of the message: From: Lynne Williams (LWILL@earthlink.net) I have raised the funds to show the documentary “Windfall” at Reel Pizza in Bar Harbor on Saturday, March 31, 1:30 pm. If anyone from the Eastbrook area can come and be willing to answer questions that would be great. I will make a brief intro, we will see the film, which is 83 minutes, and then take Q and A. Contact me if you are willing to do this. I don't offer the perspective of someone whose property is threatened by a wind farm, nor have I gone through the municipal ordinance process as you folks in Eastbrook have done. Feel free to circulate this email. Best, Lynne To read about the documentary at its own website, please click here. To read a Release about the showing in Bar Harbor on March 31, please click here. Here are locations and times of other showings (not included is a showing at Central Maine Community College currently being scheduled): Colby College Rangeley Public Library Carrabassett Community Library New Portland Community Room Unity College Skowhegan Free Library The Strand Theater Dirigo High School University of Maine - Farmington University of Maine - Fort Kent Snowmobile Club Portland Nickelodeon
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| Downeast Lakes Watershed Survey We have received the following email message asking for participation in a survey being conducted by the Partnership for the Preservation of the Downeast Lakes Watershed (PPDLW). To jump directly to the survey, please click here. Dear PPDLW members and friends, It took a bit longer than we expected but the PPDLW Downeast Lakes User Survey is ready at last! Before you begin, here are a few points we need to make: (1) This survey will be available only until 5:00pm March 1st. PLEASE do not procrastinate! It takes less than 10 minutes to complete the survey. (2) The survey is being hosted by a third party, online survey company SurveyMonkey. This will assure the integrity of the data collected. A secure server is used both to conduct the survey and tabulate the results, so don’t worry about your privacy. (3) The survey requires that you have “cookies” enabled in your browser. They probably are already, but if the survey does not open for you, you probably need to enable cookies in your browser. For a PDF file explaining how to enable cookies in most browsers, visit: www.ppdlw.org/cookies.pdf (4) The survey is designed to prevent anyone from submitting more than one survey. It does this by keeping track of your computer. It allows only one entry per computer. If there is more than one person in your household who would like to fill out the survey, they can either use a different computer (neighbor? library? office?) or they can request an email or hardcopy version of the survey (see #6 below). (5) Please forward this email to any of your friends, guests, family and clients you think will be willing to participate. (6) If you know of someone who ought to fill out the survey but can’t for one reason or another, we’ll be happy to send that person either a hardcopy or an email copy that can be filled out and mailed/emailed back. Just email gary@ppdlw.org and let him know the individual’s name and address. On receiving the completed survey, the people at SurveyMonkey will then enter that data manually. Because the deadline is fast approaching, if we need to mail or email a survey, please let Gary know ASAP. (7) As you may know, LURC’s decision rests almost entirely on the project’s impact on the scenic value and use of the Lakes. The goal of the Survey is to find out how people who use these lakes think the Bowers Mountain Wind project will affect the scenic value of the lakes and their use of the lakes. Only people who have actually visited/used the Lakes should take the survey. (8) LURC is interested in how many people have used more than one lake in a single outing, either while fishing or paddling. They are also interested in how much use the campsites get. So, if you’ve ever paddled between lakes, or fished multiple lakes in an outing, or used the campsites, make sure you answer those questions honestly and accurately. (9) If you need to, you can always revisit previous pages and change your answers. However, once you reach the end of the survey and click the “Submit” button, you will not be able to make changes. (10) Please be careful. Surveys that are not filled out completely will be rejected. To participate in the survey, please direct your browser to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PPDLW |
| Lynne Williams Bangor Daily News Op-Ed: The January 24 issue of the Bangor Daily News includes an Op-Ed column by attorney Lynne Williams in which she urges, in part, “It is about time that the impacts of these industrial projects are internalized, so that the agencies that are reviewing them have data available to weigh the economic benefits of the projects against the cost. And that cost must include the closure of small businesses, due to the projec’’s impacts on scenic values, environmental protection, wildlife, real estate values and human health. We must not allow our communities to be destroyed in the name of so-called green job creation.” To read the column at the newspaper’s website, please click here. |
| Bull Hill Wind Project: Is First Wind Financially Capable? We have received the following email message from Attorney Lynne Williams: From: Lynne Williams (lwill@earthlink.net) Hello Bull Hill folks: I just submitted the attached on behalf of Concerned Citizens for Rural Hancock County, with regard to the requirement to show financial capacity prior to starting any work on the wind project. I think it is very persuasive and if the staff finds financial capacity anyway, I will appeal directly to the Commission. Hope you are all well, Lynne The “attached” to which Lynne Williams refers is a letter prepared by Finance 500, Inc. and sent to Marcia Spencer-Famous, the staff member at LURC who has replaced Don Murphy, who is retired. The letter addresses First Wind’s Bull Hill submission to LURC, and concludes “… it would be a failure of due diligence on LURC’s part to make a finding of financial capacity based on a submission that is as flimsy and unverified as this one.” To read the full text of the letter in PDF format, please click here. On January 22, we received from Attorney Lynne Williams “additional comments” submitted to LURC regarding First Wind's financial capacity. This document concludes, “First Wind is in the red, as even the cursory, one-page, unaudited financial statement indicates. They have withdrawn their IPOs twice, so it is unlikely they will try that route again. If they do not get a cash infusion soon, they will not have the finances to build the Bull Hill project, much less the other three projects that they have in various stages of permitting”. To read the full text of this document in PDF format, please click here. |
| LURC Approves Township 16 Project As expected (see here), at its October 5 meeting in Ellsworth, LURC approved First Wind’s Bull Hill Wind Project in Township 16. For the Bangor Daily News story of the meeting, please click here. In reading the article, please note particularly these sentences, quoted here from the paper’s early edition: “The commission also required First Wind to set aside more money to decommission and remove the turbines should the project cease operations. It also mandated the company have the project’s financing lined up before beginning construction. … more stringent standards were applied to the Bull Hill project than on other wind farms.”
LURC Draft Approves Permit for Township 16 Project We have received a copy of the final draft by the Staff at LURC of the Commissioners’ decision approving the Bull Hill Wind Project in Township 16. We have not read every word of it (the document is ninety-one pages), but we do not see a mandate, as so many Eastbrookers urged and hoped, that First Wind be required to respect Eastbrook’s ordinance’s one mile setback from homes, specifically those residences at the end of Sugar Hill Road, which, as we read the map, will be the closest to the proposed towers. To read the document (in PDF format), please click here. As reported below, LURC will meet at the Ramada Inn in Ellsworth at 9:30 AM on October 5, where the formal accouncement of this decision will be made. To read the Agenda for the October 5 meeting, please click here.
We have received the following email message from Donald Murphy, LURC’s Project Planner for the Township 16 wind turbine project proposed by First Wind (Blue Sky East): Subject: LURC – Blue Sky East LLC – &$8220;Bull Hill Wind Project”, LURC Development Permit Application DP #4886 Draft Permit now on Web RE: Blue Sky East LLC – “Bull Hill Wind Project”, LURC Development Permit Application DP #4886 Draft Permit now on Web Notice of the following: Final “Bull Hill Wind Project” Draft Permit is now available on the LURC website. Reminder of earlier notice; LURC Commission Meeting October 5, 2011 at the Ramada Inn in Ellsworth, Maine. Agenda Item: Bull Hill Wind Project Development Permit Application DP #4886 Decision by Commission Direct Application LURC website link: http://www.maine.gov/doc/lurc/projects/Windpower/FirstWind/BlueSkyEast/BlueSkyEast.html Please follow the link offered for the meeting agenda, directions, and access to the Draft Permit for Commission review and decision. The Commission cover letter provides a Table of Contents for the permit. Although the meeting is open to the public; the record is closed for additional comment. Note the meeting may not be webcast as usual due to concern of meeting room technical access; look for an audio recording at a later date on the LURC page. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. Don Murphy
We have received the following email message from Donald Murphy, LURC’s Project Planner for the Township 16 wind turbine project proposed by First Wind (Blue Sky East): Subject: Announcement of Location of the October 5, 2011 LURC Commission meeting Note: The LURC Commissioners are holding their regular business meeting of October 5th in Ellsworth at the Ramada Inn at 215 High Street, instead of their regular Bangor meeting site. This is because of the proximity of the Bull Hill and Bower’s Mountain Wind Power Projects locations which are on their agenda for that meeting. It offers convenience to the public and area parties. The meeting begins at 9:30 am in the conference room, and the agenda will be available next week on the LURC website. The Commission will review the Bull Hill Wind Project draft permit with conditions, and the final project decision is anticipated. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. Donald E. Murphy, Project Planner To read the Agenda for the October 5 meeting, please click here. |
| Maine DEP Asks for Public Input The Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is considering recommendations from its staff concerning noise levels permitted to wind turbines at night. As part of that process, the DEP is asking the public for comments. Comments may be sent no later than August 29 by contacting Mike Mullen at 207-446-1611 or by email at mike.mullen@maine.gov For more about this, please click here for the Bangor Daily News story, and here for the DEP announcement. |
| Governor Paul LePage on Wind Power Here is an interesting (surprising?) sound bite from the Governor’s August 5 Town Hall meeting in Rockport. Speaking about the wind power industry in Maine, the Governor observed: They are doing an awful lot of damage to our quality of life, our mountains. I don't think it's going to lower the cost of energy. I think in ten years we’re going to be like Sweden and Denmark, and we're going to be swearing at ourselves. To read the Maine Sunday Telegram report of the meeting, please click here. |
| Physicist John Droz to Speak in Maine We are informed that physicist John Droz will be visiting Maine where he will give an energy presentation at the University of Maine in Orono on September 22nd and at Deering High School in Portland on September 23rd. We will provide additional details about those two events as we receive them. Here are two links to materials by and about John Droz: Electrical Energy, Science, and You — and — Wind Power Facts. Here is the press release concerning his visit to Maine — Caution to dial-up users: It is a big PDF file! Here is the text of an email message from John Droz which has been forwarded to us: A US federal agency, the Fish & Wildlife Service, is currently debating whether or not there will be national wildlife rules for industrial wind energy, and if yes, what they will be. At stake is this: if they adopt strict mandatory rules, it could severely restrict wind energy in every state in the country. For the first time, this agency is asking for public input. Send your comments in a simple email to windenergy@fws.gov. They will only be accepted until August 4, 2011. If you want to wade through the technical details (not necessary) look at http://www.fws.gov/windenergy/. The gist of the debate is that the American Wind Energy Association and the wind industry want loose, voluntary, guidelines. Citizens concerned about the environment are asking for tight, mandatory, rules. We are also advocating that a wind developer make a substantial upfront payment ($5000± per turbine) for the state/federal government to hire independent experts to assess wildlife impacts. (Right now the developer hires his own experts, so you can guess what they conclude.) Please submit something to the USF&W on this most important issue — and pass this request on to your email list contacts. If we could get 1000+ people sending in sensible comments, that could have a powerful impact. So this is something free, simple, and could be influential in your community. Please do it today! Regards, john droz, jr.
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— First Wind in Township 16 — LURC Tentatively Approves The Township 16 Wind Farm At their meeting on August 3, Maine's Land Use Regulation Commission “tentatively” approved First Wind’s application to build a wind farm in Township 16. We place the word tentatively inside quotation marks because we do not know what it means precisely in this context. About that, the Bangor Daily News article on the subject notes “the project faces some obstacles before a final vote next month”. There is no mention in the article about whether or not First Wind will be permitted to erect wind turbine towers in Township 16 which are currently sited within one mile of several Eastbrook residences. As regards Eastbrook, the newspaper reports that First Wind’s attorney told LURC that, although the company has indicated in the past that it has plans for additional wind turbines in Eastbrook as part of the Township 16 project, “no plans currently exist”. We are not sure what that means precisely, either. To read the Bangor Daily News story, please click here. UPDATE: We have received the following email message from an Eastbrooker who attended yesterday’s meeting: … “tentatively” means that LURC still needs more information from its staff before it can make the final decision. The area in question deals with the classification of water bodies by the state. This classification conflicts with the visual impacts portion of the wind energy act. LURC is worried that their decision will impact the current lakes classification process.
Deliberation Notebook for LURC Meeting re Bull Hill Wind Project The Bangor Daily News website is conducting a (thoroughly unprofessional) poll, asking readers “Would you oppose a wind power project in your home town?” It is adjacent to a story about a wind power project proposed for Mount Waldo concerning which the Board of Selectmen of Frankfort appear to “have chosen not to enforce a wind power moratorium the town’s voters enacted in May”. To read that story, and to respond to the newspaper's poll, please click here We have received the following email message from attorney Lynne Williams: Hello All, I received in the mail today the Deliberation Notebook for Wednesday’s LURC meeting on the Bull Hill Project. The contents will be posted on the LURC site on Friday, so you can all read it. We will not be allowed to speak at the meeting, but you will see when you read it that much of our relevant testimony was included. This is the first time that the Notebook has been distributed to the parties in any matter, so we are getting a bit of insight into the processes at work. Lynne The LURC meeting referred to above is on Wednesday, August 3, at 9:30 AM at the Spectacular Events Center, 395 Griffin Road, Bangor. To read the agenda for the meeting, please click here (where click again on “Agenda”). The full LURC calendar is here. To view the Deliberation Notebook on LURC’s website, please click here (once there, scroll down a bit).
Lynne Williams Submits Brief to LURC On behalf of the Concerned Citizens of Rural Hancock County (CCRHC), Lynne Williams has submitted a brief to Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission concerning the application by First Wind’s subsidiary Blue Sky East (BSE) to erect a wind farm in Township 16. In an email to us, Williams wrote that she expects the Commissioners “are probably going to deliberate in September”. The brief specifies clear and convincing reasons why the Commissioners should reject First Wind’s application, and concludes, “For these reasons, and in consideration of the the increasingly negative cumulative impact of incremental development of industrial wind facilities in Downeast Maine, CCRHC respectfully requests that this Commission reject the application of BSE to construct an industrial wind facility on Bull and Heifer Hills in Twp. 16, Hancock County, Maine”. The full text of the brief is on the website here.
An Eastbrook summer resident has sent the following letter to Fred Todd, LURC’s Project Planner on Blue Sky East’s Township 16 wind farm application. (Blue Sky East is a subsidiary of First Wind.) As a summer resident of Molasses Pond in Eastbrook, ME (which is adjacent to Township 16, where First Wind is proposing a wind turbine development) I just wanted to briefly send you my “two cents” regarding all this. In principle, I do not have an issue with the development of alternative energies, including wind power. That being said, I have been a direct observer of these wind farms, because a very large one exists in Palm Springs, California near my winter home. This wind farm is quite similar to First Wind’s proposal, in that it involves the same type of blade/propeller technology as First Wind plans to install (although the Palm Springs turbines are only 125 feet tall, versus the ones First Wind wants to install, which are 470 feet in height – nearly 4 times taller). Here is my primary issue: These types of wind turbines are OLD TECHNOLOGY – they are already dinosaurs, technologically speaking. Anyone who keeps up to date with current innovations in green energy (look at Scientific American magazine, or Discover magazine, for example) knows this fact. Specifically, here is an article (please click here) which highlights what I’ve been saying all along and what I have been HOPING someone could urgently convey to members of LURC and other regulatory/decision-making bodies: The current wind turbine technology is simply and totally “'old hat”, inefficient and outdated. (Yes, the current batch of blade/propeller turbines are better than the ones from 25 years ago, but they still only have a realistic functional life expectancy of 20-30 years … and then they sit there, dead and useless – forever. This is the case with Palm Springs. Hundreds and hundreds of dead steel carcasses line the valley floor for miles, sitting there useless, never spinning one watt of energy. They were erected 30 years ago, and they will likely remain there for a hundred or more years in the future, because no plan to demolition them was ever funded or put in place.) That article talks about a much more efficient machine (and less offensive one, from both a visual and sound perspective) — a type of wind turbine that eliminates the giant blades and instead has a compact “eggbeater” design that captures and generates much more wattage than the antiquated turbines that First Wind is using. And this is just one of many new developments in green energy technology. My favorite new invention for capturing wind is giant “turbine kites” that are tethered to the earth by near-invisible steel cabling, and then float up in the Jet Stream. The beauty of this is that the Jet Stream is a constant flow of wind, moving without pause at 200 mph!! The energy efficiency ratio is HUGE … and there is no sound or sight issues with turbine-kites, such as exists with earth-bound turbines like First Wind’s. (To read Discover magazine’s article about this technology, please click here.) Each “turbine kite” generates somewhere between 10-20 times more energy than a comparable blade/propeller turbine. In other words, it takes far fewer turbines to generate an equivalent amount of energy. There are also amazing new innovations in capturing ocean wave-energy and translating that into electrical power. Again, there have been recent articles in Scientific American and Discover magazine about trials being done now, on the coast of Maine, in this very regard. These machines impact no one – no visual, auditory, olefactory or other negatives – while generating substantial energy because waves are a constant source of power. In any case, this is my argument to you and other decision-makers. In considering proposals from companies like First Wind, you are considering antiquated technology that is already on the cusp of worthlessness. If you want to truly “do right” by Maine, and make it a literal Power House of Green Energy, you should be looking ahead to more advanced – and less impactful – technologies, rather than falling back and relying on dead dinosaurs. Thanks for listening.
At their meeting in Ellsworth on Thursday, June 2, the Hancock County Commissioners voted to approve a financial arrangement (TIF etc.) between the County and First Wind regarding the Bull Hill Wind Project in Township 16. The arrangement between First Wind and the County will not go into effect until/unless LURC approves the project itself. To read the Bangor Daily News article reporting the meeting, please click here. See also here. The LURC Public Hearing concerning the Township 16 wind power project was Monday and Tuesday, May 16 and 17, at the Ramada Inn in Ellsworth. The Ramada Inn is at 215 High Street, next to Hannaford, in the building which used to be a Holiday Inn. The hearing was open to the public. Comments from members of the public were heard at the evening sessions (6:00 PM). For the full agenda, please click here. For a report of the meeting which appeared in the Bangor Daily News, please click here. At 4:00 PM on Monday, the day of the Public Hearing, First Wind submitted new, substantive documents concerning the Bull Hill Wind Project, which was the subject of the Public Hearing. Because of the late submission of these documents, no one – neither the LURC Commissioners or Staff nor Lynne Williams, attorney for Concerned Citizens of Rural Hancock County (CCRHC), or any of the other interested parties and expert witnesses – had an opportunity to consider them before the Public Hearing ended the following day. Therefore, Lynne Williams has submitted a motion to LURC asking that the Commissioners either exclude the documents from the record or, alterntively, extend the Public Hearing to allow time and opportunity for proper consideration of the documents by those concerned. To read the motion, please click here. Here are several messages we have sent to the “mailing list”: Subject: County TIF Meeting Friends, A reminder (and a clarification) … The Hancock County Commissioners are meeting tomorrow, Thursday, June 2, at 1:00 PM in Ellsworth at the Court House (upstairs, I’m told), 50 State Street, to consider the TIF (Tax Increment Financing) arrangement related to First Wind’s proposed project in Township 16, so-called Bull Hill Wind Project. The meeting is open to the public. For a brief consideration of TIFs which appeared on the website’s forum, please click here. And for those of you who, like me, were frightened by its sudden, unexpected appearance the other day, I am informed that the big, bright ball which has poked out from behind the cloud cover a couple of times recently is, in fact, the sun. Stefan
Subject: A few moments of your time, please Friends, 1) A few days ago, I forwarded to you a petition asking the LURC Commissioners, if they decide to approve First Wind’s application to build a wind farm in neighboring Township 16 (the so-called Bull Hill Wind Project), to require that First Wind (also known as Blue Sky East, LLC) to adhere to the stipulations in Eastbrook’s ordinance, Comprehensive Plan, and Land Use ordinances, which include a one mile separation between turbine towers and residences. And, as I have written before, one or more of the towers currently proposed for Township 16 will be well within a mile of residences in Eastbrook, and others will have a significant visual impact on people living in Eastbrook. These issues were raised at LURC’s Public Hearing in Ellsworth on Monday and Tuesday, hopefully with effect. But the petition remains a necessary instrument. So we urge everyone so inclined to sign the petition pretty much immediately, and postal mail it to Roseanna Rich, 1284 Macomber Mill Road, Eastbrook, ME 04634 in time to arrive to her by Friday, May 27 (today is the twentieth) so that she can forward them all to LURC to arrive before LURC's deadline for submissions from the public. Again, I remind you that this petition is not asking LURC to kill the project. Here, we are simply asking that First Wind not be allowed to hide behind the town line, so to speak, and erect turbine towers in disregard of Eastbrook’s ordinances, including the mandated one mile separation between towers and homes, something the Town of Eastbrook has agreed First Wind would not be permitted to do if the turbine tower sites were on our side of the town line. The petition is available in PDF format for downloading and printing here 2) On Thursday, June 2, at 2:00 PM, the Hancock County Commissioners will meet with representatives of First Wind at the County Courthouse in Ellsworth. It is a public meeting. The subject is TIF (Tax Increment Financing); specifically, the TIF benefits which will accrue to Hancock County from the Bull Hill Wind Project if the project is endorsed by the County Commissioners and approved by LURC. As most of you are aware, TIF is a form of public financing of private development. According to proponents, TIF is like winning the lottery. Others are not so sure. For a brief consideration of TIF, please direct your browser here. As the County Commissioners deliberate, it is important that, as public servants, they are made aware that the public is interested, even intensely interested, in this subject generally, and in the Bull Hill Wind Project specifically. The LURC Commissioners surely got a sense of that by the size, diversity, and enthusiasm of the turnout at their Public Hearing on Monday and Tuesday. We urge a similar turnout on June 2 at 2:00 PM in the County Courthouse in Ellsworth. Whatever your views on this issue, it is always a good thing for public servants to be reminded who are the public and who are the servants, and showing an active, attentive interest in their work is an easy and effective way of accomplishing that. Stefan
Subject: Petition LURC re TWP 16 Wind Farm Friends, The attached file (in PDF format) is a petition being signed by Eastbrookers and others asking the LURC Commissioners, if they decide to approve First Wind’s application to build a wind farm in neighboring Township 16, to require that First Wind (also known as Blue Sky East, LLC) to adhere to the stipulations in Eastbrook’s ordinance, Comprehensive Plan, and Land Use ordinances. As I have written before, one or more of the towers proposed for Township 16 will be well within a mile of current residences in Eastbrook, and others will be close enough to the town line to have a significant visual impact on Eastbrook residents and vsiitors. In its new ordinance and related documents, Eastbrook agreed upon a set of limits and restrictions governing the construction of wind towers in town. It seems to us eminently reasonable to ask the Commissioners not to allow First Wind to end-run those by, in effect, hiding behind the town line, and construct in Township 16 wind turbine towers which violate the provisions of Eastbrook’s ordinance but which will nonetheless directly affect Eastbrookers just as surely as if the towers were on our side of the town line. Please note that we are not asking the Commissioners to deny First Wind’s application. We are simply asking the Commissioners, if they choose to approve the application, to stipulate that First Wind be a good neighbor, and respect the spirit of Eastbrook's ordinances. Frankly, I don't understand why First Wind has not already, on its own initiative, publicly and freely offered just that. We hope you will print the attached file and sign this petition, and postal mail it to Roseanna Rich, 1284 Macomber Mill Road, Eastbrook, ME 04634. (The petition is here on the website.) Thank you. Stefan PS Please don't forget: The LURC Public Hearing is on May 16 and 17 at the Ramada Inn in Ellsworth. Public comments will be heard at the evening sessions (6:00 PM). The full agenda is here
Subject: More on Township 16 Friends, Lynne Williams has submitted to LURC written testimony prepared by the four expert witnesses who will speak to our side of the issue at the LURC Public Hearing on May 16 and 17 at the Ramada Inn in Ellsworth. The documents are available on the website (in PDF format) at: — The Moore Companies’ testimony As I understand it, First Wind has until this coming Friday to rebut those written testimonies, as undoubtedly they will, which I suppose will then require rebuttals to their rebuttals. Lynne tells me that the response to the requests for donations to help meet the costs incurred by the witnesses has been encouraging. But the need continues. Those of you – or any of your friends and neighbors – who may still be thinking of contributing, please include in your consideration the story in yesterday’s and today’s Bangor Daily News reporting First Wind’s multi-million dollar deal with two Canadian electric power companies which will “support First Wind’s plans to grow and develop and invest in new projects” and “alter the energy landscape”. As far as I know, there are no Canadian companies wanting to support our efforts, so we have to do it ourselves. As I have written before, the witnesses Lynne has lined up are professionals, and like the rest of us, they have lives and needs, so our demonstrating a willingness to at least meet their costs does not seem too much to ask. A bunch of little checks, even ten or twenty dollars, will add up quickly. (Please make checks payable to “Lynne Williams, Esq.” with a notation at the bottom of your check reading “client trust fund”, and mail them to Lynne Williams, 13 Albert Meadow, Bar Harbor, ME 04609.) Also, as I wrote earlier, I hope that summer people particularly who are on this mailing list are sharing these emails with others who may not be on the list, because otherwise, if LURC approves the Bull Hill Project as it is currently designed, there are going to be some very surprised campers around Molasses Pond this summer. A reminder: The LURC Public Hearing in Ellsworth on May 16 and 17 at the Ramada Inn is, at its name suggests, open to the public, particularly the 6:00 PM evening sessions when members of the public will be allowed to speak. A good showing is essential. From what I have seen of them, the LURC Commissioners are ordinary human beings – If only a handful of people show up at the hearing, they are quite naturally going to conclude that the public does not care, and inevitably their decision-making will be affected accordingly. (Here is LURC’s schedule for the two days.) Stefan
Subject: Wind
Turbine Towers in Township 16 Friends, As perhaps all of you are aware, First Wind, the company which plans to erect a wind farm in Eastbrook, has applied to Maine's Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) for permission to erect a wind farm in Township 16, which abuts Eastbrook. For more about that, please visit the website here and LURC’s website. The Bull Hill Wind Project, as the proposal is nicknamed, includes nineteen wind turbines. As I understand the company's intentions, one or more of the turbine towers are currently sited within one mile of Eastbrook residences at the end of Sugar Hill Road (the line between Eastbrook and Township 16 is quite near there) and several turbine towers will be clearly visible and possibly audible from residences and camps on and near Molasses Pond. A group of Eastbrook residents, among others, has formed a group called Concerned Citizens for Rural Hancock County. They are represented by Bar Harbor attorney Lynne Williams, a lawyer who is active in this field, and, as it happens, the attorney whom we unsuccessfully suggested a year ago to Eastbrook's Selectmen and Comprehensive Plan Committee -- please see here. The members are a diverse group. While I cannot speak for others, I expect there are among us some whose opposition to the introduction of wind turbines into rural Maine is strong, even adamant, and others who are reluctantly willing, if not enthusiastic, to accept the project so long as it is done right. Several members of the group asked LURC to hold a Public Hearing concerning the Bull Hill Wind Project, so that the public would have an opportunity to be heard and have their positions be considered in the decision-making process. The Commissioners agreed, and have now scheduled a Public Hearing which I believe will be Monday and Tuesday, May 16 and 17, in Ellsworth. More details will become available as the date approaches. (Since sending this message we received the schedule from LURC. To read that, please click here.) Members of the group will be there, of course, as well as Lynne Williams, in her capacity as the group's attorney , for which purpose she has been granted so-called "Intervenor" status by LURC. Lynne has arranged for expert witnesses to present testimony at the Public Hearing, for which we need help in raising money to meet their expenses. The attached document, in PDF format, introduces those experts. These folks are committed to their work, but clearly it is unreasonable to ask them to go out of pocket while helping us. Unfortunately, unlike First Wind, we are not eligible for "stimulus dollars"! But fortunately, we do not need a tremendous amount, only about $2,500. We think, we hope, we can raise that in small donations from Eastbrook year-rounders and summer people. So, if you can help, please do, in any amount, even as little as $25, or perhaps as much as $100 or more. Whatever you can afford will be greatly appreciated. Please make checks payable to “Lynne Williams, Esq.” with a notation at the bottom of your check reading “client trust fund”. Mail them to Lynne Williams at 13 Albert Meadow, Bar Harbor, ME 04609. We do hope that some of you who may be hearing of all this for the first time will want to become involved. Also, I hope each of you will forward this message to friends and neighbors who you believe may be interested but not yet aware. Stefan
We have received notices from LURC with details about the Public Hearing concerning First Wind’s application to build a wind power farm in neighboring Township 16, the so-called “Blue Sky East, LLC, Bull Hill Wind Project”. Immediately below is the operative portion of one such notice. To read it in full, please click here. We have also received from LURC a document entitled “Fifth Procedural Order Public Hearing Schedule” with additional details. To read that, please click here. TIME, PLACE and AGENDA: The hearing will be held on Monday and Tuesday, May 16 and 17, 2011, at The Ellsworth Ramada, 215 High Street, Ellsworth, ME 04605. Other than those portions of the hearing allocated for public testimony (namely 6:00 p.m. on each evening of the hearing), the times set forth below may be adjusted at the discretion of the presiding officer. Because adjustments may be made, any person interested in the site visit is encouraged to contact LURC staff in advance. MONDAY, MAY 16, 2011 10:00 AM Commission site visit to the proposed development area will depart from the Eastbrook Town Office 6:00 PM Public Session Opening statement by Presiding Officer LURC Staff statement and administrative history Applicantís summary of the proposal Public testimony Closing statement of the Presiding Officer. TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2011 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM Opening statement by Presiding Officer LURC Staff statement and administrative history Parties’s Opening Statements Summary of Applicantís testimony, Cross-examination of its witnesses, questions by Commission, and redirect. 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM Recess for lunch 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM Summary of direct testimony by Intervenors, cross-examination of their witnesses, questions by the Commission, and redirect 6:00 PM Public Session Opening Statement by Presiding Officer Staff statement and adminstrative history Applicant’s summary of the proposal Public testimony (additional written testimony from the public may be submitted until the end of the post-hearing comment period) Additional summaries and/or cross-examintation by the parties may occur as time permits during this evening session Closing statement of the Presiding Officer [End of Period to receive Oral Public Testimony]
Repeated below is another email message we have received from Lynne Williams April 8, 2011 – An update and lots of good news … Yesterday, the Friends of Highland Mountains prevailed in their motion to bifurcate the visual impact evaluation of the application for industrial wind submitted by former Governor Angus King, and they prevailed! The visual impacts of the associated facilities (roads, met towers, buildings, and the like) will now be judged under the traditional “harmonious fit” standard, as opposed to the cursory standard mandated in the expedited wind law. We have a similar motion pending, and hopefully the Commission will find in our favor also. Also today, the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) came out AGAINST the Bull Hill Wind Project. This is very big, because they are very pro-wind, and only choose to be against those projects that they consider to have really negative impacts. They are an intervenor in this case, and will present a great witness, Cathy Johnson, whom I have worked with before on the Plum Creek rezoning (an aside – we WON that today; the court overturned LURC – I was one of the three attorneys appealing it). I am attaching the Procedural Order that lays out the time frame for consideration of our application. Please, you must all come to the evening public hearings and speak out. It is so important that the Commission see our support. We have four great expert witnesses to present to the commission. We already have funding for one of them, and a bit towards the second, but still need to raise a bit of money. Please, give what you can. Particularly with the NRCM coming out against Bull Hill, we really do have the opportunity to defeat this project, but only if we all pitch in. I know there are summer folks who are not on this mailing list. Would someone take the responsibility of contacting them, or giving me their email, so we can ask for their financial support. I would like to set up a conference call for next week, any night except Wednesday works for me, and any daytime except for Tuesday and Wednesday. Please get back to me ASAP as to available dates and times. I believe that we have an opportunity to be successful here, and I want to keep all of you informed.
Pre-Conference Hearing DP4866 – Bull Hill Wind Project: March 22, 2011, Tuesday at 9:00 AM, in the first floor conference room #109 in the Departent of Conservation Harlow Building, Augusta. This is not a hearing. No testimony or input from the public is allowed. It is a meeting to lay out the time frame for the consideration of the application and details of the process. I will be attending as the rep of the Concerned Citizens for Rural Hancock County; there is no need for anyone else to attend, although it is an open meeting. Following this meeting, I would like to set up a meeting with anyone who would like to attend, so that we can discuss the sort of testimony we want to offer at the hearing.
LURC Considers Public Hearing Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) met in Bangor on March 2 to consider, among other matters, requests for a public hearing and for intervenor status in the case of First Wind's proposed industrial wind farm in Township 16, nicknamed “Bull Hill Wind Project”. There were about twenty members of the public present, including Dave Fowler of First Wind, Kelly Boden, First Wind’s attorney, and Lynne Williams, attorney for Concerned Citizens of Rural Hancock County. By our count, there was one person from Eastbrook. The Commission’s agenda for the meeting and related documents are available at LURC’s website here. Donald Murphy of LURC’s staff reported that LURC had received thirteen requests for a public hearing. Based on that number and their content, he said the staff recommended that the Commissioners agree to hold a public hearing. The Commissioners voted unanimously to do so. Murphy then reported that LURC had received five requests for intervernor status, of which two had been withdrawn that morning. The remaining three were from the Natural Resource Council of Maine (NRCM), the Hancock County Commissioners (HCC), and Lynne Williams, attorney for Concerned Citizens of Rural Hacock County. Murphy said that the staff recommended the Commission approve all three. Kelly Boden said that First Wind agreed that the first two should be granted intervenor status, but she said the company was uncertain about Lynne Williams. She said the company wondered if Williams may be representing persons who are simply opposed to wind power generally but who have no specific, direct connection to or relationship with the TWP 16 project. Williams explained that Concerned Citizens of Rural Hancock County is composed of residents and others who live or work in Township 16 or in other neighboring, abutting towns, and therefore their interest in the TWP 16 project is specific, direct, and personal. The Commission voted unanimously to grant intervenor status to NRCM, HCC, and Lynne Williams. (In the interest of full disclosure, we admit we do not know precisely what is “intervernor status”.) It is our understanding that the next move in this dance is that LURC will schedule a new public meeting to consider and determine the procedures and rules which shall govern the public hearing, including presumably a date for it. After that, the public hearing itself will be held. From what we heard, it seems that the public hearing is unlikely to be held before summer.
Eastbrook’s new land use ordinance passed into law on January 19 prohibits construction of wind turbine towers within one mile of residences. In its email message, LURC invites comments from interested parties. Therefore, we urge Eastbrookers to ask LURC that the Commission prohibit First Wind from constructing any wind turbine towers in Township 16 which would be within one mile of any residences in Eastbrook, in accordance with Eastbrook’s own ordinance which prohibits wind turbine towers within one mile of residences. In other words, as we suggested in our letter of March 1, 2010, to the Eastbrook Selectmen and Comprehensive Plan Committee, we suggest that LURC not allow First Wind to circumvent or end run Eastbrook’s separation stipulation by “hiding towers, as it were, behind a town line”. Eastbrookers may send their comments to LURC either by postal mail to Maine Land Use Regulation Commission, Department of Conservation, 22 State House Station, Augusta, Maine 04333, or by email to LURC Project Planner Donald.Murphy@maine.gov. On LURC’s website, there is a page dedicated to the TWP 16 project, known formally as “First Wind–Blue Sky East Bull Hill Wind Project”. To open that page, please click here. Here is the full text of the email message we received from LURC: NOTICE OF ACCEPTANCE FOR PROCESSING This is to notify you that Blue Sky East, LLC, c/o First Wind 179 Lincoln Street, Suite 500, Boston MA 02111, filed a Grid Scale Wind Energy Development Permit Application with the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission (“the Commission”) pursuant to the provisions of 35-A M.R.S., § 3451 et seq. and 12 M.R.S., § 685-B to build a wind power project in T16 MD, Hancock County, Maine. This area is LURC zoned as General Management Subdistrict (M-GN), with areas of Wetland Protection Subdistrict (P-WL) and Shoreland Protection Subdistrict (P-SL). Blue Sky East, LLC is seeking development permit approval from the Commission for 19 Vestas wind turbines with a potential output of 1.8 megawatts (MW) per turbine, and a combined potential output of 34 MW. The turbines will be located on Bull Hill and Heifer Hill in T16 MD. The project would also include: access to the turbines utilizing new and existing roads; 34.5 kilovolt (kV) underground collector lines connecting the turbines; a new substation; an operations and maintenance building; and up to four permanent meteorological towers. Power from the project would connect directly from the new substation to an existing 115kV transmission line. The Grid Scale Wind Energy Development Permit Application was submitted to the LURC Commission’s office in Augusta (Maine Department of Conservation, 18 Elkins Lane, Harlow Building, 4th floor) on January 31, 2011. Commission staff accepted this application for the “Bull Hill Wind Project” as complete for processing on February 2, 2011. Copies of the complete application will be made available in Maine at the Hancock County Commissioners Office at 50 State Street, Ellsworth; the Land Use Regulation Commission Regional Office at 106 Hogan Road, Suite 7, Bangor; and the Eastbrook Town Office at 959 Eastbrook Road, Eastbrook. A copy of the complete application will soon be posted on LURC’s website: Blue Sky East-Bull Hill Wind Project Application for DP-4886 Requests for a public hearing or for Intervenor status must be submitted in writing to the Commission by 12:00 PM (noon) Wednesday, February 23, 2011, at the LURC Augusta office. Written comments from interested persons will be accepted during the review of the application. Review comments should be sent to Maine Land Use Regulation Commission, Department of Conservation, 22 State House Station, Augusta, Maine 04333; or by email to LURC Project Planner Donald.Murphy@maine.gov. Additional information, instructions for submitting comments, and project updates can be found at LURC’s website address: http://www.maine.gov/doc/lurc or by calling Project Planner Murphy at (207) 287-2619 or the LURC Augusta main office (207) 287-2631. |
— Eastbrook Approves Wind Power Ordinance — At 7:00 PM on Wednesday, January 19, Eastbrookers met at the Community Center to vote on three Warrant items, including an ordinance regulating the development of industrial wind in town. (For the text of the Warrant, please click here.) According to an Eastbrooker who was
present, these are the results of the votes: According to the Bangor Daily News, First Selectman Charles “Shibby” Yeo and “several other local officials circulated a signed letter in the days before the vote that cited the potential financial benefits to the town of wind power development and urged residents to approve the ordinance”. To read the newspaper’s story, please click here. Here is the text of the letter which the Town's officers circulated: Estmated Income to Our Town of Eastbrook from Wind Energy Based on the construction of 10 Wind Turbines at a cost of $2.5 million each, the total increase in value to our Town would be 25 million dollars. This increase in value is protected from the State of Maine through our TIF Agreement. At our current Mill Rate of 0.01735, these 10 Turbines would add $433,750.00 of income to our Town yearly. As our Mill Rate increases, this yearly income will also increase. If our Mill Rate increased to 0.02535 in 10 years, the income from wind energy would go to $633,730.00 yearly. If in the future, more towers are built, the income to our Town will also increase. Other wind towers will have the same value as the initial ten. We, the undersigned Board of Selectmen, Planning Board and Comprehensive Plan Committe urge your support of Wind Energy in the Town of Eastbrook. The letter is signed by Charles L. Yeo, First Selectman; John C Dickens, Third Selectman; Comprehensive Plan Committee members Charles P. Yeo, Mary Harris, Charleen Bunker, Joey Wilbur, Brian Lane, R. Dennis Ellis, Russell Small, David Boulter, and Thomas Donnell. For a consideration of “Standard Taxation” and TIFs, please click here. Here is the meeting's Warrant, as it was published in the Ellsworth American on December 23: Hancock SS State of Maine To: Charles L. Yeo, resident of the Town of Eastbrook in said county. GREETINGS: SPECIAL TOWN
MEETING 1. To choose, by ballot, a Moderator to preside at said meeting. 2. Vote by ballot, Shall the Eastbrook Comprehensive Plan be amended? An attested copy of the amendments is available for review at the Town Office during business hours. 3. Vote by ballot, Shall an ordinance entitled “Eastbrook Land Use Guidance Ordinance” be amended? An attested copy of the amendments is available for review at the Town Office during business hours. 4. Vote by ballot, Shall an ordinance entitled “Wind Energy Facility Ordinance” be enacted? An attested copy of the amendments is available for review at the Town Office during business hours. 5. Reading of the minutes. 6. Motion to adjourn. Respectfully submitted, Charles L. Yeo, 1st Selectman Larry Hardison, 2nd Selectman John C. Dickens, 3rd Selectman |
December 13 Meeting An Eastbrook resident has sent us the following report of the second Public Hearing held at the Communinity Center in Eastbrook on December 13. For a report of the earlier Public Hearing held on November 29, please click here. For a preview of the upcoming January 19 meeting, click here. CPC member Dave Boulter presented a powerpoint introduction to the ordinance. Fewer people attended this meeting than the November 29 meeting. There were few questions. A Sugar Hill resident asked what safeguards were in place for her, considering that her property is 1.3 miles from two proposed sitings of turbines. She was told that the draft ordinance provided for a one mile setback and also included noise standards. She seemed not to be satisfied with the answer, particularly as regards what affects vibration generated by the turbines might have for her. Other points raised by audience members were neither discussed nor entertained by the committee; among those was a question about what recourse residents will have if they suffer from health problems brought on by the turbines. The next meeting is scheduled for 7:00 PM on Wednesday, January 19 at the Community Center. At that meeting, the town will be called upon for a Yea or Nay vote on the Amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, the revisions to the Land Use Ordinance, and the draft Wind Turbine ordinance. For more about that, please click here. |
Mountaintop
Industrial Wind Legislative Summit We have received the following email message: The Harraseeket Inn in Freeport is hosting a legislative summit, as outlined in the attached document. Part of the morning program is designed to help connect us. We are all in this effort together, and showing a unified voice is the best way to help us get protective laws enacted regarding industrial wind developments. Some of us are not familiar with all the other projects and/or proposals in the state, so we want to make sure that everyone gets an opportunity to share the highlights of their effort. Would you please discuss amongst your group members what you want your message to be, and who you would like to deliver it at the February 12th summit, and let me know? Due to the high number of ‘friends’ groups across the state (13, at least!) we are limiting each presentation to 5 minutes, and we’re going to try to adhere to that, since we have a full agenda and some very specific goals to accomplish. But, if you speak quickly, like I do, you can get a whole lot of information out in 5 minutes! It would be good if your spokesman could include information about your exact location, the name of the developer, the size of the wind facility, and the specific concerns you have about the impacts to your surroundings. Some developments are near populated regions and some are not. Some are adjacent to unique landmarks or natural resources, and others will directly impact popular hiking trails or rare bird habitat. A quick summary of the advancement and or history of the project would be informative, as well as what your group has taken for steps to protect your region, quality of life, citizens, etc. We hope to have several members of our state Legislature taking part in the summit, and we believe it is important that they see exactly how hard we have all worked in our attempts to be good stewards of this state. We want every person involved in this effort to take ownership of it. This is not about one mountain, or one organization. This is about all of us, and it’s about this whole unique and wonderful state. In order to get the participation of as many of us as possible, it would be fantastic if your group spokesperson could be someone who is not already a ‘team leader’ for the summit. We want to get to know each other. We have a bond and by necessity, we will be working together closely through the next several months. So please get excited and take part. We have a chance to make changes in the way Maine does business. We have a chance to restore our pride and to show our power as Mainers who are independent and convicted, and who wish to have integrity and common sense returned to Augusta. We’re doing the RIGHT thing. It might not be easy, but this is a cause worth fighting for. We hope you’ll plan to attend the summit and take part in this legislative effort. When you’ve chosen a spokesperson for the Project Presentations, please email me their names, so that they can be listed on our final agenda. Thanks so much. And as always, feel free to contact me or any of the team leaders listed below with questions. Kaz Chris O’Neil 590-3842 cponeil22@gmail.com Karen Bessey Pease |
November 29 Meeting in Eastbrook On December 2, the Bangor Daily News ran a good story about the November 29 Public Hearing in Eastbrook. To read it, please click here. Readers’ comments following the article are interesting, too. Then, please read an Eastbrooker’s report of the same meeting, appearing immediately below here. — An Eastbrook resident has sent us the following report of the November 29 Public Hearing and an announcement of a second public hearing on December 13. For a report of the latter, please click here. The Public Hearing on November 29 was interesting in that the Comprehensive Plan Committee (CPC) had apparently not prepared any information for the attendees. Instead, CPC and Plannning Board Chairman Chuck Yeo simply asked for questions from the audience. No one had any questions because most were new to the process, and had come that evening expecting to be informed about the prospect of a wind power farm in Eastbrook and what needed to be done about it. So, a decision was taken that a second meeting was needed. It will be held at the Eastbrook Community Center at 7:00 PM on Monday, December 13. This second meeting will also be informational in nature; no vote on the documents under consideration will be taken. The documents are the amendments to the Town’s Comprehensive Plan and the Land Use ordinance and a newly drafted Wind Energy Facility ordinance. Those who have not already reviewed those documents are urged to do so before the second public hearing on December 13. Copies can be obtained from the Town Office. In addition, they can be downloaded in PDF format from Hancock County Planning Commission’s website. To do so, please click here. Finally, as mandated by law, there will be a special Town Meeting, date still to be determined, at which Eastbrookers will be called upon to cast their vote on the documents. For information about the special Town Meeting, to be held on January 19, please click here. |
Eastbrook Citizens Committee (ECC) Normally meets at 6:30 PM at the
Eastbrook Community Center We do not know when or where the next ECC meeting is scheduled. |
Comprehensive Plan Committee (CPC) Ordinarily, meetings are the first
and third Wednesday They are open to the public. For the BDN’s report of the
September 8 meeting,
For reports of previous meetings, |
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Board of
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First Wind Bodwell
EnviroAcoustics LLC Elliott
Jordan & Son Eastbrook's Attorney Hancock County Planning
Commission Tech Environmental Inc Dept of Environmental
Protection Concerned Citizens of Rural Hancock County |
For a map to Eastbrook, please click here. |
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Copies of the various documents — drafts of ordinance and the like — which figured in the final adoption by Eastbrook of an ordinance and Comprehensive Plan amendments, can be obstained from the Town Office or downloaded from Hancock County Planning Commission’s website here. The full text of the three ordinances from other towns which were most frequently referred to in the town's discussions of First Wind’s proposal are available on this website. Simply click on the links below. Eastbrook Propost
Draft – August 4 Meeting (PDF Format) |
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This website is intended to be a source of information concerning the wind farms which the company First Wind proposes to build in Eastbrook on land which we are told is leased from Duane Jordan of E. K. Jordan & Sons in Waltham. It is our understanding that First Wind's current intention is to construct a total of fifteen wind turbine towers on Bull Hill and Little Bull Hill and two wind turbine towers behind Sparrow Hill on Heifer Hill or Beech Knoll (we are not certain which). These towers will be about 400 feet tall, some perhaps as high as 540 feet.
Our position on this proposal is simply this. Of course, like everyone else, we wish we still lived in Eden (although Eastbrook as it is today, is pretty close!), where electricity is presumably free and bountiful. But we don’t. So, somehow we need to generate the electricity each of us wants and needs and uses. Whether we generate it by coal, oil, nuclear energy, tidal flows, rivers, solar, or wind, there are pluses, and there are minuses. Despite the protestations of the proponents of each of those, none is cost-free, and none is perfectly efficient. And so, while we do not rejoice at it, we accept the prospect of wind turbine towers in Eastbrook.
However, based on our extensive research of this subject on the internet (and there is a wealth of information – for, against, and neutral – across the worldwide web), we are convinced that Eastbrook must require of First Wind that no wind turbine tower be constructed closer than one and a half miles from any existing residence … unless, and only unless, all home owners within the excluded one and a half mile zone agree to waive the stipulation after coming to satisfactory arrangements with the Town and the company, including perhaps being bought out.
Eastbrook's Board of Selectmen and Planning Board have established an Ordinance Subcommittee charged with the responsibility to craft an ordinance governing wind turbines in town. The Ordinance Subcommittee will receive help and guidance from Tom Martin of the Hancock County Planning Commission. Likewise, the Board of Selectmen are being assisted by Ellsworth attorney Daniel Pileggi.
We believe that it is impossible to overstate or overemphasize the need for a one and a half mile separation between wind turbine towers and residences. And so, if necessary, we will become a nuisance on that subject. Already, we have written the Planning Board about that; to read our letter, please click here. (In order for your browser to display the letter, you will need Adobe Acrobat's Reader, which is most likely already installed on your computer. If not, it is available, free for the download at http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/.)
