FOIA & FOAA requests. From Sears Island in the 1990s to windpower in the 2010s

1995 Sears Island Cargoport plan. 
State and federal FOIA'd documents

2003-2004 FOAA  LNG Plan.  State Documents
https://www.penbay.org/searsisland/searsfoa01a.html
https://www.penbay.org/searsisland/searsfoa02.html
https://www.penbay.org/searsisland/searsfoa03.html
https://www.penbay.org/searsisland/sifoa04.html

2008-2009  FOAA  Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee 
* MDOT's Duane Scott, December 2008
* http://www.penbay.org/searsisland/si_foa_jeb_novdec08/
* http://www.penbay.org/searsisland/searsislandfoaresultsmdotapril1june172009/
* http://penbay.org/searsisland/si_foa09_baldacci_jan_feb_mar_09/
* http://www.penbay.org/searsisland/si_foa_jeb_dec08_jan09/
* http://www.penbay.org/searsisland/si_foa_mdot_april2009/index.html
* http://www.penbay.org/searsisland/si_foa09_baldacci_apr_may_june09/
* http://penbay.org/searsisland/si_foa_mdot_may8may29_2009/
* http://penbay.org/searsisland/si_foa_mdot_61809_80309/index3.html
* http://penbay.org/searsisland/si_mdot_aug09mitigbankplan

 2009 http://web.archive.org/web/20110612171550/http://penbay.org/searsisland/si_foa09_baldacci_jan_feb_mar_09/

2010 Federal Ocean Windpower off Maine
 Buurea of Ocean Energy Mgmt. 2009-2010

2010 State DeepCWind & Tidal Energy
* http://www.penbay.org/monhegan/rmonhegan_foa_reply_011410/index.html
* http://penbay.org/energy/tidal/foa_mdep_tidal_energy_0810/

Seafood & the US Election. Listen to 10/21/20 webinar on ocean windmills

On October 22, 2020, Undercurrent News senior reporter Jason Huffman hosted a webinar entitled Seafood and the American Election 2020 Below are three segments from the 1hr 45min webinar . More to come   Full meeting video on youtube)

Excerpts 

Sebastian Belle of Maine Aquaculture Assn on US  politics of ocean aquaculture 16min 50sec

Leigh Habegger of Seafood Harvesters of America on Trump v Biden on marine national monuments 6min13sec

Saving Seafood group's Bob Vanasse on Ocean windpower impact on fisheries including scallop larvae 6min15sec

Understanding the effects of ocean wind energy extraction upon the Gulf of Maine water column,

The scientific communities and regulatory agencies are slowly but solidly agreeing to focus attention "[o]n the Effect of Offshore Wind Farms on the Atmosphere and Ocean Dynamics"  Follow the figures below for a quick summary. (Note light blue square is a 5km by 5km ocean windfarm)

Elke Ludwig's above study is behind a paywall but she is only one of a growing number of scientists willing to agree that windpower is an extractive industry.

And that chronic ocean wind energy extraction from a floating or grouted-in ocean wind park has measurable effects on the velocity of surface water downstream of each turbine.

And that this becomes an energy deficit in the waters below that surface water, both reducing the Coriolis Effect on water direction, and empowering the upwelling of waters normally below the thermocline.

The big question is: how much wind energy extraction must take place before water column energetics lower enough to destabilize the water column - especially in the summer, when GOM waters are normally pretty stratified? 

And what will that cause, ecologically  speaking?

A smaller farm: about 200 million cubic meters of water upwelling per day

A larger farm:  about 1 billion, 600 million cubic meters of water upwelling per day.  That according to the author's "guesstimate", below the Summary, Conclusion, and Outlook.

FOAA ME Coastal Program re Maine Aqua Ventus 12/1/16- 2/9/17. Plus Participants list

Friends of Penobscot Bay used the Maine Freedom Of Access Act  to request Todd Burrowes of the Maine Coastal Program  to provide copies of  "Public records in your files dated from December 1, 2016 to February 9, 2017 that pertain to the Maine AquaVentus project to build and operate floating windturbines in state waters off Monhegan Island."

 Tood Burrowes response  (8page pdf including FOPB FOAA request)

State officials, NGOs  in Burrowes  FOAA'd emails 
*  Ayotte, Shannon  DACF Commissioner's Office <shannon.ayotte@maine.gov> 

* Burrowes, Todd  Coastal Program. Federal Consistency <Todd.Burrowes@maine.gov> 

* Leyden, Kathleen <Kathleen.Leyden@maine.gov> Maine Coastal Program, Chief

* Nixon, Matthew E  Coastal Program - Ocean planning <Matthew.E.Nixon@maine.gov>, 

* Townsend, Erle  DEP Commissioner's office <Erle.Townsend@maine.gov> 

* Zabierek, Tina   DEP Policy Director  christina.s.zabierek@maine.gov

NGOs
* Heather Leonas ME Ocean & Wind Industry Initiative <heather.leonasmca@gmail.com> 
* Kay Mann  Maine Green Power Program outreach coord<kmann@3degreesinc.com> .

-------------

2016 Offshore Maine floating windpower 1/29/16 webinar. Audio & slides

Audio and slides from the 1/29/16 webinar presentation "Maine's Floating Offshore Wind Project: Moving Forward".

Speakers were Habib Dagher, Director, University of Maine's Advanced Structures and Composite Center, and  Jeff Thaler, Asst University Counsel and Maine AquaVentus Legal Counsel,

 The two cover the past, present and future of floating ocean wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine. Speakers refer to this slideshow

Habib Dagher

Introduction 3min37sec       

Habib Dagher  part 1  15 minutes

Habib Dagher part 2  14min55sec

Jeff Thaler 4 minutes

Habib Dagher Part 3 5 minutes

Q &A Part 1  6 minutes

Jeff Thaler

Q&A Part 2 to end of webinar 6 min 

UME's mini prototype in  Castine harbor storm

Dagher gets knife in back from US Dept of Energy - Maine's not an ocean windpower grant finalist!

Appears that the feds figured out the good doctor Dagher just isn't ready for prime time.

Maine didn't get the $46 million dollar grant to build two fullsize floating windturbines off Monhegan.

The UMaine-led floating ocean winturbines project has suffered terribly from the near paranoid insularity of the project under  Principle Investigator Dagher, who spurned suggestions from anyone outside his charmed circle. (Charmed by the allure of all those tens of millions and what a grand time they would've had expending it

DeepCwind is getting three million federal bucks in the nationwide competitino. but according to a University source this 3 million isn't even enough to make a single full size prototype. One that can actually be tested, unlike the ridiculous toy windmill that the Maine the windies rushed out and wouldn't take out to the test area - They knew it would sink! 


So the feds took a look at this  furtive public-be-damned-operation  that UMaine engineering professor Habib Dagher, Principal Investigator  for the DeepCwind Consortium and its spin off progeny has been running.

They gazed upon the tiny toy windturbine bobbing off Castine. Too shabbily built to be safely tested at the test site off Monhegan, the design inspired no confidence  among the grantors. Where did the money  given DeepCwind to buld a fullscale prototype go? they must have wondered!

This is an important stay.  The University and its hangers-on in the DeepCwind Consortium presumably figured that if they could get away with  soiling Monhegan's viewshed with its  heavy public use and high scenic values, then all marine viewsheds of the Maine coast are vulnerable. Maine has spent too many years stewarding        

Floating off shore windpower extraction is worth trying out, but not when  it is needlessly view-polluting; or within the Gulf's  ecologically (hence economically) vital coastal currents. Nor are great sweeping blades the only way to extract energy from the seawind.   Dr. Dagher should follow his own advice and commit to siting his floaters beyond the curvature of the earth from any inhabited part of Maine.

The scent of imminent Big Money  may have pushed that civic responsibility from his mind. Now that DeepCwind Consortium and its spinoff children are no longer suffering that temptation, perhaps they will step outside of their echo chamber and listen - really LISTEN -to the existing Gulf of Maine communities of interest about how to avoid wrecking  or damaging their existing economic and cultural sectors and the manylayered heavily webbed ecosystem that fills these waters.

Maine's floating windpower project. The backstory & unfilled gaps in knowledge 2005 - 2014

Below find details about the Maine offshore windpower initiative from 2005 to the present:  government documents,  simulations, audio recordings of Maine's legislature, offshore wind industry fishermen and public; scientific/technical reports, birder concerns and more, relating to the proposal to set up floating windmills off Monhegan, Maine.

Agency and NGO Background Documents

* Early Maine offshore wind timeline: January 2005 to February 2010  

* Letters, memos, reports that the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands produced & received in 2009 & 2010 while selecting & approving the Monhegan offshore windpower site. 359 pages

* Results from 2010 FOIA request about offshore Maine windpower to US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (79 pages)

Audio recordings. MP3s.

Maine Fishermens Forums Ocean windpower talks

2012 Fishermens Forum Ocean windpower meeting

2011 Fishermens Forum Ocean windpower meeting

2010 Fishermens Forum Ocean windpower meeting 

2009 Fishermen's Forum Ocean windpower meeting

Other recordings of importance

LEGISLATURE

March 11,18,23,24 2010 Legislative hearing & 3 worksessions on Maine offshore wind law,

February 16, 2010 Audio of DeepCwind presentation to Monhegan Islanders on 2/16/10

July 11, 2013 Webinar "Making History with Volturnus" (wmv) 

June 26, 2012  Statoil info meeting, Rockland, Maine: six interviews 

(Including Jake Ward of DeepCwind)

June 16, 2012 MPBN interviews Habib Dagher and John Ferland

February 16, 2010 DeepCwind presentation to Monhegan Islanders.

November 29, 2009 Maine Offshore Energy '09 

June 15-18, 2009 Energy Ocean 2009

SITING, SCENIC IMPACTS & SIMULATIONS  

Dr. Habib Dagher of UMaine has repeatedly stated the importance of siting ocean windmills sufficiently offshore that they are over the horizon from the mainland. Listen to two excerpted quotes and then the full recordings. 

* Two excerpts from audio statements by UME's Habib Dagher (May 20, 2010 & August  11, 2011)  

* August 11, 2011   Listen to Dr Dagher answer a question about siting the windmills 20 or more miles offshore. Island Institute presentation at Strand Theater, Rockland.

* May 20, 2010  Listen to Dr. Dagher's 45 minute talk at the Rockport Opera House calling for them to be 20 to 50 miles offshore.   45 minutes.   

SIMULATIONS

* Simulated windfarms off southern New England coast at various distances Cape wind project)

* Simulation of Volturnus floating windturbines' likely impact on Maine lobster larvae (1 min long)  Aqua Ventus floating windturbines location off off Monhegan will create a large windshadow and ocean current-slowing zone, where  induced upwelling and downwelling waters in the energy footprint of the turbines may divert downeast lobster larvae-bearing coastal current away from the midcoast.  See Jumars 2010 report, below, for details

EFFECTS ON BIRDS

* Strong concerns from the birding community about  the Monhegan offshore wind site.

SCIENCE. 

University of Maine's "research cluster" of faculty scientists reviewing or taking part in the offshore wind process.

April 20, 2012  New ocean windfarm fishery impact study: drop in local species; increases in exotics.   The effect of floating wind on the plankton and other sealife that relies on  surface water currents.

January 2012 Ocean windmills, turbulence avoidance and zooplankton.

* 2010 Report. Dr. Peter Jumars, Director of the UMaine School of Marine Sciences.  Read Page 13 of his report "Anticipated Environmental Effects of Offshore Windpower Development in the Gulf of Maine". Dr. Jumars cites Norwegian govt scientist Göran Broström's report "On the influence of large wind farms on the upper ocean circulation." (Norwegian Meteorological Institute, 2008) .Göran Broström wrote that the ocean windfarms  reduce wind energy striking the waters  surrounding the turbine  "sufficiently enough that the local ecosystem will most likely be strongly influenced by the presence of a wind farm". Dr Jumars wrote: "This effect could be important offshore because deep waters of the Gulf of Maine stratify in summer. Would it be bad or good?" 

* October 2007  About the "wind shadow" effect of offshore windfarms

* May 1, 2012 Study of the nature of the "Gigawatt wakes" that windturbines create behind them. Viewed from an efficiency point of view but useful to ecological point of view also.

Windpower seminar at 2012 Maine Fishermen's Forum. Listen to groundfishers, lobstermen, tuna men, grill Statoil rep, academics, and govt officials

2012 Fishermen's Forum: offshore wind gets chilly reception.
Listen below to two panels and a room full of fishermen and others discussing both the Statoil proposal and the greater impacts of the additional offshore Gulf of Maine windfarms that would follow in Statoil's wake, (more than a thousand turbines projected).
 Note 1: static from nearby I Pads often jammed the digital audio recorder with overwhelming static, forcing editing out of  parts of several speakers including Glenn Libby and Pete Jumars. Note 2: If anyone is misidentified, please leave a comment to that effect and it will be corrected

OPENING STATEMENT
*  Darryl Francois BOEM opening statement 11min.mp3

INTRODUCTIONS
* Ken Fletcher Governor's office of energy independence_51sec

* Kari Hege Mork Statoil 26sec

 * Rick Bellance Rhode Island fisherman 10sec

* Pete Jumars UMaine 41sec

* John Weber, NROC 1min 48sec

* Paul Willliamson Me Wind Industry Initiative 75 sec

* Kari Hege Mork Statoi introduces video 2min 42sec

 *John Weber NROC 20sec.mp3

QUESTIONS FROM AUDIENCE

* Q: Richard Melton  Friendship Lobster Bait  1min44sec

* QA2 Geo Lapointe and Kari Hege Mork 3min 28sec

'* QA 3 audience 5min_45sec

*QA 4 Kari Hege Mork Windpark size 1 minute

* QA 5 Pete Jumars Edited due to noise

* QA6 Paul Anderson edited 7min

* QA 7. 4min_30sec

* QA 8 Glenn Libby edited 1min 30sec

* QA 9 1min_55sec

* QA 10 Kari Hege Mork 1min26sec

* QA 11 4min_30sec

* QA 12 Ron Huber 3min 43sec

* QA 13 Ken Fletcher others on showstoppers 4min 55sec

QA 14 Small biz admin 1 min

* QA 15_final words

PART 3 BREAK OUT GROUPS AND CLOSING

* Keliher comments 2min

*  Bruce MacDonald intro fishpanel_2min_45sec

* Breakout Groups Introduction 47sec

* Chris Weiner, Portland tuna fisherman. 6min 9sec

* Breakout Group 2. Patrice MLA 3min 50sec

* Breakout Group 3 Bruce MacDonald 55sec

* Breakout group 4 Mary Beth Tooley, 1min_32sec

* Breakout Group 5 Cushman 1min 11sec.mp3

 PART 3 COMPLETE 57 MINUTES (above is only 1/3 of Part 3)