Camden drops windmill plan for Ragged Mountain!

Camden Selectboard has dropped plans to appoint a Ragged Mountain Wind Work group, due to the lack of support for the plan and in fact strong public opposition.  Camden's decision sets an important precedent that all Maine towns blessed with scenic assets should heed.
See photographs of lovely  Ragged Mountain Media coverage: The Free Press... Bangor Daily News

Ragged Mountain. Photo by Jan Gilley

 
Listen to a podcast of the  hour long discussion and decision.
 
To summarize the meeting:

First a two minute presentation by Jan Gilley of  Friends of Ragged Mountain, updating on the increase in  that group's membership and on the educational events they've held around town. She also urged the proposed wind work group be balanced, and that people with ties to wind corporations be disallowed from being part of it.

The rest of the recording is the Selectboard examining the candidates for the Work Group,  selecting four people, then, after taking comments from the meeting attendees and discussing the whole mess, deciding to scrap the three town plan entirely, and focus on more benign energy conservation etc.  

Starting around  56:42  the motion is made  to shelve the plan and alert the other two towns that the three town work group is not to going to happen. A tiny bit of discussion follows and then a unanimous vote to cancel the work group. The four newly appointed work group members are discharged of their duties.

Jan Gilley photo

Ragged Mountain: Camden Energy Committee hands wind plan off to town selectboard

As opposition rises to the plan for a windfarm in the Camden Hills, and local citizens' group Friends of Ragged Mountain starts coming into existence,  a memo from the Camden Energy Committee about the future of the project heads to the Camden Selectboard, which will take it up on August 17th


Listen to a 38 minute podcast of the August 12, 2010 Camden Energy Committee finalizing their Ragged Mountain Workgroup letter and memo for consideration  by the Selectboard.  [See local media coverage of the Energy Committee meeting] 

The recording begins with a 5 minute consideration of the wording of the 1 page cover letter. The remaining time focuses on the memo: "Ragged Mountain Wind: Next Steps" 

It breaks down into 12 minutes about how to use the new Camden development director as part of the work group. 

Then a ten minute discussion on who should run the Ragged Mountain work group, (which  includes people from Hope and Rockport governments too) and whether a 'sunset provision' for the work group should be added.  Then  a fundraising discussion follows - plan will need $50K-$70K for initial feasibility study- but none of the three towns show interest in contributing. The will of their people is not known.  The recording ends shortly after the final vote to accept the now-amended memo.  

Plans for a Ragged Mountain turbine complex twist slowly in the wind

I went to the August 2nd meeting of the Camden Energy Committee. The windmill supporters are troubled. Listen to hourlong  podcast of meeting here. ...

If it is to be community wind, the residents of Rockport, Hope and Camden must cough up many tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to even get out the starting gate of preliminary feasibility study and public outreach.

Not one of the three towns Camden, Rockport, Hope, have shown any interest in providing that $$$$.

Ragged Mtn on left, Bald Mtn on right, from Vinalhaven ferry.

If it's a private wind farm developer, (and such HAVE been contacting Camden officials)  then large amounts of public land owned by Camden have to be leased or sold to the private developer as well as more public land denuded for access. Private landowners in Hope will have to be convinced to allow access roads to be run through their land. Else no reasonable access to the proposed site.   

And then, who benefits? The investor will have to be content with the much lesser profits accruing to the business from "Community Wind" development.  The alternative is a private windfarm, owned by an absentee corporation which will sell extracted windpower to the New England grid, while in addition to some cash, Camdenites get to listen to the throaty howl of windturbines  forever in their audio background... 

Something the people of the area, who appreciate the value of natural Maine, are highly unlikely to accept.

Here are some excerpts from that hour long meeting:

"We're trying to tap the public will," Committee chair Des Fitzgerald said "to see if there's a way to figure out if people out there are willing to give money toward this early assessment [of ragged mountain for wind energy extraction]. We're trying to figure out that structure that poses that question."

Town official: "The rub is mixing community wind with finding a private developer. We have lots of interested developers, until you put the coin to community wind."

Richard Podolsky: Environmental Consultant  (scratching his forehead in exasperation in photo) "There is a pot of money out there. Most of the Massachusetts Community Wind RFPS camefrom the renewable energy trust administered by Mass Tech.  It is a collaborative can flow anywhere in New England. They draw on large sum of funds collected from ratepayers. Most community wind feasibility projects I have worked on been funded by MTC fund. "

Severals others objected that this fund has already been used several times in Maine. They said that well is dried up.

Podolsky shrugged: "That's one pot. There may be others."

It was pointed out that stimulus funds in Maine are not specific to wind.  Through Efficiency Maine, they are.   "The Maine energy trust requires matching funds; you can't play unless until you bring your check first."

Something none of the three towns wants to do.

Q: "Is it the will of the Energy committee  they want to continue exploring feasibility?" [Of a Ragged Mountain windfarm]

Response 1: "No!"

Response 2. What we (Camden Energy Committee] would really like to do, is we would like make some suggestions for next steps [to the Camden Selectboard] and then stand back and watch it happen. We feel like we've done our job."

The Camden Energy Committee after all has other issues on its plate: It is also looking at a plan for a water turbine in the stream that runs through their downtown. And other energy initiatives.)

Des Fitzgerald: Its got to be formal; either its an RFP and you let the market place respond to it, or put out a press release to the community have an open meeting, let people come and shake it out.

On the topic of whether this should be a private "community group"  instead of a municipal one, the consensus was said by one person:

"There's wisdom in having a municipal relationship to whatever this is." 

Monhegan Deepwater Wind R&D Site: New Development in court case

We've just received the "Administrative Record" that Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands was required to supply me and Maine Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hjelm. Please help me understand them! The 327+ pages are supposed to contain all the info the BPL used to make its December 14, 2009 decision to site UMaine's deepwater wind test site off Monhegan Island, instead of any of three sites further downeast.. These "records" will be used by Judge Jeffrey Hjelm to decide if the Bureau of Parks and Lands' decision was lawful or not in Huber v Bureau of Parks and Lands

They include

* Index of the Administrative Record. 5 pages

* Part I. BPL's signed document designating the Monhegan, Boon and Damariscove test sites, and the final version of state legislation that authorized them to do so. 27 pages

* Part 2 Site Selection methodology, notes of meetings with federal agencies, outreach committee notes, outreach meeting notes, USF&WS letters & comments. 43 pages

* Part 3 Large foldouts. Not uploaded yet

* Part 4 Outreach schedule, Dept of Conservation website on ocean energyPub info announcement 8.27.09 and 9/1/09. List of meeting attendees, slideshow 9/9/09 Ellsworth Meeting agenda and notes. 39 pages

* Part 5 Meetings notes and agendas at Planning Area C (Monhegan) meetings: 8/26/09, 10/8/09; 15 page powerpoint presentation; 10/8/09 meeting notes; site location ranking documents. 43 pages

* Part 6 Isle au Haut deepwater wind test site meeting agendas and documents. 14 pages

* Part 7 Machias and Cutler sites meetings agendas and documents. 65 pages/

* Part 8 Public Notices,Monhegan landowners list, Letters/emails from citizens of Cutler area, Machias, Monhegan and elsewhere in Maine. NGOs Friends of Acadia, ME Lobstermen's Association, Nature Conservancy, The Ocean Conservancy, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, AGENCIES: Acadia NP, MDIFW, USFWS, US Navy, UNIVERSITY UMaine geologists & reply, 85 pages

* Part 9. Meetings notes: USFWS 10/15/09 meeting; Maine Audubon Society 10/13/09 meeting; / Acadia National Park 9/9/09 meeting; Ocean Energy Task Force mtg 6/18/09 at Island Institute (12 pages)