Storm over Metinic! Windsters' invasion of outer Penobscot Bay imminent.

Metinic Island nightmare. Like sea slugs under the dank surface of Maine's Submerged Lands Program, a fell gathering of wind thieves hunkers down around a navigation chart of Penobscot Bay centered on Metinic Island.  

40 of what look like skull & crossbones symbols dot the waters around the island, midway between Saint George and Matinicus.  A closer look, and  one sees they are actually wind energy symbols: the feared "Tower & Crossbones".


The conspirators go down their checklist: "Politicians?"  "Check." "NGOs paid off?" "Sierra Club -check. Island Institute- check. NRCM- check. CLF-Check."  
"Cool. Fishermen?" 
"Sorry sir. The lobster associations aren't buying the no-impact argument." 
"Scallopers?"  
"Moved 'em out of the area already. Told them it was a conservation closure". (laughter)  
"Groundfishermen?"
 "Sir, nobody with mobile gear is going to like  our platforms and anchor lines closing off all of those square miles of the outer bay. But then, there's not that many left, anyway, sir. We'll marginalize them. "

They continue their plot against Metinic Island  


"Consultants?" 
"Yessir. The best biostitutes on the New England coast.  They want to know what results you want and how thick a report to prepare."                                                                                                      
"A foot thick should be fine. Be sure there are plenty of photographs of fishermen and their boats in it. We'll manufacture the illusion of consent if we must."                                                                                                


The conspiracy is enormous, if simpleminded.  The feds are dangling cash in front of  Maine's governor and legislature.  All they must do, they are told by Angus King and other sockpuppets for the wannabe energy tycoons of  Neptune Wind, First Wind and that whole greedy lot, is surrender Maine's  wallet and coastal waters to the fast tracking of subsidized industrial ocean wind development.  If the bill is passed, the windustrialists will  seek "wind waivers", exempting them from state  environmental law, as well as  Community Benefit Agreements that will forcibly require fishermen and others to trade their birthrights for federal gold. The windebeests plan to both figuratively and literally pluck the Bald Eagle, icon of our nation and of our coast.


One recognizes the ruthless realpolitik: If the DeepCwind plan for Monhegan is an attack on Beauty, the Neptune Wind plan is an assault on the Beasts.  


Metinic. Fair Metinic!  Southern anchor of the  globally recognized Outer Penobscot Bay IBA (Important Bird Area)

the other two anchors being Matinicus Rock, and Seal Island.  For there simply is no other island on earth that fulfils Metinic's role for eagles, terns, eiders, migrating warblers and many other avians winging their ways north and south along the Maine coast.  


If Neptune Wind can slaughter and clear Penobscot Bay's Important Bird Area,  can keep the surrounding waters blockaded from the scallop, herring  and groundfish fisheries, then they can put their wind turbines anywhere on Maine's coast.

Maine DeepCwind Consortium may drop Monhegan location for alternative Downeast site.

MONHEGAN ISLAND. Four members of the DeepCwind Consortium gave a presentation on Monhegan on February 16th, and  then took questions from island residents and from an opponent of the Consortium's plan to build and operate floating offshore wind test platforms south of  the wind-tossed scenic island.

Representing the Consortium were the University of Maine's Elizabeth Viselli, Jake Ward, Robert Lindyberg,  and Suzanne Pude of the Island Institute's Community Wind program. Collectively they described the history of ocean windfarming and the reasons for promoting it in Maine waters now, and described the technology they propose installing two miles south of the island.

While islanders at the meeting in the Monhegan schoolhouse were appreciative overall of the consortium's efforts and supportive of their ingenuity in seeking out renewable energy,  concerns were raised on a variety of fronts: noise and infrasound pollution, loss of fishing grounds access, visual pollution, and seabird mortality. Some island residents said that the state's decision to site near Monhegan took place without consulting them, in effect leaving them out of the loop . 

In response to those and other concerns, the DeepCwind representatives at the meeting agreed to drop the Monhegan location for an alternative site, if shown there are too many likely impacts to Monhegan's people, birds, scenic beauty and/or fishing  from their operation.  Jake Ward of the consortium said: " If everybody says that it totally makes no sense, then we'll have to look at one of the other test sites."    Listen to DeepCwind presenters  Read transcript of  followup question and answer session (pdf).

Most praised the overall process, but urged the consortium to be careful to determine ahead of time whether the windmills could  harm the island plantation's arts colonies, its thriving tourist trade, its fame as a birder's paradise and its lobster fisheries and groundfisheries. They also wondered if the political clout of DeepCwind Consortium members like BIW and Cianbro could overwhelm their voices before the government.  

While all welcomed the idea of  lower cost  non-petroleum-based electricity, they also voiced concerns, including the potential for the state's lease to be taken up by a  commercial operator. Some noted that the planning and decisionmaking process seems to be shaping up as one where Monhegan itself has little say beyond a consultative role.

The consortium members also noted interest by the aquaculture industry and by  tidal power researchers to also locate in the test area south of Monhegan.

Penobscot Bay activist Ron Huber briefly outlined his lawsuit in Maine Superior Court  over the state decision to designate a test area off Monhegan.

The wind researchers also revealed that the Baldacci Administration is about to bring a bill before the Legislature that would allow fast-tracking of commercial windfarm leases, throughout Maine state waters. Speaker of the House Hannah Pingree confirmed  the bill,  predicting  it to go public within the next few weeks. 

The final decision by DeepCwind on whether to stay with the Monhegan site may rest upon Maine Superior Court Justice Jeffrey Hjelm'  rulings as he considers the case,  Huber vs Bureau of Parks and Lands, in which plaintiff Huber  argues that the Bureau of Parks and Lands failed to adequately consider the impacts to Monhegan and the surrounding ecosystems before choosing it as host to the state's offshore test site. Huber is asking that the R&D site be moved to another of the alternative offshore locations that were under consideration by the state.

Ward and Pude promised to keep Monheganers abreast of developments.

PHOTOS: 1. Jake Ward of DeepCWind Consortium giving presentation to Monhegan residents February 16, 2010 Photo by RonHuber 2, View of  Monhwegan's Christmas Cove that would include windmills under state plan. February 16, 2010  Photo by Ron Huber. 3. Monhegan surrounded by windstorm whitecaps. Photo NASA

The End of Lobstering? Big Wind twisting legislative arms to open ALL Maine saltwater to windmills

The DeepCWind Consortium  is a loose confederation of  entrepeneurs, general contractors, windmill companies, investment bankers, eco-yuppies, engineering firms and others, hunkered down around the multimillion dollar pile of stimulus money that got earmarked to Maine for wind energy R&D.
Listen to Jake Ward of the DeepCwind Consortium visiting Monhegan on Feb 16th describe the newstate  legislation  Click Here (2 minute mp3)

That's right. Representatives of the  DeepCwind Consortium  who came to Monhegan that day  to do a powerpoint presentation on their plans for a brace of R&D windmills off that fair isle, let slip the fact that there is a bill  being bandied about by the Maine legislature - but not yet "released" into public view- that would formally open ALL of Maine's territorial Sea to offshore wind extraction and tide extraction.
But they are restless. The state of Maine has granted them a measly 3,200 acres out of Maine's millions upon millions of  acres of  territorial coastal waters, to snatch wind from.  Filling the view off Monhegan (photo) won't be enough. More Monhegan views at risk . A mere appetizer! They hunger for more.

LOTS MORE

As you read this, the DeepCWind Consortium is busy in Augusta. That unholy choir is singing $weet nothing$ into the ears of  Maine legislative leaders, asking for nothing less than unbridled access to all of Maine's coastal waters.  






Trailing behind them - Canadian salmon farm interests, eager to fill in the spaces between wind turbines and tidecatchers with millions of their genetically engineered little darlings. Following them: feather collectors, for the great number of seabirds that will be attracted by the penned fish and by the wild fishes drawn to the giant floating wind and tide structures will have to fly the gauntlet of those blades as they dive on the fishes, and many shall sadly fail the blade-spotting challenge.

Just as Big Aquaculture tried (and failed, thanks to vigorous defense by small Not In My BaY groups, especially Friends of Blue Hill Bay and East Penobscot Bay Environmental Alliance), the burgeoning windpower industry will try to slowly force lobstering out, square mile by square mile, from wind-suitable Maine state waters. Divide and conquer being their usual tactic, expect Lobster Zone Councils to be pitted against each other. Expect attempts to pit the Down East Lobstermens' Association against the Maine Lobstermen's Association

Towns will be forced to accept "Community Benefit Agreements"  Lobstermen will be put on the PILL : "Payment In Lieu of Lobstering". Forced to give up their heritage "for the greater good" of the investors.  They will be pressured by paid-off ex-politicians, hand in cash-sticky hand with the sold-out "practical" enviros of Sierra Club, NRCM, Island Institute and the ENGO like, who, once the POWER money appeared, seem to have lost any qualms about throwing their friends in the fishing industry under the clean energy bus.

Can this be stopped?  Only if the Legislature's Utilities and Energy Committee sees the light. You can illuminate them by dropping a few words to the committee. Email your words to Kristen Gottlieb, the Committee's hardworking clerk, and ask her to distribute them to committee members.



Be brief and to the point: Opening up any of Maine's coastal waters to commercial wind extraction before any R&D is carried out in the small experimental locations already permitted would be foolishly,  dangerously premature.  


Tell them the industry wants to rush in and take leasehold possession of  100s of square miles of Maine's coastal waters, NOW, so they are grandfathered against responsible regulation is not yet close to completion -  as litigation presently before the court shows. 


Tell them not to allow fast talking energy entrepeneurs, investment bankers, and their surrogates to push through  legislatnio allowing such an outrageous Gulf of Maine-grab to happen

DeepCwind Consortium: who, what, where, why?

DeepCWind Consortium is one of those glittering spheres of furious activity, held together inside a speculative funding bubble, that is using a combination of money and the devastatingly effective public relations machine

called Robinson Public Relations  to work its way into the taxpayers' pockets and into the citizens' public air, waters and public submerged lands.

Membership of the University of Maine DeepCwind Deepwater Offshore Wind Consortium as of October 2009 (source: BDN):

Universities, government and nonprofit agencies
University of Maine — AEWC Advanced Structures & Composites Center (Lead)
University of New Hampshire
Maine Maritime Academy
Northern Maine Community College
University of Western Australia
U.S. Department of Energy
Governor’s Office of Energy Independence & Security
Maine Department of Economic and Community Development
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
Ocean Energy Institute
New Jersey Audubon Society
Island Institute
Gulf of Maine Research Institute

Siting, design and fabrication operations
Cianbro Corp.
Bath Iron Works
Bernstein Shur Counselors at Law
James W. Sewall Co.
Kleinschmidt Associates
Technip USA
McNiff Light Industry
Santos Wind Energy Technology (SWEeT)
Principle Power Inc.
Bangor-Hydro Electric Co.
American Superconductor
Northern Power Systems
Clean Energy Design
Composites Materials Industry
Ashland Inc.
Kenway Corp.
Harbor Technologies
PPG Industries
Owens Corning
Zoltek
Polystrand Inc.
Industry partners, organizations and manufacturing automation
MAG International
Maine Composites Alliance
Simmons & Company International
American Composites Manufacturers Association
Maine Wind Energy Initiative

Coastal current chaos coming if wind industry sets up in Gulf of Maine

In Homeric myth the priest Laocoön warns the Trojans against accepting the wooden horse presented them by the suddenly cheerily departing Greeks. Serious FAIL ensues when he is disregarded.

Likewise, Maine fishermen - beleaguered already by a host of corporate and governmental enemies - now find themselves being courted by big energy companies and their hangers-on  consider windmills a sort of "gift" from them. bringing new vertical habitat to marine life to cluster, and causing upwellings, where nutrient-richer seafloor water is pulled to the surface by the energy differential at the surface below where the energy is being extracted frmo the natural environment

But canny fishermen are increasingly wary of the potential for offshore windfarms to put a lasting crimp in Maine's lobster fishery, for these artificial upwellings can wreak havoc by fomenting current-diverting "chaotic excursions" at the interface where the normal lively surface waters of the Gulf of Maine meet the "harmonized" low-energy surface waters that make up  the aquatic 'half-dead zones' found downwind of ocean wind turbine fields.


What could be taking an excursion are the surface currents transporting lobster larvae and other zooplankton down the Gulf of Maine coast from Lubec to well beyond Cape Anne.The so-called "coastal current chaos" may divert larvae-bearing currents AWAY from the coast.

These predictions - and similar dire warnings for the Chesapeake Bay's famed blue crabs - come from an analysis of the results of  the study "Chaotic behavior of coastal currents due to random wind forcing"  by researchers at the National Institute of Standards & Technology in Gaithersburg Maryland, as well as other reports mentioned below.  Those results suggest the possibility that  persistent reduced-energy zone "footprints" could appear downwind of energy-extracting offshore wind removal operations, with implications for current flows. 

Normally, prevailing strong oceanic  winds keep coastal currents close inshore for much of of the Gulf of Maine.  But, diverted even slightly off course by the clash between upwelling  'harmonized' waters surrounding  proposed Gulf of Maine offshore windfarms,  and the normal  Maine Coastal Current, portions of that current may veer offshore many miles prematurely, to expend itself and its luckless planktonic passengers in the deep Wilkinson Basin.  There, a lobster larvae's typical fate is to become prey for the basin's native species.  

But don't worry, the government, the industry and the eco-yuppies are working out "community benefit agreements" in which lobstermen will be paid off for their wandering resource.  The lobster buyers, marketers and retailers, alas, will just have to find new work.


The lobsters, too, will have to fend for themselves.

UPDATE:  Offshore wind power could alter ocean currents This report by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute's Goran Brostrom concurs with the earlier NIST study. 

 "Extracting energy from wind changes regional air currents, which can in turn affect how the nearby ocean circulates", Brostrom told MSNBC. "Generating wind power at sea may disturb ocean currents and marine ecosystems."

Indeed, the upwellings Profesor Brostrom describes as resulting from the removal of energy from  a comparatively small but intensively harmonized  sea surface area in and around a windfarm of the types proposed for the Gulf of Maine are the very chaotic excursions described in the National Institute of Standards study, cited above.

News: Windpower opponent seeks to keep corporate consortium out of legal review.

UPDATE: The DeepC Wind Consortium is Off the Bus.
According to their lawyer he will drop their request to intervene.

 "Wind power opponent?"  Have I joined that not terribly exalted roster?

I would rather say  "Supporter of birds and beauty", and "Supporter of siting the windfarm R&D site where it is wanted and needed, not where it's most convenient for lazy wind entrepeneurs that would rather not have to trek to the "Other Maine".

But  reporter/editor Steve Betts of the Herald Gazette, who WILL write  about me without ever telephoning or emailing,  makes me out as "opponent", because I informed the court on February 5th  that I would rather keep the corporations out of the case, so I must be one.


The "DeepCwind Consortium" an unincorporated vague mass of corporations, ex-politicians and others, is run by the University of Maine. It hopes to profit by forcing windmills into Maine's public lands and state waters.

But the Consortium would only join the case to cloud the air and  muddy the waters.

For the information the judge needs to make his decision  is entirely within the existing public record.  The consortium would add nothing but hype to the process. They should be kept out and I hope the judge  agrees.

I have no problem with the University ITSELF intervening  in the case, however. Just not that pack of hungry corporate wolf fish calling itself the DeepCwind Consortium.

Wild birds love Monhegan! University of Maine: keep your windchoppers away!

UMaine President Robert A. Kennedy can save Monhegan's birds. Won't you send him an email? 


Tell him the University made the wrong decision: any of the four downeast candidate offshore wind energy test sites, but particularly the one off Machias, is better both for the University and for Maine people downeast, who will benefit as Machias becomes a global hub of wind-capture engineering
University of Maine: Keep out of Monhegan's winds & waters


Tell  U Maine's President to Disavow the Lease of Shame;

Tell him:
* Don't sentence hundreds of birds of dozens of species to sure death every year as they travel to and from Monhegan.


* Don't put Monhegan's impossible-to-find-elsewhere majestic scenic views of the Gulf of Maine and of the American Mainland, untrammeled by the least   intrusion of human activity, into the wastebin of history.


* Don't make the University of Maine an object of global scorn for clobbering the Gulf of Maine's ornithology. 

MONHEGAN STANDS ALONE

As that trembling reed of nature protection called Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands bows without resistance to the conquering Wind, and meekly signs death warrants against Puffins, Ospreys, Terns, Geese, Ducks, Loons, Shearwaters,  Storm-Petrels, Gannets, Herons, Hawks,  Kestrel,  Merlins,  Falcons and Eagles (and their songbird kin);

As former Governor King rushes slavering up and down the High Places, mustaches crusty with crimson'd feathers, a swarm of venture capitalists in his train;

As present Governor Baldacci musters the Legislature, impatient to join his predecessor, but for now wielding  the state's legal blades against the Low Places -a bit of indigestion, to be sure, from bolting down Vinalhaven's scenic assets too fast. Now seeking next  windy midcoast islands a'dreaming offshore to seize wind and seize the view;      

As eco-yuppies batten in greedy flocks and swarms, tearing cash from the carcasses of old promises to Gaia's natural citizens -, now but roadkill on the road to the ENGO e-Damascus, where spun platitudes  create at least a vision of energy plentitude;

As academics peer, some fearfully, some hungrily, from their ivory windtowers, awaiting their turn to experiment on enchained Aeolus, Anemoi, Ehecatl, Fujin, Njord, Pazuzu, Vayu, Venti, all the Wind Gods and Goddessess throttled, grotesquely crucified upon turbines, deafened by the ceaseless sobbing eldritch dirges, from  banshee shriekage to thudding bruising infrasound, that blunt the air.;

As  thrashed and choking zephyrs spin helplessly, their death spirals fouling the beauty-questing eye, and the Techno-Juggernaut rising to makes Its move;                                                                                              
As a universal shrug permeates Maine, New England, Turtle Island, pervades the entire Cosmos;

MONHEGAN STANDS ALONE

Will you help Her?

Get the Facts * * Get the Spirit. ** Get in Touch

Hot air in the pursuit of power: Island Institute chief lashes out at wind-injured Maine islanders

One can tell Phil Conkling's  been running his Island Institute for too long.  Again flush with cash, (MBNA's self immolation burned a big hole in the II's wallet for a few years), this time enriched by the electricity industry bucket-brigading the long green his direction, Conking's turned his back on the islands and islanders he once so earnestly swore to protect, back in the mists of time when he began his organization, decades ago, working out of a little white frame house on the Rockland waterfront - with CLF's fishery lawyers laboring quietly downstairs.  (MBNA smashed this icon years ago when it took over and took down Fisher Plow's old digs nearby).

Having  staked his fortune on joining in the Windrush with Angus King  - and shortly, John Baldacci , who's likewise discovered his future to be filled with wind -  Phil  is committed to aiding and abetting the  extraction of gigawatts of energy from the winds of the Gulf of Maine - enough to not only be used for lighting and electronics, but  also to use for the brute force use of electricity for heating residential and business buildings through Maine winters.

Now Phil Conkling is driven to distraction by residents of  islands like Vinalhaven and Monhegan complaining that their traditional way of life is being threatened by or already hammered by his literal pursuit of power. How dare they!

But rather than admit the crusty old islanders, the ones whose anecdotes and sturdy workboats  fill the pages of the Island Institute's monthly tabloid andits coffee table books,  have a right to their point of view, Phil has decided that the complaining  fishermen and other islanders are a minority on the wrong side of, if not history, at least II's revenue stream, and must yield or be shoved out of the way. Ditto for journalists who fail to swallow the II's spin.

Perhaps Phil should 'graduate' from the Institute and take a nice relaxing long rest on his laurels.

Wind industry's "thirty pieces of silver" bill at Maine legislature. Listen.

Some here have wondered about what sort of economic benefits Vinalhaven and other Maine towns are gaining from becoming  “host communities” to the University of Maine’s wind turbine research operations. Will they be real or hollow promises?

Tuesday at the Maine Legislature,  there was a work session of the Utilities and Energy Committee on LD 1504, which has been renamed and entirely rewritten  as  “An Act to Provide Predictable Economic Benefits to Maine Communities that Host Wind Power Projects.” (copy not available)

Listen to the Utility & Energy Committee discuss the bill February 2, 2010 with Pete Didisheim of Natural Resources Council of Maine. (15 minute mp3)

This bill is a try at establishing a payout system to compensate Maine host communities for wind extraction-related degradation of their scenic and other natural assets by the sonic and visual pollution that is sometimes a byproduct of contemporary wind turbine technology.  Compensation is also being  considered for the no-go areas around and above wind farms set up for safety and security purposes.

Highlights of the worksession The Utilities and Energy committee’s staff policy analyst Lucia Nixon  said that  the re-written bill  “will specify community benefit agreements that windpower developers be required to have with host communities, and the nature and level of payments under those agreements, provide more specificity in the statutes regarding tangible benefits, and the documentation of those benefits.”

Nixon said the stakeholders (who are they?)  were tasked a week ago by the Committee to work together on a new bill version. They met last  Friday, and the Utilities and Energy Committee staffer has been reviewing these stakes’ drafts by email as late as noon Tuesday. (2/2/10)

Pete Didisheim of Natural Resources Council of Maine's Wind Program spoke briefly, but then spent a good bit of time responding to questions from legislators at the work session, as spokesman for the selected group of stakeholders who are hammering out the wording of the bill.  Pete told the committee that they’d come a long way in the last week but were “not quite there yet“.  He said the discussion group expects to be done by Tuesday February 9th and would  deliver something  “that  has the full support of the stakeholders and all the parties, and fully vetted through the agencies, the wind comunity and all the interested parties.”

At present, however, he admitted, there are “still a few issues. So rather than present it in its current form, we’d like  to bring you the final product. when we can walk  through it carefully and  describe exactly what we disagree on.”

 Representative David  Van Wie  had much to say to Pete. But he prefaced it with "I want to throw out a thought that hopefully won't cause people to wet their pants or set you back to zero or whatever."  

What was this thought  of Van Wie's risks ...um.....dampening the wind industry's enthusiasm?

"A wind production tax"  

One of those issues is who levies such a tax? The affected municipality? The state? Federal government?  “There’s quite a bit of concern, as you can imagine,” Pete said,  “about that potentially being siphoned off to…other areas.” 

So have NRCM and other stakeholders been talking to Vinalhaven people?  Monheganites?  Commiserating with the islanders over the loss of serene scenery and seaside silence?    Do the islanders feel “vetted”?

Maine Ballast Water Bill surfaces; will big shipping sink it (again)?

LD1693 An Act To Protect the Environment and Natural Resources of the State by Regulating the Discharge of Certain Substances into the Environment 

LD 1693 adds to Maine water pollution law. It  would  "prohibit ocean-going vessels from discharging ballast water that contains any detectable living organisms into the coastal waters of the State after January 1, 2021"

The bill proposes a two step affair:  Interim standards in effect from January 1, 2011 to January 1, 2021, requiring ocean-going vessels to obtain a permit from Maine DEP to discharge ballast water that contains 

A.  Any detectable living organisms greater than 50 micrometers in minimum dimension;

B.  More than 0.01% living organisms that are between 10 and 50 micrometers in minimum dimension;

C.  For living organisms that are less than 10 micrometers in minimum dimension:

(1) More than 1,000 bacteria per 100 milliliters;

(2) More than 10,000 viruses per 100 milliliters; and

(3) Concentrations of microbes that constitute more than 125 colony-forming units of Escherichia coli per 100 milliliters

After  January 1, 2021, discharges of ballast water from ocean going ships would be outright banned, with a fine of up to $10,000.

A good idea and thus it is unlikely to pass, for reasons lawsuits by corporatings over interference with   interstate and global  commerce. But if it does, then 1: bravo! the state will be gathering data on what's in the ballast water and anchor lockers of ships, a good thing; and 2: MDEP will get a new revenue stream; always a plus in the eyes of the agency.

But the deep pockets they would like to tap by licensing ballast water pollution are deep enough to be unruffled by a  mere $10,000  cost of doing business  fine.   Except inasmuch as the ballast-belching vessel could lose its license to do so in state waters

Again, though, one can't help looking back to the earlier struggle Maine and Washington state lost over requiring tankers to meet state operating standards while in state waters.  The deep pockets of the  shipping industry  won the day in that case 

Sears Island: Are Legislators paving the way for a port?

UPDATE: A legislator writes that Sears Island did not get  money directed at it at the Friday transportation committee hearing. -RCH


 Money is the mother's milk of politics - even more so after the recent supreme court decision. Sometimes it  flows out of industrialists and other interest groups; other times from the Body Politic. When it comes to Big Transpo, the milk  nourishes builders of ports, rail lines and highways

On Friday January 29, 2010 the Maine Legislature's transportation committee the Maine legislature held a work session on  LD 1639 An Act To Stimulate the Maine Economy and Promote the Development of Maine's Priority Transportation Infrastructure Needs   


The summary reads: "The purpose of this bill is to stimulate the Maine economy by allowing the Department of Transportation to receive and solicit proposals and enter into agreements with private entities for the building, ownership, leasing or financing of certain transportation projects set forth in Maine Public Law 2007 Chapter 470. An Act To Secure Maine's Transportation Future


What are some of those projects set forward in Chapter 470? A laundry list: 
"The department shall consider significant new capacity projects of all modes, which must include at least the following: Aroostook North-South Highway; East-West corridor improvements; Gorham connector; I-295 South Portland to Brunswick capacity improvements; I-295 Brunswick to Gardiner rehabilitation; I-95 Bangor capacity and modernization improvements; Lewiston-Auburn I-95 to downtown connector; Portland to Brunswick passenger rail; the Lewiston-Auburn rail corridor; Sanford connector; Wiscasset bypass; and the department's 3-port strategy including the ports of Eastport, Searsport and Portland."
Stay tuned.

Maine's 'Offshore Wind Rush' challenged in Maine Superior Court

Bay activist's lawsuit calls for orderly growth of Maine offshore wind energy research and development.

Court asked to temporarily suspend recent decision by state submerged lands chief authorizing wind energy test center off Monhegan.

A Rockland man has filed suit in Knox County Superior Court, seeking suspension of a  December 14th decision by the Bureau of Parks and Lands that designated two square miles of ocean south of Monhegan as the Maine Offshore Wind Energy Research Center.

Media Coverage: MPBN   &  Herald Gazette

Calling the bureau action "woefully premature" and "part of a Gulf of Maine Wind Rush" fostered by New England's burgeoning ocean wind energy industry, conservation activist Ron Huber has asked the court to rule on whether  two recently passed state laws, 12 MRSA 1868  "Identification of Offshore Wind test areas and  MRSA  35-A, Chapter  34-A: Expedited Permitting of Grid scale Wind Energy Development were followed by Parks & Lands Director Willard Harris when he authorized the test area, one of three in Midcoast and southern Maine waters. The Bureau of Parks and Lands manages submerged lands usage in Maine's territorial sea.

"Maine is wasting a marvelous chance to do ocean energy projects in state waters right the first time. Instead  it is assuring investors their projects will be subject to minimal review." said Huber.  He said that although meaningful rules and regulations for offshore windmill site selection and management don't exist yet, the state is racing ahead anyway to parcel out its portion of the Gulf of Maine.   "I'm awarding the DeepCwind consortium a C-minus," he said.

"We've seen what the Gold Rush did to California's salmon streams. What rushing ahead on bailing out Wall Street has accomplished for our economy. What rushing into the Patriot Act has done to the structure and integrity of our security agencies. Why is the Department of Conservation rushing so blindly  forward on authorizing the  state's ocean wind energy research center off Monhegan?  Do it right!  The wind's not going anywhere."

The State of Maine could thoughtlessly degrade irreplaceable scenic and ecological natural assets of state and national significance there, by fast tracking  offshore wind plan without consulting most Monheganites, without calculating the dollar value of the damage such projects could have on Monhegan's thriving tourism industry. Without calculating, using standard metrics, the visual and sonic impacts windmill operations day and night could have on Monhegan visitors and island residents. On its fish and fishermen. Its lobsters and lobstermen.

"Why is ignorance bliss for the Bureau of Parks and Lands? Our state doesn't need to become part of a Gulf of Maine Wind Rush.   As shown at conference after conference, the industry has shown it has the smarts, the talent and the ability to gain a tremendous amount of environmental and social impact data before, during and after the experimental deployments at the Maine Offshore Energy Test Center.  The Bureau of Parks and lands should make gaining that critical data part of the deal with the University.

Rushing the birds. Huber noted to the court the non-evaluation by the state of the chance, small or large, that  indivduals of the dozens of bird species that visit Monhegan or live there year round will fall prey to a bladestrike. Maine Audubon's Monhegan surveys, and the visits of numerous other birders familiar with Monhegan reveal with great detail how Monhegan and its surrounding waters are the haunts of  Canada Geese, Wood Ducks, Black Ducks, Mallards,Green-winged Teal , Eiders, Scoters, Loons, Shearwaters,  Storm-Petrels, Gannets, Herons, Osprey, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Cooper's Hawks, American Kestrel, Merlins,  Peregrine Falcons and Bald Eagles. And many others!

Bird strikes WILL happen" Huber said. "Its a fact of life with offshore wind. Maine Department of Conservation should acknowledge this regrettable truth and work to minimize it right from the start. That's what Research and Development means, not only figuring out the best wind blades, but also figuring out the least damaging methods of  using them.

Ditto for the Monhegan Inner Sou' Sou'west Ground, a  rocky three square mile fishing ground in deep waters SSW of Monhegan. The offshore wind R&D center will encompass part of  this  300 foot deep ground which hosts hake and cusk in early spring, cod and pollock from May until July, and halibut in the autumn. 

"The state needs to exhaustively survey the existing state of  Monhegan's deepwater fishery environment, before moving ahead with this necessary exploration of ocean energy extraction."  Huber said. The addition of high relief vertical habitat in the form of floating windmill structures will also attract species not typically seen in the area, to exploit the new habitat.  These non-indigenous organisms may be benign or troublesome to the existing marine fisheries."

"But who's checking?" Huber asked. "Judge Jeffrey Hjelm needs to pull Parks and Lands director Willard's head out of the sand," he said.  "The state must  face the inconvenient truths of ocean wind extraction,that come with the incontrovertible pluses of generating electricity that way.  Willard's December decision is woefully premature."

Rockland resident Ron Huber has acted on behalf of natural Maine since the early 90's. This is his second petition asking Maine Superior Court to turn back agency decisions affecting Penobscot Bay. The first, filed one year ago and still pending, asks the court to overturn Maine DOT's  January 2009 decision to split publically owned Sears Island  in upper Penobscot Bay into an industrial containerport zone and a private conservation easement zone run by Maine Coast Heritage Trust, without following requirements of the Sensible Transportation Policy Act. There is a certain symmetry, he says,  to now trying to protect nature at the opposite end of Penobscot Bay.

Huber admits to a spiritual dimension to his activism.  Describing his efforts as  "faith-based stewardship over the wild places and wild marine life of Penobscot Bay" he informed the court that  his "wild marine congregation of Penobscot Bay organisms" may be at risk from the diversion of hundreds of kilowatts of wind energy from its traditional natural uses in the outer bay marine ecosystem to electricity generation. The ability of the larval young of many members of his flock to carry out the sea surface feeding and respiration necessary to their survival could be badly hampered. 

We must not crucify Penobscot Bay on a Cross of Wind." Huber declared.

Additional Information on offshore wind energy &  Maine state waters Click Here
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Windiness Jan 2010 at Maine Legislature's Energy Committee

Listen to NRCM, First Wind & others testify to and be questioned on LD 1504 An Act To Require That Expedited Wind Energy Development Projects Provide a Tangible Benefit to Maine Ratepayers in the Form of Discounts to Future Electric Rates by the Legislature's Utilities & Energy Committee.

AUDIO
Senator Mills Chief sponsor. Recording begins, hearing already in progress...
Dave Willby, First Wind
Pete Didisheim, NRCM
Jeremy Payne, Maine Renewable Energy Ass'n
Representative Adams
Representative Russell
Shawn Mahaney, CLF
Dick Davies, PUC Public Advocate
John Cooney, Reed and Reed. R&R's memo on tangible benefits

Question: Should  companies that "take"  the scenic beauty and audio soundscape of our state on behalf of their shareholders be required to provide a special benefit to Maine ratepayers? Industry says: no way!

Maine lobsters are fat & happy; but lobstermen not so much.

It was the best of times, the worst of times...

The cold economic equations continue to keep Maine lobster price low at the docks and lobstermen's wallets thin  As Maine Lobstermen's Association president Dave Cousens recently was quoted, his industry's  "financial business plan is based on a $4 [per pound] boat price. If we get below $4, it doesn't work...." 

 

Dave also noted that Maine's wild lobster community was thriving, though he would not say the same for Atlantic herring.

 

So let's consider this little animal we call "herring" is doing: Like all planktivores, stresses to the plankton , something we 'sapients' witlessly do all the time, there are less plankton eaters like herring. 

 

And this small fish is the primary food daily set before Maine lobsters in lobster "traps".  Traps? Think of the traps as soup kitchens, and millions of hungry lobsters - All you can eat!! -  filing in and out of millions of traps every day all day for much of the year.   

 

A  very fattening diet for lobsters to stay on, far divorced from their natural food of worms, plankton, mussels, clams. seaweed, other crustaceans  Herring in traps, regularly replaced, is manna from lobster heaven, raining down  .

But now the servings are about to stop being supersized, because the allowable  2010/2011 herring kill in the Gulf of Maine is being cut down to around 58 million individual herrings,  a way down from the 150 million or so herrings lawfully slain in the Gulf of Maine, in '06. The drop in herring feed will force millions of lobsters to tighten their carapaces and return to the hunting and gathering life.

(Photo courtesy National Geographic)

Monhegan & the Ivory windTower

Will it be Town vs Gown, there in the chilly waters off Monhegan?

Depending on who you listen to or read, there are many answers to that question.


What's known is:

  * November 7, 2008  Governor Baldacci signed Executive Order 20 FY 08/09, establishing  the Ocean Energy Task Force

* The State Planning Office's Special Projects Office 

implemented. the order and set up the Task Force meetings. 

* The Task Force delivered an 87 page Final Report (pdf)  on strategies to: meet  the goals established in the Maine Wind Energy Act, Title 35-A, section 3404(2)(B) :  install at least 2,000 megawatts of wind capacity by 2015 and at least 3,000 megawatts by 2020, 300 of which could be located in coastal waters.  

* LD  1465 An Act To Facilitate Testing and Demonstration of Renewable Ocean Energy Technology is passed by the Maine Legislature and signed byGovernor Baldacci. It becomes 38 MRSA 480HH  in state law.

* Summer 2009  the U.S. Department of Energy awarded an $8 million grant to  Dr. Habib Dagher and his team at the University of Maine. The team includes more than 30 partners from outside of academia, including private companies interested in offshore wind development. Dagher testifies before Congress  that Maine has the potential to produce about 130 gigawatts of power in deep water — 60 to 900 meters deep — within 50 nautical miles of the coast.

 

* December 15, 2009 Maine State Planning office designates a 2 and 1/3 square mile area south of Monhegan as the  Maine Offshore Wind Energy Research Center

* January 2010. The University receives 12.4 million more in stimulus money for offshore wind development

 

* University  proposes to install one 100-kilowatt floating wind turbine and one 10-kilowatt floating wind  turbine.  A maximum of two offshore wind turbines is allowed at any given time in the wind energy test area.

* Media Coverage Suzanne Pude, the Island Institute's Wind energy point person  wrote an article recently, detailing the above.  As did Alice McFadden, publisher of the Free Press in "Monhegan Site Chosen as UMaine's Offshore Wind Research Facility"

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

The Monhegan wind test area lies in deep water tucked between two  important fishing grounds: the  Monhegan Inner Sou'Sou'west Ground and the Monhegan Western Ground. As described in "Fishing Grounds of the Gulf of Maine"   See clickable map here. Monhegan is lowest green spot on map

Monhegan Inner Sou'Sou'west Ground. "This ground takes its name from its bearing, lying SSW from Monhegan Light, distant 5 miles. Its width is 1 1/2 miles, its length NNE and SSW is 1 1/4 miles. It has a sharp, broken, rocky bottom, including a small shoal of 20 fathoms and some hummocks of rather greater depths. The deepest water is in the neighborhood of 50 fathoms. Fishing here is from May until July for codfish and pollock: hake and cusk are in the deep water in the spring months and halibut on the shoal in July and September. This ground is principally fished by trawls, but there is considerable hand lining in September and October. Gillnetting, too, has become more common of later years"


Monhegan Western Ground." This is a somewhat extensive ground lying about 4 1/2 miles WSW from Monhegan Island. The depths range from 22 to 45 fathoms. The bottom is rocky and gravelly and in places much broken. This is a good spring ground for cod and a summer ground for hake and cusk in 40 to 50 fathoms. Pollock are found here in September and October. Its length is 4 or 5 miles, and its greatest breadth is 2 miles on the eastern portion, gradually narrowing westward to about 1 mile. The ground runs SE, and NW. It is fished by hand lines, trawls, and gill nets. Marks: Bring houses on New Harbor over the white cliff on Pemaquid 6 miles from New Harbor."

Coming Up Next Time: What problems could these windmills bring off the mouth of Penobscot Bay?

Maine Legislature begins - bills affecting the bay

Some of the many bills coming up before the Maine legislature that, if passed, would affect Penobscot Bay. For a larger list click here

LD 1601 An Act To Create the Lincolnville Sewer District
Public Hearing: Jan 14, 2010, 1PM, Rm 211 Cross Building
"Each sanitary district .... shall have the power, within the district, within the territory of any adjoining municipality, and within any adjoining unorganized territory, to lay pipes, drains, sewers and conduits, and to take up, repair and maintain the same or to contract for the same to be done, in, along and through any public or private ways and public grounds, and in, along and through lands of any person or corporation, to and into tidal waters, rivers, watercourses and treatment works..."

Discussion: This should be renamed Lincolnville Sprawl Act of 2010. If passed, the nation's land speculators will pour into Lincolnville, buy land at outrageous prices to raise property taxes high enough to drive out the back to-landers and working folks, buy THEIR land, put up a walmart and the usual junk food palaces, transform farms into subdivisions, and line the town's shore with condominiums - all connected to Camden's sewer & water system.

LD 932 An Act To Establish Area Management of Maine's Scallop Fishery
Public hearing Jan 13, 2010, 12noon Room 214 Cross Building.
: "This bill seeks to establish area management of the State's scallop fishery."
With greatly reduced populations of scallops in state waters - look at the old days - from some combination of  pollution, habitat degradation, fishing and other causes - the Maine gov't now wants to see if the sort of zoning system that was applied to lobstering during Angus King's reign can be applied to scallops as well.   Much skepticism among the fleet; this will bear close attention if it to be done right, or be rejected

 LD 1508 Resolve, Directing the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife To Adopt Rules Clarifying Fish Stocking Decisions    Public Hearing Jan 12, 2010, 0100PMRoom 206 Cross Building  
The bill bids DIFW to create rules "clarifying fish stocking decisions in public waters....the rules must include a definition for "reasonable public access." This would include "an assessment of the availability of publicly owned access points, the availability and suitability of privately owned, publicly accessible points, the resources contributed and responsibilities undertaken by local residents and associations, the threat of invasive species and the reasonableness and effectiveness of citizen-initiated programs to prevent the spread of invasive species, including the availability of boat-washing systems at launch ramps, on-site volunteer monitoring efforts and supervised gate systems."

There will no doubt be many more. Stay tuned.