400 to 500 foot windmills placed in our valleys, mountains and deserts is not the optimum path to renewable green energy...........Going from the CO2 belching and landscape extraction disfigurement that comes with utilizing oil, coal and natural gas to the rape and destruction that comes with covering the landscape with windmills, solar panels, electrical lines, etc is a charade of the highest order by the General Electrics of the world to paint themselves as doing good by humanity and the planet--HOGWASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mountaintop Industrial Wind Power Is Not "Green"

by Jonathan Carter

I have been advocating for wind power for decades. I never thought I would see the day when I would be opposing wind power development. However, the current frantic rush to install industrial wind on every viable mountaintop is both shortsighted and ecologically damaging.

To call mountaintop wind operations "farms" is nothing more than PR. Farms suggest a positive relationship with the land. The industrial wind operations are nothing less than massive electrical generating facilities that destroy the quality of place and pose serious health problems for both humans and wildlife.

The Maine legislature  fast tracked industrial wind development

in an area covering two thirds of the state with little to no public involvement or

debate. the law was written by the wind developers whose primary interest is green money not green energy. This law gives the go ahead for potentially 360 miles of industrial wind turbines on Maine .mountaintops.

This would result in the building of thousands of miles of additional power lines and roads. It would require the clearcutting of over 50,000 acres of carbon sequestering forestlands. Literally, the tops of the mountains are blown-up in order to establish a bedrock base for the massive concrete pads needed to support 400 to 500 foot turbines.

In addition to the destruction of habitat, these massive wind machines, which, moving at over 180 miles an hour, individually sweep an acre of space, broadcast high volume sounds which have literally driven people in Maine from their homes. It is not only audible sounds which cause a problem to people and wildlife, but probablymore damaging are low frequency sound waves that are emitted from these industrial power plants. It is well documented that the low frequency sounds and shadow flicker caused the turbines, pose serious health risks. The neurological health problems have been labeled as Wind Turbine Syndrome (WTS). People experiencing WTS can exhibit elevated heart rates, memory problems, visual blurring, nausea, sleep disturbance, and chronicheadaches.

North Carolina has put a moratorium on mountaintop turbines because they recognized that turbines would degrade the mountains, which define their state and are a major economic driver in the form of tourism and outdoor recreation.

Some environmentalists have been drawn into believing that if you are not for covering the mountains of Maine with wind turbines, then you are acting against the unfolding disaster of climate change. This is a false dichotomy. Global warming is a catastrophic crisis, but the solution is not to destroy the pristine character of the Maine mountains. The industrial wind mountaintop frenzy sweeping across Maine is not tied to shutting down an oil or coal power plant. It is simply feeding our gluttonous consumption of more and more energy. It makes no sense to destroy our mountaintops to feed this appetite.

 It is clear that the right choice for Maine is offshore. This is where the best winds are, where turbines can be placed out of sight, and, in general, where the leastamount of environmental damage will occur. Norway is already pursuing offshore wind projects with great success.

 If we allow this mountaintop wind gold rush to continue, after the rush has played out, Mainers will be left with the tailings of a despoiled landscape and the magic of the mountains gone forever.

location of proposed

Highland Mountains

project

Bigelow Range