400 more windmills in Aroostook? Not in my backyard please

To the editor:
    I was horrified to find out that 400 (yes, four hundred) windmills are being planned for Bridgewater with some in Fort Kent and possibly other parts of the County. Texas-based Horizon Wind Energy Company “has acquired leases and options on significant acreage” in the midst of our breathtaking scenery.    In the April 5-6 Bangor Daily News, Justin Dawe, project manager for the Texas-based Horizon Wind Energy Company, is quoted as saying: “Horizon’s experience is that agricultural communities are a natural place for wind projects. People look at the land as working landscapes.”
    To me, that is corporate-speak for: “Those people are so dumb and poor, for a few bucks they’ll let us ruin anything.”
    Now that Mars Hill has destroyed its namesake landmark with industrial eyesores strung from one end to the other (that have already begun to malfunction and stand dead up there), are we to understand that the entire County is up for grabs? What gives a few individuals the right to poison the entire natural landscape town after town after town?
    I don’t buy for a minute, the official line that private property owners have the right to lease their land to these companies at will. If that’s absolutely true, then I’m going to invite a nuclear power company to build on my land. And my neighbor can start processing asbestos. And you there, you can build an airport on your farm. We can all laugh our ways to the bank, then in with what used to be the peaceful soul of the County: our breathtaking views and treasured serenity.
    These things are visual pollution: ugly electricity factories, plain and simple. They need to be regulated like any other kind of pollution and located where natural resources have already been compromised, not planted in the heart of pristine farm and wilderness land. They are devastating to the scenic integrity of our region upon which no small amount of tourist trade relies. What gives these industries the right to target us for these monstrosities that the wealthier communities of Maine will not tolerate?
    Given that those using the most electricity (the urban areas) are being spared the ugly production it (do you think Rangeley and Camden would welcome power plants for Portland in their scenery?), Aroostook County is being treated very much like the impoverished Navajo who have seen their sacred lands destroyed by coal companies for the production of electricity for Las Vegas.
    Perhaps we are as dumb as they think we are if we allow this desecration of the land to happen right before our eyes AGAIN.
Linda Griffith
Blaine