Aroostook County (and Mainers) getting wind burned

To the editor:
    After being inundated with wind power articles, opinion editorials and letters to the editor over the last couple of years, and hoopla over Horizon Wind opening a small office in Presque Isle, which had the attendance of all the political figures (including Gov. Baldacci), it dawned on me that nobody has discussed actual numbers with respect to the benefit/cost of wind energy to the electric rate/tax payer, the landowner in Aroostook County and Aroostook County as a whole. Therefore, I decided to research the costs and benefits of wind power to the electric rate/tax payer and value received for landowners. My findings were shocking and, in fact, I fell out of my chair.
    Under the current system of electricity supply to the electricity customers of Maine, wind projects are grossly expensive and the developer’s/owner’s pockets are getting lined at the expense of the average Joe, and in the case of Aroostook County, the very economically challenged.
    There are many facts, but I’ll try and boil it down. Based on public data from a recent State of Maine report, the cost to develop and construct Mars Hill was $95 million. Assuming 100 percent debt financing at seven percent and a 0.7 cents per kwh for property taxes and variable operating and maintenance, the annual cost to develop Mars Hill is estimated to be about 7.6 kwh (pre-tax). Per a press release earlier this year NB Power signed a wind project contract for their customers at a cost of 7.7 cents per kwh.
    However, wind projects in Maine are highly subsidized through both the tax system and electric system via public policy (Baldacci passed a law requiring the Mainers pay a six cent per kwh premium for wind energy costing Mainers $70 million per year). Keep in mind a subsidy is a cost. Wind projects, under the current deregulated system of electric supply, will effectively be paid the same as a gas/oil fired generation price plus a basketful of subsidies, which total 20 cents per kwh or more. That’s a whopping 12.4 cents per kwh premium for wind. For just the Mars Hill wind project (42 MW producing about 130 million kwh per year), that is a profit of $16.1 million per year (or about $900 per year per household served by Mars Hill) imposed on customers as a result of this “public policy” forced on us by Augusta. Add 800 MW more wind (as proposed by Horizon, the Portuguese Company) in Aroostook County, and developers profit from wind is estimated to be $307 million per year.
    I am not anti-wind; I just want to pay a reasonable cost. If wind is economic then wind generation should be built on only sites that make sense. But wind is not even remotely an economic solution for consumers under the current deregulated market system. For example, a regulated utility developed project on Mars Hill would have cost about 8.5 cents per kwh, which is about a $1.2 million per year profit for the utility. A much more reasonable profit level (vs. $16.1 million to wind developers) and the project would provide an actual hedge to ratepayers (price is fixed, not based on future payments tied to fossil fuel prices). This clearly demonstrates deregulation has been a failure and is placing a huge economic burden on poor Mainers.
    How much of the wind profit pie will landowners receive? I have heard the lease payments range from $1,000 to $5,000 per year per turbine, with a land lease term of 50 years. With projected profit for developers at about $575,000 per year per 1.5 MW turbine, the landowners are clearly getting taken advantage of. The land is the most important asset (many utilities, developers and financing sources will be interested in viable locations/projects), and the landowners should be paid accordingly.
    Gov. Baldacci and the politicians in Augusta has again thrown Aroostook County under the potato truck. They force us to pay all these subsidies and tout (for their own personal gain) how great this wind generation will be for the county, yet don’t educate the landowners (struggling potato, tree and agricultural farmers) in regard to public energy policy, the energy industry and the value of the public policy directed projects. Unless it is incompetence, one can only conclude that Gov. Baldacci knew very well that the landowner will receive less than one percent of the project’s value and the county will only get 50 relatively low-paying maintenance jobs (with local TIFs property taxes are a shell game). This is blasphemy. And yes, the poor folks of Aroostook County are being taken advantage of from Augusta for political gain and expediency.
    It is hard to believe that such a valuable asset is being extracted (or stolen) from the county and state as a result of misguided energy policy and political benefit. The vast majority of profits not only leave the county, but Maine, and even the country (Horizon is a Portuguese company). That is one serious wind burn, and it will be hurting for the next 50 years.
R. Beem
Limestone