Let’s face it, Maine is a poor state. That is a big advantage for some industries, and a big disadvantage for our population.
Most people living here are not expecting to drink from the money stream that flows in and around Washington, D.C. and other power centers, but to exist in a pleasing, relatively unspoiled, natural environment. Independence is a valued characteristic in Maine, despite its having been co-opted by politicians who are anything but.
Regardless of whether one believes in the various current iterations of global warming or man-made climate change, consider this; when an industry begins to coalesce via mergers into a giant interest group, and that industry happens to produce and control electricity transmission throughout the region (and beyond) one ought to question the ultimate costs — both fiscal and environmental — vs. the purported benefits. It is highly unlikely that what the industry is telling you is the whole story.
The wind industry is now so entangled with the electricity industry that it is impossible to consider it some odd-ball pony-tailed cousin, doing its own thing in the industrial hinterlands. No, unfortunately Iberdrola, Emera Maine, CMP, First Wind, Patriot Renewables, Independence Wind, TransCanada are all actors in the same play. It is called “Tell them How Great it Will Be With Cheap, Clean, Green Energy.”
And to entice the audience (you, the citizens of Maine), they need soothingly effective and financially helpful community outreach. In order to help facilitate this, the industry has enlisted the assistance of several Maine environmental organizations, as well as showering some Maine communities with outright cash for pet projects or property tax reduction. Sweet!
The basic nature of organizations such as Maine Audubon, Natural Resources Council of Maine, Maine Nature Conservancy, and the Conservation Law Foundation, would seem to be at odds with the “grid-scale” installations of industrial wind and solar (yes, they are pushing that too) in our state. But this is where the vast funding resources come into play, and it is very easy for these groups to turn a blind eye to citizens’ concerns when they have the hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations available from the industry. Apparently there is a view among certain environmental groups that they know better than anyone else how, and why, to decimate our natural resources in the name of their purported agenda of carbon reduction.
Money makes the blades go round.
The funding for this industry is enormous, and a very large part of it comes from programs initiated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the trillion dollar stimulus boondoggle. Taxpayers are funding it and the solons in D.C. are giving the industries tax breaks on top of that, because they know better than you how to save the environment, and how to spend your money.
One program in particular, the 1603 Grant Program, according to Energy.gov, “… was created … to support the deployment of renewable energy resources. The 1603 Program offered project developers the option to select a one-time cash payment in lieu of taking the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) or the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for which they would have been otherwise eligible.” In most instances, the one-time cash payout can amount to 30 percent of a project’s total (eligible) cost basis. First Wind alone has 21 projects across 10 states, 17 of which received $778 million in taxpayer money, most of this under the 1603 Grant Program. In Maine, their Stetson Wind project received a 1603 Grant for over $40 million in 2009, then again in 2010 got another $19 million. The Bull Hill project received a 1603 Grant in 2013 for $21 million.
Now, many of us recognize that the word “million” has lost some of its meaning to politicians in Washington, whether it is dollars or birds and bats. Every subsidy to these industries ought to be eliminated entirely. If they can’t “profitably” exist without them, too bad; they should go back to the drawing board.
Perhaps a million individuals canceling membership to supposed environmental groups might get their attention, and a million voters could oust the Senators and their crony facilitators.
Paul Ackerman of Tenants Harbor is a member of a group of concerned Midcoast citizens who meet to discuss issues of public interest. Their weekly column “Another View” has been awarded by the Maine Press Association.
