Around the Region

First Wind Bingham project appeal process underway

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    AUGUSTA — Two opponents of a proposed wind farm that would span an area from Bingham to Kingsbury Plantation are appealing the decision approving the project, and additional comments are being accepted by the Board of Environmental Protection until Monday, Nov. 17 at 5 p.m.

    The appeals were filed by Friends of Maine’s Mountains, an environmental advocacy group, and Alice McCabe Barnett of Carthage.
    First Wind Holdings, which has promoted wind projects in five other states, was granted a land use permit for the Bingham project last month to construct 62 wind turbines in rural Somerset and southern Piscataquis counties: 29 in Mayfield Township, 22 in Kingsbury Plantation and 11 in Bingham.
    Rand Stowell, president of Friends of Maine Mountains, wrote that his organization “objects to the Bingham Wind Project based on adequacies in the applicant’s decommissioning plan. FMM also objects on the applicants’ unlikely ability to show financial capacity.”
    While Friends of Maine Mountains concedes that the DEP required evidence that First Wind had the financial ability to build the turbines, the organization “questions whether there are adequate safeguards in the order … A letter of confidence, as DEP apparently realizes, is not a commitment of capital and is not cash.”
    Other concerns voiced by FMM include the DEP’s assessment of tangible benefits of the wind farm. “With several years of experience, having spent approximately $1 billion for wind infrastructure … with negligible material benefit, with the New England grid now in critical need of dispatchable base load and peak energy load, wind energy’s value and necessity as envisioned by the Wind Energy Act are diminished.”
    Much of Barnett’s complaint is based on concerns about the noise levels of the turbines. In her appeal, she said she objects to the ruling “and feels that a complaint hotline should be in the hands of local health officials, at the expense of the developer … The DEP and the developer are not health experts.”
    Barnett also wrote that the objection “goes beyond the simple 42 dba noise compliance. People within two miles of turbines report hearing ‘the sound of an airplane that never lands’ for days.”
    But not all conservation groups are opposed to the $398 million venture. Supporters include the Sierra Club, Conservation Law Foundation and Environment Maine who released a statement last month saying they’re “committed both to protecting Maine’s wilderness and transitioning away from dangerous fossil fuel dependency to a cleaner energy economy based on efficiency and renewable power like wind and solar.”
    According to the Central Maine Morning Sentinel, the Appalachian Mountain Club, Maine Appalachian Trail Club and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy dropped opposition to the Bingham project after Blue Sky West, a subsidiary of First Wind, donated $700,000 to the creation of a conservation easement along the Appalachian Trail earlier this year.
    The wind farm would also be a significant source of tax dollars in the affected communities.
    Estimated yearly payments are $176,000 to Kingsbury Plantation, $106,000 to Bingham and $20,000 each to the towns of Abbott, Parkman and Moscow.
    A full description of the project is posted at www.maine.gov/dep/bep.

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