Friends of Maine’s Mountains withdraws Bingham Wind Project appeal

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    AUGUSTA — An appeal of the Maine Board of Environmental Protection’s approval of a 62-turbine wind farm in northern Somerset and western Piscataquis counties was withdrawn last week, paving the way for construction to commence.
    Attorney David Lourie filed formal notice with the state Board of Environmental Protection on March 4 that the group would not appeal the decision by the state agency to grant the license.

    “Friends of Maine’s Mountains have invested two years and significant resources opposing First Wind’s Bingham Wind project,” FMM said in a prepared statement. “Given the DEP’s decision … and the dim prospects of overturning that decision on appeals to the BEP and to the courts, we want to make sure that if the project goes forward, its impacts are minimized and some positive results are secured.”
    The decision also came within a week after a major shakeup in the organization.
    Rand Stowell, the president of Friends of Maine’s Mountains, and FMM’s secretary, Chris O’Neil, agreed to resign their posts to settle conflict-of-interest issues raised by the attorney general’s office, according to the Bangor Daily News.
    Attorney General Janet Mills’ investigation alleged O’Neil and Stowell exerted control over the other board members by forming a two-member “executive committee,” which voted out three of the other board members and elected a new third director in January 2014.
    Shortly after that decision, Mills alleged that Stowell and O’Neil, a Portland attorney, approved a legal settlement with Saddleback Ridge Wind from which they both received money.
    As a neighboring property owner, Stowell filed an individual lawsuit against Saddleback with O’Neil as his legal counsel. Mills alleged that O’Neil later suggested the board approve paying his company past-due consulting fees of $30,000 from the Saddleback settlement money.
    A few days prior to the scheduled Bingham Wind Project appeal last week, the BEP had already filed a draft decision, essentially disproving many of FMM’s allegations.
    The decision stated that First Wind Holdings, the parent company, had more than $2.1 billion in assets, so they had the financial capacity to complete the project and — if necessary — a decommissioning plan.
    The $398 million Bingham Wind Project calls for 29 turbines in Mayfield Township, 22 in Kingsbury Plantation and 11 in Bingham.
    When completed, First Wind would pay an estimated $176,000 in taxes to Kingsbury Plantation, $106,000 to Bingham and $20,000 each to the towns of Abbot, Parkman and Moscow where turbines, transmission lines or substations will be located.