October 1, 2007
Land Use Regulation Commission
22 State House Station
Augusta,
Maine 04333-0022
RE: Testimony in support of the proposed wind farm at Black
Nubble, in Redington
Township
Dear Members of the Board of the Land Use Regulation
Commission,
On behalf of Environment
Maine Research
& Policy Center’s
more than 4,000 volunteers and activists, I would like to submit testimony in
support of Black Nubble wind farm, in Redington Township.
This project will move Maine’s energy
production towards a new energy future and contribute to lessening Maine’s global warming emissions.
The Environment Maine Research & Policy
Center researches problems, crafts
policy solutions and educates and engages the public on issues that affect Maine’s environment. We
have worked extensively on the issues of clean energy and global warming,
highlighting in numerous reports the policies necessary to successfully promote
clean energy projects such as the Black Nubble wind farm and reduce Maine’s
global warming pollution, and mobilizing public support for these policies and
projects.
Maine
creates more than half of its electricity from fossil fuels, at our peril. We
use heating oil and natural gas to heat our homes and businesses. In addition to creating air and global
warming pollution, these resources are finite and are not found in Maine. Fortunately, Maine has abundant
sources of renewable energy and energy efficiency resources that we have only
just begun to tap. Wind, solar, clean biomass and low-impact hydro energy
sources are renewable, create negligible environmental damage and could supply Maine with its future
energy demand.
Already, dirty energy causes massive, largely undocumented
costs to public health, the environment and tourism industry. Summertime smog
chokes the breath of residents and visitors alike, contributing to Maine attaining the
highest rate of childhood and adult asthma in the region. Haze drastically cuts
the visibility at Acadia
National Park and other
recreational and tourism destinations. Mercury contamination makes Maine’s fish unsafe to
eat for children and women of child-bearing age, and threatens the longterm
health of loons and other wildlife. Additionally, nuclear waste is still stored
in insecure, non-permanent facilities at the decommissioned Maine Yankee
nuclear plant site. Despite industry assurances, the National Academy of
Sciences have yet to approve a safe way to store this and other nuclear waste
from around the country. Neither oil, coal, gas or nuclear power will lead us
towards a clean energy future – and the social and environmental costs of continuing
on that path are unreasonable.
Energy price increases and the conflict in the Middle East
have jump-started a long overdue national conversation about the direction of America’s
energy policy. One only needs to look at
the price of natural gas over the past decade to see why relying too heavily on
fossil fuels drives up wholesale electric and other fuel costs (Figure 3).
The public is clamoring for solutions and, in this
generation, there has never been deeper support for increasing the amount of
power we get from renewable energy. Just
last year, Maine set a goal of producing 10 percent new clean energy by 2017,
on top of the renewable power we already generate, and the legislature recently
established the goal as a requirement of all utilities in the state. This
summer for the first time, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that
would require our country get 15 percent of our electricity from renewable
sources by 2015. Clearly, the public is clamoring for more clean energy, and
the Black Nubble wind farm will be one of the projects that our state and
country must embrace in order to tap our renewable energy potential.
Developing our renewable energy resources will create jobs,
save consumers money and bolster rural economies. A 2004 study the Union of
Concerned Scientists (UCS) found that a national standard requiring 20 percent
of electric generation from renewable energy sources by the year 2020 save
consumers tens of billions annually in lower electricity and natural gas bills,
and create several hundred thousand new jobs--nearly twice as many as
generating the same amount of power from fossil fuels.
In addition to diversifying and securing our energy supply,
by shifting away from fossil fuels, we can reduce global warming pollution. A
recent analysis based on assumptions of the Energy Information Administration
indicates that national standard requiring 20 percent renewable electricity by
2020 would cut global warming pollution by 263 million metric tons in 2030; the
equivalent of taking 43 million cars off the road. In order to reduce global
warming emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary – 80 percent by
2050 – we will need to get projects in place that start generating clean energy
and averting emissions now.
On the particulars of this project, we support the Black
Nubble wind project. The Environment Maine Research & Policy
Center originally took no position on
the Redington Mountain and Black Nubble wind project,
because we were not able to review the environmental impacts closely enough to
weigh its impacts with its benefits. We submitted public testimony in support
of clean energy, generally and wind power, specifically.
Since reviewing with coalition partners the scaled-back
proposal of wind turbines being located just on Black Nubble, we believe the
benefits of the Black Nubble wind farm far outweigh any negative impacts. By
protecting Redington
Mountain and redeveloping
the already-logged/developed Black Nubble, the wind farm proposal has greatly
lessened its impact on alpine ecological areas. Our full support for this
project is in line with our larger mission to promote clean energy and curb
global warming pollution. We hope that
the Land Use Regulation Commission approves the Black Nubble wind farm application
so that Maine
can continue to move along the path to a new energy future that reduces global
warming pollution.
Sincerely,
Matthew Davis
Organizational Development Director
