Here’s why western Maine is under pressure to site industrial wind developments on our mountains:

Over the past decade all the New England states have enacted legislation requiring varying amounts of energy be supplied by renewable energy sources. That sounds all well and good. Renewable sources include such things as solar power, wind development, geothermal and others. Some of these sources are more invasive than others.

Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island are densely populated and require large amounts of power to meet their renewable energy mandates. When industrial wind developments were proposed for those states to meet their mandates, the residents said they did not want industrial wind turbines in their backyards. I can’t blame them. I don’t want them in mine.

The wind industry then proposed wind turbine development ?in Maine so they could transmit the power to southern New England. The power is auctioned there to the highest bidder at an energy auction, or sold directly to a city in those states.

CMP has a transmission line that runs through our area. The wind industry can connect to that line and ship the energy south for auction or sale. Instead of having to pay to build a very expensive transmission line, they can pay a fee to CMP and send the power south to put much money in the pockets of the wind industry.

Betsey Foster, Greenwood

