Well said, Carey. These massive industrial developments being proposed for remote sections of the state are about making a lot of money for a few under the guise of saving the planet. It sickens me that some are willing to sell Maine's mountains for so little.

First of course our involvement in Iraq is substantially about oil. Even Allen Greenspan said as much in his latest book. Do you really think we would have cared enough about the Middle East for the past 50 or 60 years to put it front and center on our national security agenda if they didn't have oil? Please, give us a break. We didn't fight the first Gulf War as an altruistic gesture to defend a helpless country, we did it to keep the oil flowing. The old Iraqi regime was a threat to the stability of the region and thus a threat to the flow of oil. Furthermore if they fell to more radical elements or got aggressive with their neighbors the flow of Middle Eastern oil to keep our nation functioning would have been seriously threatened. Everything in the Middle East eventually goes back to the issue of oil.

Now on to conservation. I'm with you whole heartedly that people need to take very serious personal responsibility for energy conservation. Some call conservation the greenest of the alternative energies. Often times ... no most times, however, people aren't willing to take personal responsibility for their energy use. Saying people should conserve and that would solve the problem is, well blowing wind. Only true action will bring about change. For instance Maine would be well served to require stronger conservation measures like strict energy efficiency standards for home construction and providing better incentives to get people to put solar on their rooftops. Higher taxes on low efficiency vehicles and lower taxes on higher efficiency vehicles would be another way to strongly encourage "wiser choices" and conservation.

Conservation alone, however, will not help make Maine or the rest of the nation energy independent. We must also aggressively move forward on renewable energy projects. Look, every mountain top is special in its own right. For every group of vocal advocates protecting one mountain like Black Nubble Mountain, there will be an equally vocal group trying to protect their own precious mountain views. At some point we must say enough is enough and realize that aesthetic concerns are not true environmental concerns, rather they are a NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitude.

Depending upon which electric utility they subscribe to, most Mainers get at least 9.6% to 12% of their electrical energy from coal fired power plants (39.0% to 43.8% comes from fossil fuels in general). In order to supply the coal necessary to feed those power plants, entire mountains in coal states like West Virginia are being blasted away and their valleys filled with the rubble. By blocking renewable energy projects like Black Nubble Mountain, to keep the views from our "back yard" sanitary, we are helping to utterly destroy the views, environment and lives of those in other states simply to power our homes. This is unconscionable.

Yes we must be aggressive about conservation, but we must also take responsibility for our own electric generation. Either that or people should disconnect from the electric grid. Solar on roof tops; wind turbines on a few mountains and maybe in the Gulf of Maine; more waste to energy; maybe some tidal electric generators when this technology becomes feasible; and lots and lots of conservation could eventually make Maine a lot more energy independent and we could take comfort in knowing we aren't destroying the lives of others to power our energy needs.

Do you honestly think that any number of wind farms in Maine will reduce strip mining in the southern appalachians? Give me a break. Coal will continue to be mined in West Virginia, it will be burned in the midwest, and a wild place in Maine will be lost. Large scale wind industry exists around the world and there is no evidence that any industrial wind site has led to reduced carbon emissions and oil consumption.

The massive amount of blasting required to install these turbines will forever alter the high mountain regions they claim to be saving. To justify this destruction for a miniscule amount of power is absurd.

The only place wind should be considered is much closer to existing industrial development.

Screw the Green Koolaid drinkers.

I support wind power, and I'm not talking about the hot air that Enviro-MENTAL Nazi's spew forth.
America needs energy independence.

All great journeys start with a single step. NIMBY'ism won't solve our energy independence problem and neither will conservation. Get over it! Stop drinking Green Koolaid and start thinking for yourself.

I'm an ex-MATC member who's dues no longer support their politics.

Hey! How about we unfocus from the large energy corporations and take the issue into our own hands! A small wind generator or solar collector, can easily provide 80% of your families home needs. They generate none of the noise/navigation concerns of a major wind farm.

OKay, by definition I am not a Mainer (only lived there eight years), but we are facing the same issues in Wisconsin. Converting coal to gas... guess where the gas comes from? Decommisioning nuc's... While the overall demand for electric energy spirals up? Where is the logic?

Many states provide incentives for private "energy providers" that put power "back onto the grid".

It doesn't have to be an eyesore... Dorothea Lange made her name with images of Kansas windmills..

Don..

I saw a great program on the discovery channel that said if we put solar panels on 10% of the land in Nevada, we would generate enough energy to power the whole US...how about that?

Why not allow the wind stations to be put into place so we can build towards the future? The stations will have a life span and then likely be removed or replaced by the next generation, state of the art electrical generating system. A clean environment is one that can better sustain our livelihoods and an environment in this instance that can replace out dated technology that has already caused more environmental harm than good. Let’s be done with the power systems that wreak havoc on the environment and put in place systems that can sustain our future.

They are pulling this same crap along Cape Cod and other places. Just a few investors who stand to make billions in selling of carbon credits and leave us with these eyesores. All the while, they will not replace one single hydrocarbon burning plant!

Anyone remember the promise of the Biomass plants...what a hoax!

Well said Carey,

During the past few years, we have just had the same issue from my native homeleand - Wales where we lost the battle to save some wilderness mountains to windfarms - see http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~hills/cc/gallery/index.htm for the damage that was done

I have now moved to maine and now the same thing is maybe happening here????? checkout this website and read the story

MUZBY