A PLACE FOR WIND

When it again begins consideration of a wind power project in western Maine, the Land Use Regulation Commission has an opportunity to clarify where such infrastructure is appropriate. The answer must consider the difficult balance of protecting Maine’s unique landscapes with the inevitable damage that will result if the state and the country don’t alter their energy supply.

Earlier this year, LURC recommended denial of a 90-megawatt wind farm on Redington and Black Nubble mountains. Despite a staff recommendation in support of the 30-turbine project, the commission voted 6-1 to recommend denial, citing concerns about its impact on views and the mountaintop ecology.

Since then, the Natural Resources Council of Maine has negotiated with Maine Mountain Power to scale back the project to include turbines only on Black Nubble Mountain while forever forbidding them on the higher and more sensitive Redington Pond Range. This is an important compromise that will protect wildlife habitat and reduce the project’s visual impact in exchange for building renewable energy infrastructure in a more appropriate place.

Rather than deciding where wind turbines don’t belong, the state needs to find more places where they do. A task force created by the governor can help, but more immediately, LURC must make such decisions. The commission will begin hearings on the scaled-back project Wednesday. A decision is expected later this year.

A major concern of opponents of the project is that wind turbines will mar the view. While it is true that wind power doesn’t belong just anywhere, there is a cost for a ready supply of electricity to power computers, lights, refrigerators and other conveniences of modern life. Often those costs are borne elsewhere – in West Virginia where mountaintops are removed for the coal underneath. Or the costs will be borne in the future – when pollution is so thick to obscure the mountain views or has killed the vegetation that made the view appealing.

To reduce those costs, or at least stop them from rising at their current rate, hundreds of wind turbines will be needed. The Conservation Law Foundation calculates that Maine needs about 8,000 megawatts of wind power to meet regional climate-change goals to which Maine agreed. Black Nubble will contribute 54 megawatts.

Moving ahead with this project is a small but needed step toward lessening our dependence on highly polluting coal and oil to power our lives.