THE GREAT WIND DEBATE: Paths cross at Highland Plantation
~~~~~~~~
Erin Rhoda and Tux Turkel
--HIGHLAND PLANTATION, Maine -- One way to tell if anyone's home
here in the winter is to glance at the roof.
Most of the community's roughly 50 residents burn wood for heat, so
smoke rising from the chimney is a telltale sign. The plumes may also be
a good indicator of which households would want to participate in what's
being billed as a national demonstration project to show how wind power
can cut Maine's dependence on imported oil.
Energy developers want to place 39 turbines along forested ridges in
this 42-square-mile community northwest of Kingfield. There's one paved
road -- Long Falls Dam Road -- but many logging roads and hiking trails.
The Appalachian Trail runs several miles to the north, in Carrying Place
Town Township.
To help win regulatory approval -- and to comply with a law passed last
year requiring that residents benefit from wind farms -- developer
Highland Wind LLC is offering a $6,000 "fossil fuel reduction" grant to
each household.
Former Gov. Angus King and Rob Gardiner are principals at Independence
Wind, which operates Highland Wind LLC. They hope to persuade some
residents to use that grant to install electric thermal storage heaters
in their homes, which would use steeply-discounted electricity from the
wind project to offset oil heat.
The discount would have residents pay for electricity through the
heaters at the equivalent of about $1.15 per gallon of oil, about
one-third the current cost.
Their idea is to show how Maine eventually could warm buildings and
power electric cars with local wind energy that's generated at night,
when demand on the grid is low.
Sam Zaitlin is president of the two-year-old Thermal Energy Storage of
Maine -- the Biddeford company that makes and will sell the heaters. He
said costs for heaters range from $3,320 for smaller units to between
$8,000 and $12,000 for an entire home heating system.
In this community, the idea is meeting with skepticism. Some residents
seem confused about how the technology would work. Others don't see the
benefit, or are distrustful of electric heat in any form.
In this community, the idea is meeting with skepticism. Some residents
seem confused about how the technology would work. Others don't see the
benefit, or are distrustful of electric heat in any form.
Heidi Emery, who grew up here and returned with her husband to build a
house and raise their six children, says that no grant could reduce the
turbines' possible health effects and scenic disruption. "There's
nothing that can compare to what we have. We enjoy where we live. This
is where I wanted to raise my children, and I feel like I'm waiting for
a plague to happen. That's exactly the feeling," Emery said. "No amount
of money can make me feel good about that."
Greg Drummond, who owns Claybrook Mountain Lodge with his wife, Pat, is
even more blunt. "We consider this a bribe to get us to come around," he
said of the developers' offer.
King and Gardiner, a former president of Maine Public Broadcasting
Network, have been meeting with residents for nearly three years, trying
to sell the wind farm and allay concerns. The small mountains that
bisect Highland Plantation have some of the state's best wind-energy
characteristics, they say.
King said they have taken a model of the heater unit to Highland, to
show residents.
"People have to be willing to give it a try," King said.
The $6,000 grant, coupled with a monthly allowance of free electricity,
is meant to satisfy a new law requiring wind developers to offer
"tangible benefits" for the host community. The program also may improve
the chances of winning a permit this year from the Maine Land Use
Regulation Commission, which oversees wind development in the
unorganized territories.
Many residents of Highland Plantation, like Jay Staton, have come for
the solitude and mountain views. From his broad patio, he can see the
broad ridge of Witham Mountain, to the west; Bald Mountain, a
mile-and-a-half to the north; then Briggs Hill. "Every one of those is
going to be covered with wind towers," Staton said, motioning across the
frozen pond beyond his yard.
The nearest turbines would be at least one-and-a-quarter miles from all
residences, except for a few seasonal camps, according to Gardiner. From
that distance, he added, homeowners would only hear them turning under
unusual atmospheric conditions. A worst-case scenario, he said, would
result in noise less than what's produced by most refrigerators.
Staton, the community's third assessor, moved here from Portland in
1974. He built a house with electric baseboards, and was shocked by the
first bill.
"I ran it one month and shut it down," he said. "Then I converted to
wood." Staton knows the storage heaters Highland Wind is offering are
different than electric-resistance heat, but he's still skeptical. His
new house is heated by a wood boiler in the garage, using logs from his
own woodlot. He showed off the unit, which he feeds once a day.
"It would be crazy for me to do anything else," he said.
Sitting at his kitchen table, Staton unfolded a recent column from The
Wall Street Journal. It was about how T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire
energy investor, had backed away from wind investments in favor of
natural gas.
"Common sense tells me that this country is subsidizing anything that
says 'green,' and if it wasn't for the subsidy, wind wouldn't work," he
said.
Drummond and his wife, Pat, cater to hunters and fishermen, but also
welcome cross-country skiers and Maine Audubon Society birding trips to
their 130 acres of forest.
He wonders whether the project's contribution is worth sacrificing the
unspoiled ridgeline he and his guests gaze at from the lodge porch. The
nearest turbine would be approximately two miles distant.
"It's a tremendous resource to be giving up for an experiment," he said.
Either way, Drummond won't be heating with an electric storage unit. He
cuts his own fireword. His lodge is heated primarily with a giant
soapstone woodstove. "I've got pretty good storage right there," he said
of the stone-clad burner radiating warmth into the den.
But not everyone heats with wood, even in the middle of the forest.
Robert Kristoff has an oil furnace in his house, which sits on the edge
of the main road, looking across a field to Witham Mountain. Retired and
84 years old, Kristoff's not bothered by the prospect of wind turbines
on the ridge. It's far enough away, he said.
But he also has no interest in the storage heat demonstration. "To me,
if it's electric, it's going to cost money," he said.
The benefits package won't suit everyone in Highland and could change,
Gardiner said. The developer's representatives are currently negotiating
details with Highland's elected assessors and attorney, William A. Lee.
If homeowners don't use the $6,000 after three years, they could receive
it in the form of cash, Lee said. That would be in addition to
potentially lower taxes. The wind project would pay roughly 80 percent
of the plantation's relatively high tax burden.
So far, negotiations have been "cordial and reasonably productive," Lee
said, but because there is no precedent for the benefits package, some
of the legal wording has caused confusion. Some residents say that the
heater wouldn't help them, but they could use the $6,000 in other ways.
One of them is Diane Emery, the plantation's tax collector, who also
heats with oil. She'd also be able to see turbine towers from her house,
but said she doesn't find them offensive.
Emery supports the wind project, but said her home doesn't have room for
a new heater unit. She'd use the $6,000 to upgrade insulation. The
biggest benefit from the project wouldn't be cheaper heat, she said, but
the lower taxes.
At an informational meeting three years ago, Jo Dunphy, the plantation's
first assessor, said that made the project worth considering. At the
time, she called Highland Wind "a survival project" for the plantation.
More recently, she has become more circumspect, as the issue has become
controversial and drawn wider attention. During a brief chat outside her
home last week, Dunphy declined to offer a personal opinion about the
project, referring questions to Lee.
"It has gotten a lot bigger than we ever thought it would," she said.
But when asked if she and her husband would be interested in electric
storage heat, Dunphy said she would not. Standing in Dunphy's dooryard,
it was easy to deduce why.
To see more of the Morning Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go
to http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/. Copyright (c) 2011, Morning
Sentinel, Waterville, Maine Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information
Services. For more information about the content services offered by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit
www.mctinfoservices.com.
~~~~~~~~
Erin Rhoda and Tux Turkel
--HIGHLAND PLANTATION, Maine -- One way to tell if anyone's home
here in the winter is to glance at the roof.
Most of the community's roughly 50 residents burn wood for heat, so
smoke rising from the chimney is a telltale sign. The plumes may also be
a good indicator of which households would want to participate in what's
being billed as a national demonstration project to show how wind power
can cut Maine's dependence on imported oil.
Energy developers want to place 39 turbines along forested ridges in
this 42-square-mile community northwest of Kingfield. There's one paved
road -- Long Falls Dam Road -- but many logging roads and hiking trails.
The Appalachian Trail runs several miles to the north, in Carrying Place
Town Township.
To help win regulatory approval -- and to comply with a law passed last
year requiring that residents benefit from wind farms -- developer
Highland Wind LLC is offering a $6,000 "fossil fuel reduction" grant to
each household.
Former Gov. Angus King and Rob Gardiner are principals at Independence
Wind, which operates Highland Wind LLC. They hope to persuade some
residents to use that grant to install electric thermal storage heaters
in their homes, which would use steeply-discounted electricity from the
wind project to offset oil heat.
The discount would have residents pay for electricity through the
heaters at the equivalent of about $1.15 per gallon of oil, about
one-third the current cost.
Their idea is to show how Maine eventually could warm buildings and
power electric cars with local wind energy that's generated at night,
when demand on the grid is low.
Sam Zaitlin is president of the two-year-old Thermal Energy Storage of
Maine -- the Biddeford company that makes and will sell the heaters. He
said costs for heaters range from $3,320 for smaller units to between
$8,000 and $12,000 for an entire home heating system.
In this community, the idea is meeting with skepticism. Some residents
seem confused about how the technology would work. Others don't see the
benefit, or are distrustful of electric heat in any form.
In this community, the idea is meeting with skepticism. Some residents
seem confused about how the technology would work. Others don't see the
benefit, or are distrustful of electric heat in any form.
Heidi Emery, who grew up here and returned with her husband to build a
house and raise their six children, says that no grant could reduce the
turbines' possible health effects and scenic disruption. "There's
nothing that can compare to what we have. We enjoy where we live. This
is where I wanted to raise my children, and I feel like I'm waiting for
a plague to happen. That's exactly the feeling," Emery said. "No amount
of money can make me feel good about that."
Greg Drummond, who owns Claybrook Mountain Lodge with his wife, Pat, is
even more blunt. "We consider this a bribe to get us to come around," he
said of the developers' offer.
King and Gardiner, a former president of Maine Public Broadcasting
Network, have been meeting with residents for nearly three years, trying
to sell the wind farm and allay concerns. The small mountains that
bisect Highland Plantation have some of the state's best wind-energy
characteristics, they say.
King said they have taken a model of the heater unit to Highland, to
show residents.
"People have to be willing to give it a try," King said.
The $6,000 grant, coupled with a monthly allowance of free electricity,
is meant to satisfy a new law requiring wind developers to offer
"tangible benefits" for the host community. The program also may improve
the chances of winning a permit this year from the Maine Land Use
Regulation Commission, which oversees wind development in the
unorganized territories.
Many residents of Highland Plantation, like Jay Staton, have come for
the solitude and mountain views. From his broad patio, he can see the
broad ridge of Witham Mountain, to the west; Bald Mountain, a
mile-and-a-half to the north; then Briggs Hill. "Every one of those is
going to be covered with wind towers," Staton said, motioning across the
frozen pond beyond his yard.
The nearest turbines would be at least one-and-a-quarter miles from all
residences, except for a few seasonal camps, according to Gardiner. From
that distance, he added, homeowners would only hear them turning under
unusual atmospheric conditions. A worst-case scenario, he said, would
result in noise less than what's produced by most refrigerators.
Staton, the community's third assessor, moved here from Portland in
1974. He built a house with electric baseboards, and was shocked by the
first bill.
"I ran it one month and shut it down," he said. "Then I converted to
wood." Staton knows the storage heaters Highland Wind is offering are
different than electric-resistance heat, but he's still skeptical. His
new house is heated by a wood boiler in the garage, using logs from his
own woodlot. He showed off the unit, which he feeds once a day.
"It would be crazy for me to do anything else," he said.
Sitting at his kitchen table, Staton unfolded a recent column from The
Wall Street Journal. It was about how T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire
energy investor, had backed away from wind investments in favor of
natural gas.
"Common sense tells me that this country is subsidizing anything that
says 'green,' and if it wasn't for the subsidy, wind wouldn't work," he
said.
Drummond and his wife, Pat, cater to hunters and fishermen, but also
welcome cross-country skiers and Maine Audubon Society birding trips to
their 130 acres of forest.
He wonders whether the project's contribution is worth sacrificing the
unspoiled ridgeline he and his guests gaze at from the lodge porch. The
nearest turbine would be approximately two miles distant.
"It's a tremendous resource to be giving up for an experiment," he said.
Either way, Drummond won't be heating with an electric storage unit. He
cuts his own fireword. His lodge is heated primarily with a giant
soapstone woodstove. "I've got pretty good storage right there," he said
of the stone-clad burner radiating warmth into the den.
But not everyone heats with wood, even in the middle of the forest.
Robert Kristoff has an oil furnace in his house, which sits on the edge
of the main road, looking across a field to Witham Mountain. Retired and
84 years old, Kristoff's not bothered by the prospect of wind turbines
on the ridge. It's far enough away, he said.
But he also has no interest in the storage heat demonstration. "To me,
if it's electric, it's going to cost money," he said.
The benefits package won't suit everyone in Highland and could change,
Gardiner said. The developer's representatives are currently negotiating
details with Highland's elected assessors and attorney, William A. Lee.
If homeowners don't use the $6,000 after three years, they could receive
it in the form of cash, Lee said. That would be in addition to
potentially lower taxes. The wind project would pay roughly 80 percent
of the plantation's relatively high tax burden.
So far, negotiations have been "cordial and reasonably productive," Lee
said, but because there is no precedent for the benefits package, some
of the legal wording has caused confusion. Some residents say that the
heater wouldn't help them, but they could use the $6,000 in other ways.
One of them is Diane Emery, the plantation's tax collector, who also
heats with oil. She'd also be able to see turbine towers from her house,
but said she doesn't find them offensive.
Emery supports the wind project, but said her home doesn't have room for
a new heater unit. She'd use the $6,000 to upgrade insulation. The
biggest benefit from the project wouldn't be cheaper heat, she said, but
the lower taxes.
At an informational meeting three years ago, Jo Dunphy, the plantation's
first assessor, said that made the project worth considering. At the
time, she called Highland Wind "a survival project" for the plantation.
More recently, she has become more circumspect, as the issue has become
controversial and drawn wider attention. During a brief chat outside her
home last week, Dunphy declined to offer a personal opinion about the
project, referring questions to Lee.
"It has gotten a lot bigger than we ever thought it would," she said.
But when asked if she and her husband would be interested in electric
storage heat, Dunphy said she would not. Standing in Dunphy's dooryard,
it was easy to deduce why.
To see more of the Morning Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go
to http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/. Copyright (c) 2011, Morning
Sentinel, Waterville, Maine Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information
Services. For more information about the content services offered by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit
www.mctinfoservices.com.