printed in the Portland Press Herald
03/21/06 - MAINE VOICES: Harley Lee

A March 1 Maine Voices column on the Redington wind farm proposal ("Wind power's fine, but not in Western Maine," by Bob Cummings) was a flawed attack on my company and did not contribute to the debate over our state's energy needs.

After several years of studies and design work, Endless Energy Corp. formed a joint venture with Edison Mission Group last fall and submitted a 1,700-page permit application to the state in December for a 30-turbine wind farm in Redington Township.

We have provided voluminous detail on everything from road designs to wildlife studies.

Wind energy has very few impacts compared to our current fossil fuel and nuclear energy supplies. What it does do is change the view.

This is really the key issue: Is it worth a change in the view in exchange for clean sustainable energy?

In the case of the Redington wind farm, is a view of 30 large, slowly turning white turbines worth a reduction in air pollution of over 800,000 pounds each day - equivalent to taking 26,000 cars off the road?

Is this change worth producing enough power for 44,000 homes (more power than 98 of Maine's 100 dams)? Is this view worth not burning 50,000 gallons of oil a day? Is this view worth providing economical fixed-price power at a time when other energy prices are rising?

What has Endless Energy done to address visual impact? First and foremost, we chose a site that is close to existing development.

Redington is located between two large ski areas and near a power line large enough to accept our generation. It is in the middle of Maine's working forest.

We also will bury our power lines on top of the mountains, use smaller lines to come down the mountains, and locate the bigger power line as unobtrusively as possible. We have also chosen to use large wind turbines to make the best use of our two mountains.

Compared to the 639-turbine Boundary Mountains proposal of a decade ago, we're generating almost half the power with 5 percent of the turbines using 4 miles of ridge line versus 30.

Endless Energy also hired a landscape architect recommended to us by the National Park Service for that firm's work on Saddleback Mountain.

The firm has taken great pains to make accurate simulations from distances of 1.5 to 16 miles showing how the turbines will look after construction (posted here).

The firm also included a great deal of information on where the turbines will be visible and who will see them. Calling the work of a widely acclaimed and respected landscape architect "doctored photos," as the author did, is unwarranted at best.

Ironically, it is Bob Cummings who is guilty of "doctoring" photographs.

When we submitted a letter to the newspaper he edits for the Maine trail clubs, we included one of our photo simulations so readers could decide for them- selves. He clipped only the section of our picture showing the turbines and greatly enlarged that section.

Perhaps he was worried that most people, as we've discovered, don't object to the sight of wind turbines along a mountain ridge once they see how they will look.

More recently Cummings and the Maine Appalachian Trail Club refused to even print a response to a very long negative piece about our project - even though I am an MATC member.

Finally, at the last two MATC annual meetings, our company was told that it could make a presentation at the end but the meetings were suddenly adjourned right before we could speak.

We realize that not everybody will favor the Redington wind farm. We have merely tried to provide the best information we can so state regulatory agencies and the public can make an informed decision. Unfounded attacks and obfuscation do not help this process.

Our current energy system is not economically, environmentally or socially sustainable. We are going to have to move aggressively towards more efficiency and renewable sources of energy.

The Redington wind farm will be an important step in that direction.