LePage's secretive wind energy commission appears near collapse

[jpak]

https://www.pressherald.com/2018/09/24/lepages-secretive-wind-energy-commission-appears-near-collapse/

A vocal critic of commercial wind energy in Maine has resigned from Gov. Paul LePage’s secretive commission to study the industry, saying the group “lacks urgency, credibility and focus.”

Chris O’Neil, a consultant to the anti-wind organization Friends of Maine’s Mountains, said he welcomed the creation of the Maine Wind Energy Advisory Commission as a positive step toward investigating what he contends are the industry’s harmful impacts on the state’s “quality of place.” But in a resignation letter to LePage – also a fierce critic of the wind industry – O’Neil said he had ” little faith that it will achieve much, if anything.”

“Four months have passed since my appointment and the commission has not convened a meeting,” O’Neil wrote in his resignation letter, dated Sept. 19. “Election season is upon us. The departures from the administration of (Department of Economic and Community Development) Commissioner George Gervais and Energy Director Steve McGrath have denuded the commission of its designed leadership. Fully expecting additional late-term turnover as in any outgoing administration, I do not think we have the ability to produce a quality product.”

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Maine generates more wind power than all of the other New England states combined, with 378 turbines carrying a maximum generation capacity of roughly 900 megawatts. Roughly 20 percent of the electricity generated in Maine last year came from wind turbines, according to federal data.

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