[at-l] RE: Windmills

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

"... Because of them being pretty well tucked into the woods you wouldn't be
able to see very much of the farm."

 This simply is not true and cannot be true. The trees on Redington and Black
 Nubble, where the wind towers would be located, are high altitude, stunted
 Spruce and Fir. They average about 30 feet high.

  The wind towers and swirling blades will be 390 feet above the ridge line, 360
  feet above the forest canopy.

  The towers will be directly in the line of sight of hikers along the open
  Saddleback ridge, north to the Crockers. The top of the towers and the
  whirling blades will be roughly at the same elevation as the Saddleback ridge
  and located between 3/4th of a mile and, as near as I can tell from the maps,
  about 3 miles away.

  I don't know who the unnamed ATC director is, but it is not helpful to spread
  misinformation.

  Though the trees are stunted, this is a rather unusual old growth forest. The
  forest is old because the trees are too small to be worth harvesting
  commercially.

  It's equally fallacious to talk about choices between wind and nuke plants.
  What this nation needs is a comprehensive energy policy. We need a common
  sense mixture of solar, wood, coal, wind and conservation that protects
  important parks and forests, while providing for basic energy needs.

  A few years ago a third of Maine's energy needs were being met through the use
  of wood burning industrial generating plants. The plants are now all shut down
  as the subsidies ended.

  We are now starting a new round of wind power subsidies, that will spur the
  construction of ill planned wind farms -- which eventually will close also as
  the subsidies end, leaving the rusting hulks of the towers to blight the
  landscape.

  Weary