Re[2]: [at-l] RE: Windmills

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

"... one of the central missing pieces was a demand for more power anywhere near
Redington."

 There is no unfulfilled demand for power in Redington. No one lives there. For
 that matter there is no unfulfilled demand for power in Maine. This project --
 as well as those that would cut a wide swath through the eastern Maine
 wildlands to access power from Canada -- seeks to participate in the new
 wholesale electricity market as a result of deregulation.

 Consumers in Maine and in some other states get to choose where they want their
 electricity to come from. The dream is that some will be willing to pay premium
 rates for energy from "alternative" sources.

  That, plus the lure of promised new federal subsidies, makes the project
  attractive to investors.

  But most of the windpower energy will go on the grid, where the developers
  hope to sell it at lucrative prices in New York, New Jersey and points
  south.

  I'm mostly with Walt Daniels as far as nuclear goes. I live within 5 miles of
  Maine Yankee, which closed a year or so ago when it was decided needed repairs
  would cost more than the electricity would be worth.

  My most nagging doubt is our seeming inability to find a permanent storage for
  the used up fuel -- plus as nuclear proliferates, sooner or later a terrorist
  nation will threaten us with a bomb fashioned from the waste fuel -- or worse,
  use one against us.

  Weary