For Immediate Release
July 6, 2010
Contacts: Emily Posner (207) 930-5232
Logan Perkins (971)-322-6509
Stratton, Maine- At about 8 a.m., Tuesday July 6, at least fifty Earth First! activists blockaded Goldbrook Rd, the access point to the Kibby Mountain wind project outside the town of Stratton, halting the construction of 22 industrial wind turbines on the delicate Alpine ecosystems of Maine’s western boundary mountains. The action comes just before the Land Use Regulation Commission’s (LURC) meeting July 7 to consider a proposal for a similar project on neighboring Sisk Mountain, and on the heels of the national Earth First! Round River Rendezvous, hosted this year by Maine Earth First!
TransCanada, the transnational corporation responsible for the devastating practice of tar sands oil extraction in Alberta, Canada, has already built 24 mammoth turbines on Kibby Mountain, and has begun construction of an additional 22 turbines, a process that includes significant road building and wide transmission line corridors. These projects are part of a trend that shifts from forest management to development in Maine, which threatens to permanently change the face of Maine’s North Woods, the largest undeveloped wilderness east of the Mississippi river. Both Sisk and Kibby Mountain projects will reap huge benefits for TransCanada and the landowner Plum Creek.
“In the face of the Gulf Oil Disaster, and massively destructive coal mining, we recognize the value of developing alternative energy systems,” said Meg Gilmartin of Maine Earth First! “But these projects are a perfect example of how corporations and investors are taking advantage of the climate and energy crises to make profits while avoiding accountability. We don’t view projects on this industrial scale as being the solution to our problems.”
“If we really want to look at how the North Woods can mitigate climate change, we should restore our forest and protect sensitive ecosystems, like those on Sisk and Kibby Mountain,” said Ryan Clark of Maine Earth First! “These unique high altitude areas are breeding grounds for the endangered Bicknell Thrush, nesting sites for the federally protected Golden Eagle and critical habitat for endangered Canadian Lynx.” The project is also being protested for moving forward without public hearings.
Maine Earth First! is the local component of the national environmental group
Earth First!, a network of activists that focuses on grassroots organizing and direct
actions in defense of the earth’s natural systems, and maintains a no-compromise stance.
OK. You don’t want these wind turbines set-up, AND you don’t want the tar sands to continue.
What exactly do you propose as a solution.
While I empathise with the movement to move away from fossil fuels and the movement to protect the environment, it appears that based on your position this really is aa no win situation. Even when alternatives are explored you say no.
What is the solution that you would actually agree with?
Is anyone allowed to make a profit when they are in business anymore, or is that against your belief system as well?
I am sincerely confused with what seems to be, at least from your perspective, a no win situation.
I am begging you to stop. Stop giving real environmentalists a bad name. You don’t care one ounce about the things you claim to stand for. We should stop every wind farm. Then we can be dependent on oil for ever. How about instead of protesting try coming up with solutions. I get it makes you feel good, standing my for “mother nature”. But you do more harm than good.
woo hoo!!! EF! rocks!!! no compromise! thank you for that incredibly put-together RRR. i’m sitting in my sweltering apartment back at home missing the river flowing right by my tent. and missing my EF! friends.
Well, isn’t this just grand. Having spent the better part of 40 years in science and engineering trying to promote alternative energy solutions, we now have a bunch of, apparently, math-phobic dim wit Luddites trying to kill off one of our most important sources of renewable energy: wind.
This country uses massive amounts of energy, it will require grand scale projects to shift away from oil and coal. Without huge amounts of energy, something on the order of 100,000 kWhr per family per year (check your light meter to see just what this means–a typical house uses about 30,000 kWhr per year)we need to reduce the population of this country down from 300 million to about 30 million people,… in a very short time frame–perhaps 20 years at the outside.
We can be more economical in our ways, by at least half, we cannot, however, get by without any energy input.
We will change our ways,…one way or another,… the only question is on what path and how quickly. I for one would rather build a few wind mills than condem my grandchildren to a nasty, cold, and very short life.
I believe in alternative energy. What scares me about these huge power schemes is that they are promoted as allowing everyone to continue wasting huge amounts of energy as usual.
The federal money used to make the cost of producing electricity from wind farms competitive ( even if they are built where capacity realized is a single digit fraction of name plate capacity) could achieve better end results being channelled to individuals to help them become energy efficient, even independent of the grid.
Then price green-house gas emissions at a cost that truly reflects damage to the environment.
We change our ways most frequently when it costs too much to maintain the status quo.
All you have to do is to look at the comments beneath Yahoo’s article on this
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100706/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wind_blockade
to see that this generates terrible publicity. Something like this makes it easy for the right wing to paint environmentalists as being purely obstructionist. It’s painful to accept the lesser of two evils, but it might be more effective to pick your battles more carefully.
Well, as they say to people in positions like this: “Too Bad for you”. Now get out of the way of change, this is a good thing, renewable energy, harnessing the earth’s power and forces for the use of all people.
Now we will watch as the law of un-intended consequences takes another victim. Be careful, your vote matters!
Way to go Maine! The wind industry needs to be stopped.
Small scale is green.
Industrial Wind Turbines actually increases dependency on fossil fuels, are erected by the fossil fuel industry, allows the fossil fuel industry to pollute more, cause deforestation and habitat loss and are making people sick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvlqd3kQTAU
its necesary to bring up with solutions to enviromental problems in agreement with communities , this wind farm is being carried by a multinational company and the secondary effects on the local natura is also something that should concern to all earth lovers , of cours wind looks like a great solution, but there are interests behind the good face that media gave to this new technologies.