Comments from Daniel Alberts

Maine definitely needs to develop a wind turbine siting guidelines. These guidelines should include a comprehensive description of the complex DEP and LURC regulations that will apply to wind energy development, as well as a checklist of permits the developers will need and procedures they need to follow. The guidelines should also spell out which agency and regulations take precedent when potential conflicts may exist.

At the Sept 26, 2007 meeting, Pete Didisheim distributed a summary of issues associated with permitting wind power projects in Maine. Michigan's Wind Working Group discussed  several of these same issues. 

1. Noise. This was the most contentious issue. Not only did people disagree on the specified limits, but also on whether the limits should be measured at property lines or residences, what scales to use and which methods. As Maine is beginning to discover, it is essential to clearly specify all of these details in the the siting guidelines. 

2. Wildlife study protocols. A variety of protocols have been used and the validity of several have been called into question. In 2003, The US Fish and Wildlife issued interim guidelines for studying the wildlife impacts of wind turbines. I would recommend the USFW guidelines for diurnal animals, but not for nocturnal animals. For nocturnal animals (bats), I recommend Jessica Kerns' methods (from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Appalachian Laboratory, Frostburg, MD).

3. Decommissioning. Michigan's Wind Working Group discussed this issue but did not resolve it. Although the group did not decide on how best to fund the decommissioning, there was widespread agreement that the permitting process should require a plan to fund turbine decommissioning.

Also at the Sept 26, 2007 meeting, someone asked if Maine's permitting process should (or even could) consider the positive aspects of installing renewable energy. One way this might be accomplished is by comparing the number of people who would be negatively impacted by the installation to the number of people who would be negatively impacted by installation of a new coal fire plant. I know of two web sites that publish statistics on the number of people negatively impacted by air pollution from coal fire plants. 

	http://cleartheair.org/dirtypower/
	http://lungaction.org/reports/sota04_county.html

Someone should investigate to determine if this data is accurate and up-to-date, and if the information can be used as an objective criteria for permitting decisions.