Despite the narrow 87-81 victory of those in Roxbury who have selfishly opened the mountains to industrial wind power, opponents of turbines in Roxbury have every right to be proud of themselves. In the face of an unprecedented attempt to take over the town with bribes, illegal procedures, and an incessant behind the scenes campaign to lure voters to the poles with false promises, Roxbury’s more responsible citizens made it clear that wind power does not enjoy the 80% approval rating that opinion polls indicate, once people have taken the time to educate themselves about the realities of wind power.
Maine will be sacrificed to the wind industry unless a coordinated effort is made to stop the madness. 6000 turbines stretching over 1500 miles of Maine’s pristine ridges lines will be required to meet Governor Baldacci’s goal of 3000 megawatts of wind power capacity by 2020. Even then, wind power will make up no more than 15% of Maine’s electrical consumption, will not reduce the need for base load capacity, or have any measureable effect on CO2 emmissions.
The wind lobby has been hard at work in Augusta for years, and the results of its relentless mis-education campaign are beginning to be felt in communities up and down the state. Noise regulations never intended for wind turbine noise place thousands of Maine’s citizens at risk. The high intensity, low frequency noise produced by the locomotive-sized engine rooms of turbines has been found to cause severe health effects for many people living within sight of turbines and has been given the medical name Wind Turbine Noise Syndrome.
King and Gardiner’s contention that turbine noise will be inconsequential is disrespectful of Roxbury citizens. The 35-40 decibel noise levels of wind turbines piercing the 20 decibel night time quiet will be heard and felt in homes on all sides of Record Hill.
In any further proceedings with Record Hill Wind, the selectboard must demand conditions which will prevent turbine operation when turbine noise exceeds background noise by more than 5 decibels, the level required by responsible noise ordinances and recommended by prominent acoustic engineers. If such an agreement is not reached, the irate voices of Roxbury’s residents, once they are subjected to the sound of 22 turbines on the ridge overhead, will fall on deaf ears.
1 year ago