Two more Maine towns, Prospect and Eddington, recently added their names to the ever-growing list of towns rejecting Maine’s wind industry friendly siting laws. Montville went a step further and passed a wind ordinance that protects its citizens and property from the intrusion of poorly sited industrial scale turbines. As the list grows, it’s becoming cumbersome to list them in our statements announcing these milestones, so we will start listing them below.
As long as state level disregard persists, local ordinances are the only way reasonable restrictions can be placed on turbine siting. Unfortunately, for those in LURC jurisdiction, these actions may place more pressure on the unorganized towns and plantations. Residents and property owners in these places are sitting ducks with no opportunity to change ordinances to protect ourselves. We simply have to sit back and watch our way of life, our landscape and our soundscape be bent and broken to satisfy the whims of wind industry developers, the governor, and our legislators.
We should all applaud and thank the residents of these towns. By looking out for themselves, they are looking out for Maine; filling the void left by those in Augusta who are not.
Maine Towns with Restrictive Grid-Scale Wind Turbine Ordinances
Dixmont, Jackson, Thorndike, Montville, Buckfield.
Maine Towns with Grid-Scale Wind Turbine Moratoriums
Buckfield, Dixfield, Rumford, Phillips, Avon, New Vineyard, Eddington, Prospect.
Mars Hill, Maine