| Be skeptical about global warming and you're branded | | | | American, Lee said electric generation in Maine has |
| with a scarlet "D" for "Denier." Say global warming is | | | | been, "... limited by public policy to effectively allow |
| a crock, and you are shunned at parties. | | | | only gas-fired generators and high cost wind |
| I'm an environmentalist, like most in Maine, but I'm | | | | generation to compete ... our politicians have required |
| not an environmental zealot. | | | | consumers and taxpayers to provide huge subsidies |
| Because I'm also an economist and a professional | | | | to wind developers, which soon will amount to nearly |
| business analyst. From these perches, I can see | | | | $100 million annual cost to Maine ratepayers alone ... |
| policies that purport to fix global warming - like cap | | | | The Maine PUC and Governor Baldacci recently |
| and trade taxes, and legislation that enacts them, like | | | | admitted the adverse impact of these policies." |
| the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or the federal | | | | And King put these costly policies into motion while |
| Climate Security Act - as pernicious and corrupting | | | | governor. |
| ideas in the arena of business and politics. | | | | Profit to wind energy proponents from money raised |
| They're elegant con jobs, which turn junk science | | | | by cap and trade will cost the public through higher |
| into major dollars for developers. | | | | utility bills and costs for consumer goods, not to |
| People like former governor Angus King and energy | | | | mention higher taxes, fees and bureaucratic |
| expert Matt Simmons are smart. They see the global | | | | expenses to pay for supervising this corruption. |
| warming rainbow coming and are placing their pots at | | | | The whole campaign for "cap and trade" of carbon |
| the end of it. | | | | dioxide emissions - like RGGI or the Climate Security |
| Simmons' Ocean Energy Institute recently announced | | | | Bill - is based on the faulty scientific theory that |
| plans for an offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Maine | | | | carbon dioxide is the most potent greenhouse gas. It |
| estimated to produce an average of 1,650 | | | | isn't. (The real answer is water vapor - clouds.) |
| megawatts of electricity for about 26 cents/kwh. | | | | The environmental lobby misdirects attention to |
| King is a principle in Independence Wind, which wants | | | | carbon dioxide, and by failing to explain the real |
| to build turbines in Roxbury, and sits on the state's | | | | factors involved in global warming, the media and |
| Ocean Energy Task Force, which first met this week. | | | | political leaders are also negligent. |
| Nonprofits like the Natural Resources Council of Maine | | | | It's that simple. All the talk about the levels of carbon |
| see the rainbow too, but want to decide which pots | | | | dioxide in the atmosphere is irrelevant against the |
| get the gold. This has begun already. | | | | context of macro-environmental effects over which |
| Recently, Dylan Voorhees of the NRCM was quoted | | | | humans have no control. These include solar activity |
| as saying, "It's a significant pot of money (and) a | | | | and ocean currents, as stated in a report from the |
| variety of interests have opinions how to spend that | | | | Heartland Institute titled: "Nature, Not Human Activity, |
| money," about Maine's $750,000 share of RGGI | | | | Rules the Climate." |
| money. A hearing on it was held in Augusta on Dec. | | | | The earth has gone through warming and cooling |
| 3. | | | | cycles for the last five million years. |
| Money raised from cap and trade should be spent | | | | So we are witnessing the biggest con job in the |
| wisely. | | | | history of mankind: guilt and fear politics are |
| But not just for wind power, an unreliable and hugely | | | | transforming dubious science into big dollars to |
| expensive source of electricity. | | | | further the interests of environmental zealots and |
| For the $25 billion proposed for turbines in the gulf, a | | | | entrepreneurs, while lower-cost, higher-yield energy |
| gas-fired electricity plant could produce 35,000 | | | | alternatives are ignored for methods that stand to |
| megawatts for 10 cents/kwh; a nuclear plant could | | | | raise utility rates, increase consumer costs and reap |
| produce 5,280 megawatts for about 10 cents/kwh, | | | | significant profit. |
| according to Carroll Lee, the former chief executive | | | | It all boils down to one question. |
| of Bangor Hydro. | | | | Why should we pay so much, trying to stop a natural |
| In a column in the Dec. 4 edition of the Ellsworth | | | | event? |