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Monday, June 18, 2007

Coal-burning power plants create air pollution and add to global warming. Nuclear power plants are costly to build, require extensive oversight and leave hazardous waste that lasts for centuries.

And wind power? Well, wind turbines are unsightly, can ruin vistas and they kill birds and bats by the thousands.

All these things are true but we need electricity, don't we?

We are fans of wind power. It is a clean, renewable energy source that doesn't cause climate change. And Maine is in an envious, and even unique, position to become a leader in siting wind turbines.

The word "siting" is where the problem comes in. People who live or recreate near potential wind-power farms often oppose the projects. Local leaders can be ill-equipped, technically and politically, to deal with the grassroots opposition.

So wind-power projects that would help Maine and the region greatly can get defeated, delayed or minimized in size due to intense, but relatively small, pockets of opposition.

The state has begun to show leadership on this issue. A task force has been formed by Gov. John Baldacci to help in siting large wind-power projects. That's where the big investments will be, as well as the big environmental payoffs.

But smaller projects, such as the current one being "re-planned" in Freedom, will come along as well -- and with them will also come controversy. Other states are already seeing the development of what's being called "micro wind power," which is a turbine here, a turbine there, including some on building tops in the middle of towns. It hasn't been easy to make happen elsewhere and it won't be easy to make happen here.

As the governor's task force begins its work, we urge its members to focus not only on the regulatory requirements for siting large projects, but to consider as well the needs of local officials from the state's smaller cities and towns, whose rules and regulations were drafted in the days before modern wind power came of age. The Maine Municipal Association and the State Planning Office will be particularly crucial partners in this aspect of the task force's work, which should focus on drafting siting criteria and model ordinances to govern wind power projects in municipalities.

Fighting over wind power developments such as the one haggled over endlessly in Freedom only succeeds in costing developers money, pitting neighbors against each other and delaying -- if not stopping -- our attempts to generate cleaner energy. That kind of energy -- human energy, we mean -- is better spent on solving problems than fighting their solutions.

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