Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Last Friday, staff at the state's Land Use Regulation Commission recommended approval of the proposal to rezone 1,000 acres of Redington Pond Range and Black Nubble Mountain to accommodate construction of the towers. The towers are projected to produce enough electricity to power 40,000 Maine homes. Developer Harley Lee -- who has been working for 17 years to get the project permitted -- heaved a sigh of relief when he heard the news, saying "It's the right project, at the right place, at the right time."

While we believe the staff's draft approval was the right thing to do, and we hope the commission itself votes in January to confirm the recommendation, our support for the project is not quite up to Lee's level of unbridled enthusiasm.

That's because -- as many environmental groups pointed out during public hearings on the proposal -- the project will mean industrial development on previously undeveloped ridgelines, where a rare subalpine ecosystem includes at least one threatened species. The project's huge turbines, lighted at night, will loom 410 feet high and will be visible from the one of the wildest and most rugged portions of the Appalachian Trail. And those turbines pose potential threats to birds and bats.

Yet in late December, when there's virtually no snow in New England, when bulbs are sending up green shoots, when winter coat manufacturers are having a crisis because nobody's buying their products, we are all mindful that -- whether it's the cause of this year's unseasonal warmth -- global climate change poses a threat to our economy and way of life. Just ask anyone who loves ice fishing, owns a snowmobile, conducts winter logging operations or skis.

So we will regret the diminishment of wildness in one of Maine's wildest places, if the Maine Mountain Power project is finally built. We will be sorry to see an unspoiled vista enjoyed by Appalachian Trail hikers and local residents marked, instead, by large, man-made turbines.

But as environmentalist Bill Mc- Kibben says, we are long past the point where appearance and even local environmental considerations can trump the demands of fighting global warming: "The choice is not between wind power and unspoiled nature. The choice is between wind power and the destruction of the world's biology." We need to change the way we generate energy, away from carbon-based fuels and toward renewable power. Maine Mountain Power's 30 turbines represent a major -- albeit painful -- step in that direction.