Pulling no punches, Porter parlays his post as pundit into a pulpit whence he preaches passage of a pro-pulmonary power pact in Portland.
I shouldn't have written that last sentence, because it trivializes this well-written column. He calls the LURC rejection of the Redington wind farm plans "a fit of immaturity."
Furthermore, "A decade in the making, the Maine Mountain Power project would have transformed a high ridge overlooking the Appalachian Trail into a place where 90 megawatts of clean electricity would be generated, displacing fossil fuel production that contributes to global warming.
"LURC, however, took to heart the arguments of opponents who said a high ridge located within view of the trail was a less-than-ideal place to put a wind farm.
"Hard to argue with, that.
"In an ideal world, hikers on the trail would not have to look at big, lumbering turbines by day and blinking lights at night. In an ideal world, wind power would be located where absolutely no habitat for rare plant species was disturbed. Memo from Plato: We don't live in an ideal world. We live in this one."
A little further down he adds "The trail would still exist and be worth hiking. The subalpine habitat where the windmills would be anchored would continue to be viable, if slightly diminished. It's called a trade-off, and mature minds understand that problems get solved in this world by making sensible trade-offs."
Well, okay. Some folks just didn't want to make that trade-off, that compromise. They said that while the Trail would still be worth hiking, it wouldn't be worth as much as it could and should be.
Porter says he would like to see the legislislature define a "wind-power zoning law" under which LURC would pretty much have to approve this plan (and others).
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