Whiting residents pass industrial wind turbine moratorium

A Town of Whiting committee will be working over the next few months to draft an industrial wind turbine ordinance for the town. At a special town meeting held on November 9, residents voted 18 to 2 in favor of enacting the Industrial Wind Turbine Project Development Moratorium Ordinance. The ordinance allows for up to a 180-day moratorium during which the town may create an ordinance to be voted on by the town.

Moderator and planning board Chairman George Townsend explained at the meeting that the "selectmen have the right to go another six months" if that 180-day time-period proves to be insufficient for the town. However, Code Enforcement Officer Jim Bradley, also a member of the working committee, noted, "We don't have to use the full 180 days. We've started already [on ordinance draft language]; we might be done in 60 days."

The moratorium was proposed when KEAN Energy LLC of Maine began discussing a potential three-turbine project with residents of Whiting's Yellow Birch Mountain area. Peter Whitney, vice president of the company, attended the first industrial wind turbine ordinance committee meeting and the special town meeting. In addition to addressing audience questions during a question and answer session held prior to the vote, he stated, "I recommend to the town that they develop an ordinance, whether they use the state's or create one closer to the town's needs."

One audience member asked Whitney whether the town "would lose an opportunity if we go ahead with the moratorium." Whitney replied, "No. The 180-day moratorium allows the town to create a workable ordinance." The project size, he explained, would be 4.5 megawatts, under the 5 megawatt cut-off for small energy generators. The potential project, which Whitney stressed was still some distance from development, would also "need to be three acres or less, otherwise we get under the Site Location [of Development] Law requirements." He also said that the company would probably wait until the spring of 2010 before doing any site tests.

Jessica Damon, a Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) specialist, said in a separate interview that the site location law is triggered by a development's creation of three acres or more of impervious surfaces or 20 acres of development. Even if a development does not fall into the site location law, there are still a number of reviews still necessary. Damon listed the small-scale wind site certification, the storm-water permit for more than an acre of impervious surface and the Natural Resources Protection Act. Amy Lemelin, an environmental specialist with the Augusta office of the DEP, said, "They may trigger several other permits from us."

Whitney noted in an interview that their project would have very little impervious surface. "We fit the small-wind category. The access road for construction will be a 24-foot road, but after that it will be re-vegetated to a 12-foot road."

At the special town meeting Marge Peacock questioned Whitney about the benefits the potential project would bring to the town. Whitney mentioned that Jonesport, which is also considering an industrial wind turbine project, planned to meet with the consulting group Eaton Peabody to discuss a tax increment financing (TIF) set-up. Eaton Peabody works with communities and businesses around the state to set up TIFs.

According to the Department of Economic and Community Development, the "tax increment" is available for use by the municipality in the incremental tax revenue resulting from a development. The increased taxable value within a TIF district can also be excluded from a municipality's total assessed value through a TIF. TIFs may benefit municipalities in three ways by having the "increment" given directly to the investing business to pay project costs; used to retire bonds issued as part of the project; or retained for allowable economic development. DECD's TIF guideline pamphlet notes that there are many requirements a municipality must meet in order to create a TIF. Whitney stressed the importance of involving "the experts" to set one up.

Whitney said that the second benefit of the project would lie in purchasing power for renewable energy. "You can create a community supply group." In a separate interview, Whitney elaborated on the concept. "This would be an LLC or nonprofit. The biggest bang for the buck would be for the town to run it as a nonprofit and the residents to aggregate their meters to the supply group."

Whitney said that KEAN Energy plans to work with a consultant, Jerry Tudan, a power broker with Peregrine Technologies Inc., who suggested the model to them as a possibility for municipalities.