Action Needed Now!

Kibby makes sense.

Maine Audubon is leading the way for wind power projects in Maine that make sense for Maine’s people and natural resources.

Last month, we presented extensive scientific evidence showing why Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) should reject a proposed wind power project that threatens rare habitat and wildlife on Maine’s Black Nubble Mountain.

This week, we’re going back to LURC to explain why Kibby Mountain makes sense.

It’s important that LURC hear from you, too.

TransCanada Maine Wind Development, Inc. proposes to construct and operate a 44-turbine power facility on Kibby Mountain and Kibby Range in Franklin County, Maine.

The project is expected to generate about 357 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually—enough to power approximately 50,000 Maine homes

Why has Maine Audubon endorsed this clean-energy wind power project?

-- TransCanada has collaborated with Maine Audubon from the project’s inception, minimizing threats to wildlife and habitat by relocating turbines and reducing the project’s size.

-- TransCanada has been diligent in designing and assessing project impacts, for example agreeing to study bird and bat mortality when the project is operating, and to share results with environmental organizations.

-- TransCanada will mitigate for ecological and other on-site impacts by helping to protect high-elevation lands adjacent to the project and in western Maine that have equivalent natural-resource value.

Let LURC hear from you.

Let LURC know that this project makes sense. Its developer has worked to reduce potential harm to wildlife and habitat and the recreational, scenic, and other natural-resource values that make Maine’s high-elevation environments so special.

Public comment sessions:

Tuesday, October 2 and Wednesday, October 3

Both sessions start at 6 p.m., with presentations and petitioner and intervenor testimony during the day at the Sugarloaf Grand Summit Conference Center, 5092 Access Road, Carrabassett Valley, Maine

If you can’t attend the public comment sessions, please mail or e-mail your comments by Monday, October 15.

Mail: LURC, Department of Conservation, 22 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0022

E-mail: marcia.spencer-famous@maine.gov

Please help Maine make the kind of smart clean-energy choices we won’t regret later. This is a wind power project that makes sense.

Formal Agreement

After working out an agreement among TransCanada Maine wind Development, Inc. and three environmental organizations, Maine Audubon announced its support in June for the Kibby Mountain wind power project.
The Appalachian Mountain Club and the Natural Resources Council of Maine also are part of the agreement, which outlines many conservation-related actions the developer will take should LURC approve the company’s application to construct and operate a 44-turbine facility on Kibby Mountain and along Kibby Range in Franklin County, Maine.
Based on extensive field studies, and in collaboration with Maine Audubon, the applicant reduced the size of the project and relocated turbines to avoid creating significant negative impacts to potential habitat for the northern bog lemming, a threatened species in Maine, and to highest-value habitat potentially inhabited by the rare Bicknell’s thrush.

Under terms of the agreement, TransCanada will mitigate for ecological and other on-site impacts by helping to protect high-elevation lands adjacent to the project and in western Maine that have equivalent natural-resource value. The project has significant natural-resource values that include protection for areas about 2,700 feet under LURC’s zoning standards.

TransCanada will:

• Conduct studies of bird and bat mortality, when the project is operating, and share the results with environmental organizations.

• Commit not to develop wind facilities on approximately 1,324 acres of land above 2,700 feet located near the project area.

• Contribute $500,000 to the permanent conservation of approximately 750 acres of ecologically significant high-elevation habitat and important back-country recreation lands in Maine’s Mahoosuc Mountain range. This parcel would be a component of a larger land protection effort and would complement over 31,000 acres of abutting conservation lands, including the Mahoosuc Public Lands Unit and Grafton Notch State Park.