Group Appeals Roxbury Wind Farm Permit

Sun Journal:

"The appellants want a public hearing held based on 'credible conflicting medical and technical information regarding the licensing criterion,' mainly on perceived noise to be generated by the turbines.

A hearing, they say, would help the DEP's Board of Environmental Protection understand the evidence.

The 58-page document was sent to BEP Chairman Susan Lessard, DEP Commissioner David Littel and Robert Gardiner of Record Hill Wind LLC, the company that is currently building a 22-turbine, 55-megawatt wind farm.

Board of Environmental Protection executive analyst Cindy Bertocci in Augusta acknowledged on Wednesday that she had started examining it."

Plum Creek Approved

Press Herald

"A sprawling resort and residential development at the gateway to Maine's North Woods won a state planning board's unanimous approval Wednesday.

Plum Creek Timber Co.'s proposal, which would be the largest of its kind in the state, received the go-ahead nearly five years after the Seattle-based company announced plans to build two resorts and more than 2,000 housing units near Moosehead Lake."

'Green' House

Portland Press Herald:

"The farmhouse-style house rising in an old field here will likely become the state's most energy-frugal home, its builders say, using 90 percent less fuel than a typical new home.

This structure is so airtight and heavily insulated, and so well oriented to the sun, that the builders are leaving out any real heating system. And thanks to solar panels on the roof, the owner won't pay anything for heat or hot water. Not ever.

But what makes this project even more noteworthy is that the three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot house is expected to cost roughly $225,000, minus land. That's on par with typical custom-built homes in Maine. And costs could drop, the builders say, if the techniques being used here are adopted in mass production."