Next Tuesday the Land Use Regulation Commission will have a chance to revisit the wisdom of Solomon when they begin to hear testimony about whether to extend the nearby Kibby wind project onto Sisk Mountain’s as yet untouched ridgeline.

TransCanada, eager to take advantage of federal stimulus package money, wants to put 15 turbines along the entire reach of the ridge even though half of that ridge has been classified as off limits. When money talks, though, nobody walks.

Maine’s lead conservation

groups seem only too willing to feed another ridgeline into the TransCanada wind machine in northern Franklin County. This is despite the fact that there isn’t a shred of evidence that wind turbines will fundamentally or materially change Maine’s energy economy, slow climate change, or even materially benefit the state. In their breathless enthusiasm for the wind industry, wind power supporters seem uncannily willing to accept the industry’s claims at face value. If this goose is laying golden eggs, why is it that not even the Public Utilities Commission has been able to get actual power generation data regarding any wind site in Maine?

In its latest proposal to expand its wind operation in northern Franklin County, TransCanada would like to throw its project lines around most of Sisk Mountain, stopping just shy of the summit itself. Running largely north-south and sitting just above the completed Kibby project, Sisk would be a convenient grab for them. To some it might be just a question of a few more acres of infrequently visited Franklin County. Its eight or so miles of ridgeline, just about all of it over 3,000 feet, could be home to another 15 wind turbines.

But Sisk is also home to several rare, subalpine plant communities and animals. The southern half of the ridgeline has a fir/heart-leaf birch forest and Bicknell’s thrush and lynx have been found on the ridge as well. An endangered Mayfly breeds in the waters that drain the slopes.

Maine Audubon, the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Natural Resources Council of Maine have joined together to propose a compromise to let TransCanada put eight turbines on the north half of the Sisk ridge but protect the remainder. TransCanada says it wants the whole ridge to allow for the vagaries of turbine placement. But who stands up for the on-the-ground vagaries of plant and animal community placement, if not Maine’s environmental community?

And so LURC will face Solomon’s dilemma. All of the ridge for one or the other side, or cut it in half? As we puzzle our way through this let’s recall that we are not talking about cutting simple lines in half but real ecological communities.

In recent years conservation principles have more often focused on protecting whole landscapes and ecosystems lest those communities become stranded and jeopardized by their isolation on smaller tracts. Cutting a ridge in half should not be the work of conservationists.

While we wait and consider this application of Solomon’s wisdom the mountains of Maine might be thinking: with friends like these who needs enemies?

Steve Bien is a resident of Jay.