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Maine rejects coal, embraces wind power

Posted at 2:58 PM on 07 Nov 2007

Three cheers for the people of Maine (Mainites? Mainians? Mainists?): The community of Wiscasset rejected a zoning ordinance change that would have allowed a new coal gasification plant, while the state's Land Use Regulation Commission approved a 57 MW wind farm in Washington County. Give 'em all a lobster!

sources: The Lincoln County News, Natural Resources Council of Maine

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Comments: (4 comments)

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Maine

"Three cheers for the people of Maine (Mainites? Mainians? Mainists?"

I thought we'd settled on Maniacs.

by KateMeisfjord at 10:33 AM on 08 Nov 2007

I was born in Maine

And of course my Dad (who moved the family there from Massachusetts) liked to refer to us as Maniacs. But I think the proper term is Mainers (short for "State of Mainers").

These are only my personal opinions.

by Ron Steenblik at 2:47 PM on 08 Nov 2007

ethnic substantives

Actually, there is a distinction between singular and plural forms. One person from Maine is indeed a Maniac. But the people of Maine are correctly referred to as the May'nnaise.

Wiscasset is not far up the coast from Brunswick, home of that great old liberal arts college Bowdoin College, alma mater of one of America's greatest writers, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Plus, it is situated on a road that Triple A designates as "scenic." How anyone had got even so far as to propose building a coal gasification plant there is hard to understand.

And Washington County is pretty remote, and pretty sparsely populated, the northernmost stretch of the US Atlantic coast: just the place for a wind farm.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 4:08 PM on 08 Nov 2007

not to be cynical about it...

But Washington County is the poorest county in Maine. If there is going to be a wind project anywhere, it's going to be in Washington or Aroostook Counties, where people are poor. Rich people tend to be NIMBY-types.

I'm not saying that wind is bad. Actually this is great. But ask yourself why they can get a project in Washington County, Maine and not at Cape Cod...

And those of us from Aroostook say we're from "the County". Or..."on est Acadien". "Mainer" or "Mainiac" is kind of the designation for people from those southern counties.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

by John former Marine at 1:04 PM on 09 Nov 2007

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