Does the Punishment Fit the Crime?

Boothbay Selectmen impose six-month moratorium on solar farms.

Photo by American Public Power Association on Unsplash

I was profoundly struck by the fact that there is a story in the Boothbay Register about the Boothbay selectmen voting 5-0 to issue a moratorium on solar farms in response to the solar company questioning their permit fees.

In other action, selectmen voted, 5-0, to impose a six-month moratorium on commercial solar farms. The moratorium is in response to concerns about a proposed solar farm on Route 27 which received planning board approval. The code office received complaints about a $39,204 permit fee. source

The story was presented inside another story about punitive actions taken by the Boothbay selectmen in imposing a $250 fine against violators of the “No Dogs” policy for the newly installed baseball field and $500 for second offenses.

The No Dogs story has a much smaller directly impacted demographic than a story about a six-month moratorium on solar farms, but pooping dogs and their disobedient owners took the headline and the attention of all other commenters. The story about punitive actions taken by the selectboard against the solar company was missing in the headline which is “Selectmen put bite into ballpark ‘No Dogs’ edict”

I pass by the baseball daily and have yet to see anyone using it for its intended purpose. The park is usually empty and so at the moment it functions as just another excuse for expensive unpleasantry.

Instead of charging exorbitant fees and installing expensive surveillance systems, the selectmen could provide scoopers as they do in parks in other towns, but this is Boothbay and Boothbay has an attitude, like a police state.

“Selectmen also approved adding an undisclosed number of additional cameras to police the location. “ source

I wondered if the park had previously been used to walk dogs before it was manicured and designated as a baseball field but nobody said. If anyone were to use the field for sports, the users can always inspect it first.

No information is provided about the size of the problem. leaving the reader to reasonably assume that If the selectmen are imposing such penalties the extent of the problem must call for it.

But the story is juxtaposed with the story about the selectmen placing a six-month moratorium on solar farms because a company questioned their fees. Punitive actions taken by the select board is the unifying theme and in the case in the unfeatured story, the punishment clearly does not fit the crime if you can call questioning a fee a crime.

I supplemented the Register story with my own commentary and data producing a response from newly elected Boothbay select person, Julie Roberts who wrote;

The reason for the moratorium was because commercial solar farms are new to this area. We were concerned that there is no certain ordinance pertaining to solar farms. Our land is very precious here on the peninsula and we are concerned about big parcels of land being used and not having proper ordinances in place. It's that plain and simple and you can see the entire discussion online. source (emphasis by author)

This contradicted statements to the contrary made by long-time Boothbay selectman, Steve Lewis, as reported in the article:

Selectmen decided against changing their fee structure and changed their focus to a possible moratorium. Selectman Steve Lewis did not think the Midcoast was the best spot for solar farms. He believes inland communities are better suited. "We are struggling with housing. So how many solar farms do you want here? I think we need a moratorium, and should have the planning board research how we want to move forward,” he said. source (emphasis by author)

The planning board has already approved the solar farm, is this the second act in a larger drama after the first act, the battle over the East Side Park?

Not only did the story affecting the greatest number of people receive not a mention in the headline but a significant fact was missing from the story. The solar company claimed that what Boothbay was charging was out of line with what Topsham and Thorndike charged. The article in the Boothbay Register tells the square footage for Boothbay is 130,680 square feet but does not mention the square footage for the comparison towns of Topsham and Thorndike which is approximately three times the square footage in Boothbay according to Topsham's Planning and Development Department.

Solar panels will cover approximately 423,034 square feet. The solar array is expected to generate enough clean electricity to power approximately 1,425 homes. A map shows where the 35-acre solar farm may be established in Topsham. Courtesy of Topsham's Planning and Development Department.

The developers paid $900 for a 280-solar panel project in Topsham and $800 for a similarly sized project in Thorndike.

The farms in Topsham and Thorndike are approximately three times the size of the one proposed in Boothby but serves only 1426 homes. According to the US census Topsham has 3009 households. Topsham doesn’t have enough solar power to serve all those homes, let alone sending surplus to Boothbay. The concentrated housing zone that the selectboard is already supporting would probably use up about half of the solar power that Mr. Lewis doesn’t want to permit because he says we don’t need it; we just need more housing units. We can import our water from Bath and our solar power from inland so that all of our space can be used for housing units.

The permit fee for Boothbay is 43.56 times the cost of other areas for about a third of the square footage of other areas. Since Selectman Steve Lewis commented that we need more housing as if solar energy can be pitted against housing, it is reasonable to wonder if manipulation is in the works.

The optics:

The Planning Board approved the solar farm so let’s use red tape to stall it so we can change the ordinances after the fact so that the land can’t be used for a solar farm. Politics as usual on the Boothbay Peninsula.

When one reads the story about the permit fee without being given the information about the square footage of the projects in the comparison towns, it sounds like the Boothbay selectmen are behaving very rigidly about the permit fee but it isn’t out of line with regional prices. You might assume from reading the article with that missing piece of relevant information, that the project in Boothbay is simply larger than the project in other towns but once the square footage in the other towns is known to be about three times that of the project in Boothbay, the price that Boothbay is charging for a permit fee is far and away out of line with established prices in the area.

Based on the cost of the permit alone, it is fair to say that the Boothbay selectmen do not want solar farms. and when you factor in the six-month moratorium, to say the least, the Boothbay selectmen do not want solar farms. That was a 5-0 vote, the select board stands together on not wanting solar farms.

Why do they not want solar farms? Is it because they don’t want competition for floating windmills, in which place they would be playing sides.? Is it because they don’t buy into the idea that the planet needs to really reduce its carbon emissions and do so now?

UN climate report: It’s now or never to limit global warming to 1.5°

The first answer is a conspiracy theory and the second is a logical conclusion drawn from the actions taken by the selectboard, and so for the sake of simplicity, I will go with the latter.

The town of Boothbay is currently being run by a mindset that does not believe in climate change, who does not believe we need to reduce our carbon emissions, and who does not see rising seas and radically changing ocean currents as a threat to the peninsula.

I hope they are right, but as the old adage goes, hope for the best and plan for the worst.

The Selectmen are the executive authority of the Town. Responsibilities shall include, but not be limited to, management of the Town finances, protecting the health, safety and welfare of the residents in accordance with federal, state and local laws and regulations, management of public property and personnel, and management of contracts and relations with other State and local agencies and the public. Boothbay Town Ordinances

Technically speaking the words Responsibilities shall include, but not be limited to, can be interpreted as having no limits, and it seems our select board takes that limitless authority seriously.

Solar energy is a public health and safety issue. If an epic disaster were to hit the peninsula, multiple sources of power can make a difference between life and death. The planet is facing unprecedented climate change effects that requires that we monitor our carbon emissions more than ever before. We are seeing extreme weather conditions erupt across the globe and it is apt to get worse before it gets better, if it gets better and so everyone, everywhere has to do their part in lowering carbon emissions, including the Boothbay Peninsula.

In an increasingly carbon-constrained world, solar energy technologies represent one of the least carbon-intensive means of electricity generation. Solar power produces no emissions during generation itself, and life-cycle assessments clearly demonstrate that it has a smaller carbon footprint from "cradle-to-grave" than fossil fuels. United Nations UN Chronicle

An enumerated power of the selectboard is protecting the health, safety and welfare of the residents. The board’s recent action in placing a six-month moratorium on solar farms does not reflect that they take that part of their job seriously. We do not know what the ultimate price of that prank will be. Will Boothbay lose the planned solar farm permanently? Can something be done to prevent that from happening? What do you think?