Also - LURC would have to approve all those smaller developments.
And I agree with you on the shift in Maine's forest products industry - but there is R&D underway to build biorefineries in Millinocket and elsewhere.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2007/01/09/maine_sites_eyed_for_bio_oil_refinery/Maine sites eyed for bio-oil refineryMILLINOCKET, Maine --A developer is looking at several sites in Maine for a refinery that would turn forest products into clean-burning oil to be used as fuel in electrical plants.
Fractionation Development Center is considering Baileyville in Washington County, the Down East and Katahdin regions, Madison, Old Town, Presque Isle and Skowhegan among potential sites for a $45 million refinery, said FDC Executive Director Scott Christiansen.
The Rumford-based nonprofit firm, which promotes Maine biomass technologies, says the plant would be the first of several to eventually be built in Maine. Each would create at least 60 jobs for processing up to 900 tons of wood a day into bio-oil.
The oil helps to create electricity about as cleanly as natural gas in specially designed plants located near the refineries, Christiansen said.
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...and with heating oil >$3 a gallon, fuel pellet mills could take up the slack left over from the paper industry crash.
None of this will happen though, if we let Plum Creek et al. turn the North Woods into New Jersey (racinos, coal gasification plants, gated upscale subdivisions, etc.) ...