Long Islander Posted A Blog Post

Long Islander Posted A Blog Post
ALAN FARAGO: LEGISLATORS OUGHT TO TRY HAVING THEIR HOME EQUITY, HEALTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE HIJACKEDPine Tree Watchdog reporters detail how Juliet Browne, First Wind's lawyer, sent former Senate President Justin Alfond suggested text for an amendment relating to a wind power bill. Alfond ultimately adopted all 248 words she supplied, changing nothing. By Alan Farago, Special to the BDNPosted Jan. 13, 2015, at 10:16 a.m. http://bangordailynews.com/2015/01/13/opinion/contributors/wind-dealings-in-legislature-prove-maine-democracy-is-an-illusion/ Some other examples: Former EUT Committee House Chair Jon Hinck is married to Juliet Browne who is a lawyer and partner at Verill Dana whose main practice deals with the defense of wind power companies.She has been extremely busy in the past few years representing wind developers, including First Wind, TransCanada and Independence Wind and is very likely the wind industry's leading attorney in Maine. Former Natural Resources Committee Senate Chair Jim Boyle owns Boyle Associates. They appear to do work for FIRST WIND and CMP. See:http://www.boyleassociates.net/clients-projects/Former EUT Committee House Chair Stacey Fitts led an EUT that killed 12 citizen wind bills brought to the committee. His actions led to a "kick the can down the road" study to spend taxpayer money to study wind. However, the study only gathered dust and the next EUT had never even read it. At the time, Fitts worked for Kleinschmidt Associates, a member of the Maine Renewable Energy Association who's website at the time boasted that "we have been very active in the development of state regulations in Maine where one of Kleinschmidt's engineers is a member of the Governor's Ocean Energy Task Force". Fitts was also a member of Governor Baldacci's Wind Power Task Force while working at Kleinschmidt.Former EUT member Alex Cornell du Houx, an avid supporter of wind power, was the outreach coordinator of the Truman National Security Project. This organization states a deep philosophical belief that climate change is a national security threat. On that subject one of their position papers includes the following statement concerning the threat of climate change to our country's national security, "Even if you do not have complete information, you still need to take action! Waiting for 100% certainty during a crisis can be disastrous." That sounds awfully like, "Shoot first then ask questions ". A sister organization of the Truman National Security Project is Operation Free, where Mr. Du Houx serves as Campaign Director. Operation Free lists as its first core motivational principal "get America running on clean energy". In fact, the organization's logo prominently features industrial wind turbines.After months of interviewing at First Wind while his PUC greased the skids for the 1.4 billion ratepayer-funded "CMP Upgrade" (aka an outright but disguised-by-lies GIFT to the wind companies), PUC Chair Kurt Adams, took over 1 million in stock options from First Wind a month before he jumped there as their new director of transmission. After citizens requested that the Attorney General investigate, AG Janet Mills concluded "there was no conflict"! This at the same time her sister, Maine CDC director Dora Mills, falsely claimed there were no peer-reviewed studies documenting wind turbine health effects. And remember also that later when Adams, up for a UMS board seat, testified before the Education Committee at his confirmation hearing, he was allowed to deny any conflict between University wind research and his employer First Wind on the basis that First Wind was "terrestrial", completely ignoring the fact it was the same company as Deepwater Wind, which billed itself as the nation's leading offshore wind company. To this day, Adams sits as one of the trustees on the UMS board. Probably like having a wind lobbyist on the board.The links to the Kurt Adams reporting by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting follow:PUC chairman took equity stake in wind companyhttp://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/puc-chairman-took-equity-stake-in-w... andFirst Wind SEC filing change questionedhttp://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/first-wind-sec-filing-change-questi... andGroup asks AG to probe official of First Windhttp://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/group-asks-ag-to-probe-official-of-... Adams Investigation Finds No Conflicthttp://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/adams-investigation-finds-no-conflict/At least one BEP member, Tom Eastler of Farmington, said he didn't want to see the review process started over - particularly if it involves public hearings. "There have already been too many public hearings," said Eastler. "We know what we're going to hear. A bunch of the same old, same old."http://bangordailynews.com/2013/03/21/politics/citizen-board-overturns-dep-rejection-of-wind-power-project/See More

0 comments:

Post a Comment