Major PPH Article: NY's Con Ed, UMaine and Alleged Improper Influence in Renewable Energy Winning Bid

I guess we'll see how this plays out. It sure would be nice to see similarly lengthy media attention accorded to the improper influence observed with the wind industry, the consequences of which are of a far greater magnitude to much of Maine and virtually all Maine ratepayers.

One of the actors mentioned in this article is John Richardson, working with NY's Con Ed. As a side note, it can be pointed out that John Richardson, also appears to be a member of wind farm builder Native Power LLC, along with Catherine Renault, former Director of the Maine Office of Innovation and science advisor to Governor John Baldacci. Richardson was a gubernatorial candidate in 2010, commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development under Governor John Baldacci between 2007-2009, and a Maine legislator for Brunswick between 1998 through 2006. The wind project he is involved with now, RoxWind,  appears to essentially be be an extension of Angus King's Record Hill wind project that desecrated the Roxbury area including Roxbury Pond (Ellis Pond).

A post dedicated to Richardson/RoxWind LLC is here: http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/adding-new-wind-turbine...

Alphabetical list of most of the names in the PPH article today:

1 Con Edison
2 CVG Inc., a Lincoln-based business made up of three major timberland owners
(Gardner, Carrier and Varney families)
3 Dave Stevens, COO of Sewall Co.
4 David Edson, Sewall’s current president and CEO
5 E4Research.org, a non-profit established with the help of Sewall
6 Everett Deschenes
7 Honeywell Energy Services Group
8 Jake Ward, UMaine’s vice president for innovation and economic development.
9 James W. Sewall Co.
10 Jean Carrier associated with the E.J. Carrier trucking and logging firm in Jackman
11 John Richardson (consulting for Con Ed)
12 MFGR LLC
13 OTM Holdings LLC
14 Penobscot Energy & Fiber LLC
15 Possibly unnamed investors
16 Powerhouse Holdings LLC
17 Samuel Eakin, managing director of Relentless Capital Co. in Cape Elizabeth
18 Selection committee made up of UMaine management 
19 The University of Maine
20 Tim Varney, whose Bangor-based family owns diversified ventures including an insurance agency, logging company and a Canadian sawmill
21 Tom Gardner, a principal at the Gardner Cos. trucking and logging firm in Lincoln
22 UMaine Chancellor James Page, Sewall’s chief executive officer until 2012.
23 Ward Strosser, ConEd’s Northeast regional sales manager

Excerpt from PPH article today: (Tux Turkel)

"The university has been seeking a greener, cost-effective power supply for its sprawling campus. Natural gas is the primary fuel that heats 202 buildings totaling more than 4 million square feet of space. But the university wants to back out of fossil fuels and has a goal of eliminating net emissions associated with climate change by 2040.

In soliciting proposals, the university set out four key objectives:

 Reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

 Minimize energy costs...........................................

https://www.pressherald.com/2018/02/04/recordings-point-to-improper...

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Comment by Paula D Kelso on February 4, 2018 at 2:14pm

Oh my, what an educational investigation for this article. Why doesn't it happen more often?  Well for one thing, the recording tells practically the whole tale. There's nothing better than concrete evidence.

Comment by Dan McKay on February 4, 2018 at 12:05pm

"But two runners-up appealed the process. They disputed how the award was made, and also claimed ConEd’s plan was a risky bet for the university and Maine taxpayers."
A plan to use a forest product surely can't be risky in terms of availability. This is Maine.
A plan to deliver electricity and steam plant heat to campus is an efficient process that any University engineering student or instructor should be able to come up with the numbers for a cost/benefit profile.

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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