Is There Corruption in Maine?

The 2016 Presidential election often touched upon the theme of corruption - the game being rigged - our elected professional politician officials selling out the masses to line their piggish pockets. There is no question - we have been betrayed.

 

Here's a quick glance at what has been happening in Maine. This is likely just the tip of the iceberg. Would any of this qualify as corruption, conflict of interest or appearance of conflict of interest? 

 
1. The Maine senate president Justin Alfond is caught red handed conspiring with the wind industry to pass the laws they want.
 
2. Angus King gets a $102 million DOE loan guarantee enabling his project to go forward; he claims breakthrough technology to secure this gift even though it isn't; Congresswoman Chellie Pingree writes a letter recommending they give him the loan guarantee. More on King here: The Untold Story of Record Hill Wind (Part 2 of 2)
3. Chellie Pingree is married to S. Donald Sussman, largest media owner in Maine whose media almost always fail to report on the cons of wind. It turns out we learn that all along, he had been the person who gave First Wind's longtime owner, hedge fund D.E. Shaw its start with a $28 million stake
 
4. Governor John Baldacci's PUC Chair Kurt Adams takes over $1 million in stock options from First Wind while still at the PUC and after interviewing at First Wind for months according to the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. He then jumps to First Wind to become their director of transmission. This as the PUC prepares to gift the wind industry with the $1.4 billion CMP upgrade - a ratepayer financed shipping system for the wind industry.
 
5. EUT member Stacey Fitts kills 12 citizen-initiated wind bills by kicking the can down the road by calling for a study of wind. The study gets done and the EUT never looks at it. The citizens' bills are dead. This all happens in front of a snickering EUT committee where some of the members are contemptuous of citizens and spend half the meeting time texting. Meanwhile, we learn that Fitts' employer, part of the renewable energy industry in Maine, boasts on its website that Fitts is busy at work getting the right laws passed
 
6. EUT Co-chair Jon Hinck squelches citizen wind bills while his wife Juliet Browne is the wind industry's top attorney in Maine
 
7. Alex Cornell du Houx of the EUT also squelches citizens' wind bills and it turns out he is an employee of the Truman Project's Operation Free which advocates for wind. Its logo feautures a wind turbine
 
8. Attorney General Janet Mills conducts an investigation of the aforementioned Kurt Adams stock options and blesses it. Her sister, state CDC director Dora Mills says that there are no peer reviewed studies showing that wind could be dangerous to health, despite considerable evidence to the contrary.
 
9. Governor John Baldacci hand picks a wind task force consisting of virtually all pro-wind members and gives them marching orders to clear out any obstacles standing in the way of wind development. This results in sweeping legislation known as Governor Baldacci's expedited wind law which makes it all but impossible to stop wind projects.
 
10. In September 2009 Governor Baldacci returns from an Iberdrola-hosted trip to Europe to "study" wind. Upon his return he talks of a Maine law that prevents companies like Iberdrola from owning transmission (which they do) and owning wind projects (which they want to do). He talks about his needing to look into this law and getting it changed. This is covered in the press. Such a law is now under consideration in the legislature. (January 2016). In December 2015, former Governor John Baldacci became Vice Chairman of Iberdrola's wind division, Avangrid. This is not covered in the press. (Also see: AVANGRIDInc_Form_8K_12-14-15%20-%20Copy.pdf )
 
From September 2009:
"Baldacci also says the state is planning to change local regulations to allow Spanish renewables giant Iberdrola Renovables to invest in wind farms there. Iberdrola is unable to invest in generation because of the transmission and distribution assets it owns in the state through Central Maine Power; however, Baldacci says legislation being proposed in the state legislature would change the rules for renewable generation".
An even better version of this quote from Baldacci appeared in one of the articles in the PPH which reporter Matt Wickenheiser wrote, covering Baldacci's European wind trip.
    ********************************************************************
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Comment by Kenneth Capron on October 1, 2019 at 2:11pm

I demand to know who your whistleblower is ...
Not only is there corruption in the energy field, it also infects most of the other arenas of legislative import. Our roads aren't failing because of elegant policy & planning. How come we spend more and more on health care without solving any problems? How come we feed kids year-round now and they are still just as hungry. The homeless population just keeps growing despite millions of dollars of funding. 

And yes, corruption is disguised as incompetence.

Comment by Jim Wiegand on October 1, 2019 at 1:59pm

   

Wind energy is synonymous with corruption.  So in your travels, anytime you see a wind turbine or wind farm, you know that a veil of corruption has settled upon this community.  

Comment by Robert Powers on November 4, 2018 at 10:42am

No doubt about it!  Have seen it first hand.....

Comment by Jim Wiegand on August 8, 2017 at 1:44pm

Thanks to rigging.............. Corruption and robbing The Department of the Treasury is all perfectly legal in this country. When you really break it down, the national debt reflects the amount of corporate and insider theft taking place.

Comment by Barbara Durkin on August 8, 2017 at 1:34pm
Add-

Michael Jacobs, former Transmission VP at First Wind, and former utility analyst for the Mass. Dept. of Public Utilities. Jacobs is also the past Utility Integration (Sr. Engineer) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Until August 2012, Mike Jacobs served as the Director of Regulatory Affairs and Market Policy at Xtreme Power, the ‘Piginapoke for Hawaii Wind Farm’ Hawaii Free Press. Xtreme Power Director and First Wind Director is one in the same, Patrick Wood III. http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/main/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/articleTy...
The same month, Aug 28, 2012, Jacobs, who claims to have organized the First Wind demonstration of Xtreme Power's storage system in Hawaii, made a hasty exit, Hawaii Free Press reported: Kahuku Wind farm Catches Fire AGAIN, Battery Building Burns Down, Spews Lead all over Sacred ‘Aina
Look out California!
Mike Jacobs’ profile on Linkedin provides his current occupation as Technical and Strategic Consultant for Both Supply & Demand, LLC., Boston Area. His stint with Xtreme Power (‘Piginapoke’ molten lead) hasn’t deterred Mike from massaging regulations or regulators. He’s back in the game advising the California Public Utility Commission about energy storage procurement! And note that the undersecretary of MA while Bowles was Secretary of Energy being advised by First Wind has launched AMBRI energy storage as its CEO with a few million in state and fed grants.
AMBRI seems to have fizzled out, with layoffs and is now recalculating.
Comment by arthur qwenk on October 14, 2016 at 3:15pm

Indeed , when it comes to corruption, the public gets what it deserves.

Non-utilization of the rights given to them in the constitution results in the loss of them.

Mainer's have been losing their rights rapidly under the 2008 Expedited Wind Law of Baldacci.

Comment by Jim Wiegand on September 14, 2016 at 11:09am

What does talking to a wind industry expert, a wind industry spokesman, or reading a wind industry study really mean?

For me being an ethical expert that has read over the mountain of fraudulent wind industry paperwork, it means none of these guys should not be trusted and their ridiculous opinions should never even be seen in the media.

With voluntary regulations and an industry using a premeditated pattern of deliberately stupid, contrived, and completely nonscientific studies, the truth about wind turbine impacts and the net energy these turbines produce has been hidden.

What would be the real cost of wind energy if the reported net output from wind turbines were not being hidden from the public in the false government (EIA) figures? What are the true wind energy costs with the billions of Production tax credits included? And what would be the real cost of wind energy if this industry had to pay appropriate fines for the incredible destruction they are hiding with their fraudulent research?

The wind industry has been hiring shills to produce bogus research and absurd opinions for decades.
This allows industry profits to keep pouring in and the public to continue to be fleeced. The fact is that wind industry fraud on America is so pervasive that at this point nothing related to this industry
should ever be believed, even if you hear it from President Obama.

After years of this fraudulent wind industry NOT reporting their massive slaughter to eagles, the Obama administration has put together a recent proposal that will allow the wind industry to slaughter 6200 eagles annually with their "bird safe" turbines. In addition America is exporting enough coal and fossil fuels each year to generate more than twice the kilowatt-hours of electricity now produced from all of America’s 75,000 MW of installed wind energy. This totalis three times higher if natural gas exports are included.

If a tree falls in the forest and you do not hear or see it, does that mean it did not happen? In CA the golden eagle population has plummeted by over 80% since the 1990’s and wind industry studies are
showing massive increases in their population numbers, does that mean the golden eagle decline hasn’t happened?

If the wind industry can produce their fake studies to show that there are no wind turbine impacts to eagles, does that that mean these turbines are not wiping them and other rare species off the face of this planet?

If the wind industry claims that they are not killing endangered species and slaughtering thousands of eagles annually, does that mean it hasn’t been taking place for years?

With the wind industry, rigging is the norm, fraud is rewarded and what you see is not real.

 ............This is Corruption.

Comment by Hart Daley on September 14, 2016 at 11:01am

Whoever posted the aforementioned 10 corrupt points for Maine, PLEASE PLEASE send this to Gov. LePage and/or his designee(s). Maybe if he had this very concise and accurate information in front of him he could open up some "worm cans"?

Comment by Pineo Girl on September 13, 2016 at 12:07pm

Please add Angus King got a $34 million dollar DOE GRANT also!

Comment by Jim Wiegand on August 12, 2016 at 12:41pm

Corruption rules in this country.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Read this article about allowing limited depositions because of privileged information. The statement and story should be corrected to read “allows rigging."

 

Irasburg wind violation case: PSB officer allows limited depositions 

http://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/local/irasburg-wind-violation-...

 

Comment by Jim Wiegand on August 12, 2016 at 12:08pm

Calling all this corruption is OK but call it what it really is.....Organized Crime. There should be no questions associated with any of this even if our President Obama gets up on a podium and lies to us about inside rigging.                                                                                                                                                                                                    This is for Penny's comment.  Yes bald eagles on occasion will eat waterfowl.  But they can’t depend on it as a steady food source. However bald eagles can and do get a regular diet of birds near wind turbines because of those that are regularly wounded or killed.  But in the end these bald eagles end up being killed with their dance with the turbine blades.                                                                                                                                                                                          

Also any bald eagle that wants to start killing herons, will end up like the dance with turbine blades,  dead.  Blue herons have a spear for a beak and a healthy blue heron can mortally wound any eagle.  I have watched encounters where eagles will try bluff a fish from a heron.  They won't get close to them because of this weapon. The encounters I have seen, the herons remain very calm and barley even acknowledge the eagles.

Comment by arthur qwenk on August 12, 2016 at 9:23am

Maine is one of the least transparent and potentially most corrupt states in the union. http://pinetreewatchdog.org/maine-gets-f-grade-in-2015-state-integr...

Comment by Penny Gray on August 12, 2016 at 7:38am

I read an article recently in the BDN regarding the come-back of the eagle population and how it is hurting the recovery of other threatened birds because the eagles are eating them.  First article I've seen that cast bald eagles in a dark light.  I wondered if this could be the start of a clever campaign to counteract the protests about the 30 year wind industry kill permits?

Comment by Jim Wiegand on August 11, 2016 at 9:18pm

More corruption and rigging that involves Maine along with every other State.

About a year ago a wind tech showed me images & discussed 5 eagles killed in 1 month by his wind turbines. These eagles were not reported. I told FWS about this but there was no investigation. This was no surprise because the Denver Eagle Repository has secretly received over 33000 eagle carcasses since 1997.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        If one looks back a few years they will learn that thanks to another administration, the wind industry has been able to hide most of their devastating wind energy slaughter from the public.

 In 1997 Bill Clinton amended the Freedom of Information Act to protect wind energy interests and help them conceal their industrial carnage to highly protected species. With another stroke of his pen Clinton also silenced all USFWS employees having knowledge of this slaughter with penalties of up to 3 year prison terms for releasing any job related information not approved by Interior Department superiors.

Everyone can read about all this in the article "Harvesting Eagles. In this article you will also discover that the Denver eagle repository was primarily set up in 1997 by the Clinton administration to handle the flood of new carcasses coming in from wind energy developments. Thanks to Bill Clinton, the origin and cause of death for all these 33000 eagles will remain a top secret and the public will never find out about these eagles.

Now we have another president covering for this industry fleecing America. The Obama administration has put together a recent proposal that will allow the wind industry to slaughter 6200 eagles annually with their "bird safe" turbines.                                                                            This is how you rig the system.

..........

Comment by Penny Gray on March 2, 2016 at 5:35pm

Well, that about sums it up.  "Maine is Open for Corruption!" banners should be hung from all the highway overpasses and special signs should be made for certain areas in Augusta.

 

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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