Bruce Williamson 's nomination for PUC commissioner approved in Energy Committee

Comment

Comment by Monique Aniel Thurston on June 4, 2015 at 11:54pm

hey Mike those two will grease any skids......

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Comment by Mike DiCenso on June 4, 2015 at 11:51pm

Now the wind cabal will have to prove their wild claims. That is impossible! I would love to go to McDonald's and see Juliet B. and John L. flipping burgers. It is time they had a respectable job!

Comment by Monique Aniel Thurston on June 4, 2015 at 6:27pm

this is a piece I wrote after Kurt Adams was cleared by The AG of the concern we had about  receiving FW ownership interest in FW while still working for PUC. It retraces the involvement of the PUC in the implementation of wind power in Maine :

In   a public statement ,made  to  put  to  rest   the   concerns  expressed   by the”  Citizen  Task  Force  on Wind Power “ on the  potential violation of the law in  receiving  ownership  interest in  First  Wind  while   still  working for  the  PUC , Janet  mills   ,Maine  attorney  general  said that  Kurt  Adams had  no  conflict  of  interest nor   acted  improperly .

We  are  happy  that  the  AG  followed  up  on  our  request to investigate that  matter promptly and  swiftly but we  are  not comfortable  with  an  individual who  ended  up with hefty financial reward from a industry whose  implantation he  tremendously helped shape and which would  create so much  pain to so many Maine residents  affected  by  it.

In  her  statement to Susan  Sharon    from  MPBN  Janet  mills  also  added  a  precautionary statement  telling that  the  Maine  public  should  be  reassured that “ the  PUC has  no  jurisdiction over  wind  power  “  

That is nothing less than an insult to our collective intelligence!

If  words were  ever used  to  deceive  the ignorant public , this  would be  a  case  in point.

Here are the facts:

From the  PUC  website : “ Beginning April  ,1999  no entity may contract  or  offer  to  contract  to provide  generation service , enroll customers, provide generation  service , or  arrange   for  a  contract for  the  provision  of  a  generation service without  having  obtained  a  license  from the PUC .

In  2004  the Maine  legislature directed the  PUC  to study selected  issues regarding wind  power  developments , assess  the  viability  and development  of this  renewable  in Maine.

The  PUC  report  titled :”   Report  on  Viability   of  Wind  Power   Development in  Maine”  presented  at  the  U and E  Committee  in   January  2005 had  the  following  suggestions : “ Explicit  modifications  of  DEP “ s review  standards  to  allow  consideration of environmental  benefits  of  wind power ( note  from the CTFWP : what are those  benefits ?)

The  report goes on saying :” In  particular  , amendments  should  be  considered that  would  allow  the environmental review  process  to  take into  account the  benefits of reduced  emissions ( note from CTFWP : please  prove  scientifically this  statement ).

The  report  also  suggested to  AMEND  current law to allow the  PUC  to educate  the  public  specifically  regarding  wind power if the  legislature  determines  promotion of wind energy  development as  a high  priority .

Three  years  later  Governor  Baldacci  would  sign  a sweeping  revolutionary law ( LD 2283 ) that would  destroy  forty  years  of  environmental protection of  Maine  landscape , throwing all common  sense of  and  protection and  respect of the  mountains ,the  people the fauna and the  flora under  the proverbial  bus and  welcome the  destruction  of Maine’s Mountains  and  other deemed  suitable   landscape and  send people to the poor house hiring lawyers to protect their  health or properties.

 

So how did we get from the 2005 PUC‘s report on “Wind Power Viability” to the infamous expedited wind law of 2008?

Shortly after  the  PUC  presented  their  report , Kurt  Adams was  appointed  chairman of the  PUC  by  Baldacci  after  serving  for  two years  as  Baldacci  ‘s legal counsel .

 

The two men knew each other well.

In  an August 1 ,2007 Kurt Adams then chairman of the  PUC made  presentation  to a  LURC  meeting  .

In the summary slide of his presentation Adams wrote:

 1. “  More  generation  will tend  to  lead  to  lower  prices”                                                 CTFWP : prove that statement in  view  of today’ s  cost of wind power, that is  2  cents Kw /hour added  to your  bill if 10% wind power  added  to  the mix ) 

  2 “.Maine law calls for resource like wind.”                                                                 CTFWP: based on what needs? Explain.                                                                          The Citizen Task Force  did review that wind power  is unreliable ,does not displace existing power  plants , that Maine  does  not use  any  significant amount of oil or coal for electrical production and that  industrial wind towers destroy mountain tops , imposes sleep disturbances on  some people and kills  massive amount of birds)

  3” Maine  and the region  cannot  meet  regional  CO2  policy  goals unless  Maine does its  part to his part  to  host  wind”                                                                                    CTFWP  : who issued  those  goals ? How does Maine benefits from goals? It has  been  established the Maine ’s emissions  are  related to  over reliance  on  heating oil and  non efficient  vehicles  NOT  because  of its  source  of electrical production, the  Maine emission  problem could be solved easily by converting to efficient boilers and getting rid  of   clunkers  NOT  by destroying Maine Mountain  Tops  )

So Kurt Adams advocates that Maine should do its part to host wind.

His  arguments  are  weak and  imprecise which is  terrifying when one  realizes the fact that as chairman of the PUC his role  is  to protect  ratepayers in particular general , the  public interest in general.

So did Maine need wind power? Did Maine need an EMERGENCY Act signed by

a governor who professes to be the leader in wind power?

 

Will the  governor get  a job in that industry like  his  friend, ex-legal counsel  and  chairman of the  PUC got when he  resigned  from his governmental position?  Time will tell soon and CTFWP will be watching .Rest assured!

.  

No, Maine does not need wind power!

Massachusetts, Rhodes Island, maybe. 

The developers certainly do. Kurt Adams does, so that his employer First Wind can thrive and assure the full value of his 1.2 million securities grants.

But Maine?  No!

In a presentation she made in 2005 in front of LURC,  Beth Nagusky, director of Energy  Independence and Security at the Governor’s office,   showed  a very interesting slide.

The  slide  showed  the  electricity generated  in Maine  by  fuel type  over  the  past  decade .

It is very interesting to note that after MaineYankee closed in 1996, Maine reliance on gas increased to 73% by 2002 and oil and coal had shrunk to less than 4% combined.

Hydro and biomass were around 23 %.

Yet in 2007 according to a PUC chart, gas had come down to around 50 percent, oil and coal decreasing further and hydropower and  biomass increasing to around 49 percent .

Maine’s power  generation was already cleaner than any other  New England states.

There was no reason to EXPEDITE by law the destruction of the Maine landscape except to enrich those who would sell the turbines and collect the atrocious subsidies from the ignorant taxpayers.

Under  the  leadership of a  great  man called  Edward  Muskie and  a decent legislature Maine has protect its  citizens and treasured beauty for  forty years with  stringent laws.

The  current  administration and  their  friends and power players in the PUC and  DEP and LURC  have  behaved as  the  deconstructionists of those  laws  seeing them  as  handicaps  for their  grand  wind power design.

.

In doing so, some  of them  would  be  handsomely rewarded  after allowing the wind industry to grow  unimpeded while  simple  citizens’s lives  would  be destroyed , ruined  emotionally and or financially,  or severely altered .

Yes Janet Mills,  as you so declare, the  PUC has  no  jurisdiction over wind power, but it had  plenty of power shaping policies before the legislature and regulatory agencies.

PUC has no jurisdiction over wind power?  

At  their   last  meeting  , Denise  Bode  ,CEO  of AWEA , the  American   Wind  Energy association said, “Our biggest  challenge nationally is making sure that we have a robust  transmission  grid, so that the wind can be harnessed.”

So the PUC has the primary  authority  over transmission  decisions which are of utmost concern to the wind industry.

Yet  Janet  Mills  broadcasts  disingenuously  to the  Maine  people   she  serves  that the  PUC  has no  jurisdiction  over  wind power. Words deceive ( end of text )

So let us hope that the new commissioner will follow a no biased route ,that is what Mainers want and deserve.

Comment by Robert Goldman on June 4, 2015 at 6:10pm

Now hopefully Mr. Williamson gets in and the wind scam industry in Maine starts getting shut down. In the meantime, destruction and death, of eagles and other birds, bats and other unfortunate wildlife, continues wherever these monstrosities exist. And hundreds of thousands of trees are torn down, mountains assaulted, rural people shoved aside. When will the U.S. be about decency, respect, honest science, co-existence and everything else that's good? Right now, this is a country sick with money and that means unrelenting, endless death for natural places and native wildlife that stands in the way of "MAKING MONEY." What a country.

Comment by Donna Amrita Davidge on June 4, 2015 at 5:06pm

great- let's hope someone sets things in the right direction-

Comment by Pineo Girl on June 4, 2015 at 5:00pm

In my view this is very good news - I was impressed with Dr. Williamson's testimony before the EUT Committee - So much so that I emailed him with my thoughts and he then emailed me back.  His is a pragmatist- He believes in using empirical data and sound economic thinking. He said he likes the idea of having commissioners with different backgrounds and views his positions representing Maine rate payers and citizens, not politicians.