Bureau of Parks and Lands to Wind Developers: MAINE NOT FOR SALE
On December 28, 2010, Rob Gardiner, partner in Highland Wind with Angus King, on behalf of Highland Wind offered $787,000 to Maine government in a letter to LURC Chair Gwen Hilton and LURC Director Catherine Caroll. Nothing like making a massive offer of cash to the government agency that will determine the fate of one's 39 turbine industrial wind project, a veritable license to feast at the public trough on Joe Taxpayer's hard earned money.
This offer and a link to the letter is shown below.
proposes to make twenty annual payments of $39,350 to BPL, to be used for additional protections
of the viewshed as seen from trails in the Bigelow Preserve. Over 20 years, BPL will receive
$787,000 in total annual payments. This funding could also come to BPL as a one-time lump sum,
Thankfully, on April 20, 2011, Maine government weighed in on this monetary offer stating that to accept such an offer would represent a Conflict of Interest. In light of this finding and breath of cleansing fresh air from Augusta, it may now be time to review every situation in the wind review process during the Baldacci years where similar payments have been offered or made. The decision not to take money from King and Gardiner is arguably a slap in the face to Baldacci, NRCM, and wind developers who wrote the perverse tangible benefits law that legitimizes bribery, pits communities against each other in a race to the bottom, and says Maine's quality of place is for sale at a very low price. After 16 years of Angus King and John Baldacci, it would appear that Augusta has just said it is not ok for the Department to take a spiff from the very applicant it is permitting and regulating.
The letter finding the Conflict of Interest appears below and may also be read at the following link:
Bureau%20of%20Parks%20and%20Lands.pdf
Views: 98
Comment
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Comment by Long Islander on April 24, 2011 at 10:36am
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"This is a mess. Record hill is under attack, brutally. Blasting in the spring. Ledges are cracked, ground water pours out. Soon the cement goes in. Roxbury will never be the same." ---
Say a big thank you to Maine defilers Angus King and hypocritical Yale University who up until recently cowardly hid behind the shell company "Bayroot", named after a college drinking game.
Some game. What else have you plundered Yale?
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Comment by alice mckay barnett on April 24, 2011 at 10:28am
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This is a mess. Record hill is under attack, brutally. Blasting in the spring. Ledges are cracked, ground water pours out. Soon the cement goes in. Roxbury will never be the same.
http://recordhillwind.com/reports
Brad Blake , we know how you feel.
I do not think Roxbury got much money.
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Comment by Karen Bessey Pease on April 23, 2011 at 10:29pm
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"Acceptance of such benefits is viewed as a conflict of interest."
Finally. In any other realm, the entity extending such a payoff would be arrested for offering that 'tangible benefit' (bribe) to the Agency which will be deciding whether or not to grant its permit. Nonetheless, we are happy to know that Maine is now on the right track, and that our government agencies see such things for what they are.
The offer was shameless. Now we wait to see who Highland Wind LLC thinks should be the beneficiary of their largesse. Where would that 3/4 million dollars do the most good to advance their agenda? Will they try to offer it to the people of Highland? To the IFW, which came out in strong opposition to the development? The Arnold Trail Expedition Society? Stay tuned...
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Comment by Whetstone_Willy on April 23, 2011 at 10:14pm
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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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