Campaign to persuade Maine Attorney General Mills to introduce a Code of Conduct for Wind
I am going to write up a Petition and put it up on the petition site. Does anybody want to help me write the Petition? I have been looking at NY State's code but wonder whether Maine's will need to include a class of Politicians that the NY code doesn't focus on. The NY code talks about Municipal officers but nothing about the Governor or House and Senate politicians.
I tried to talk to somebody at the AG's office yesterday but nobody was available. To be honest I feel I have done as much as I can on my own with Freedom of Information requests and contact with the AG's office. The only thing I think would make them stand up and notice now would be a petition from the Citizens of the State of Maine calling on the Attorney General to institute a Law preventing elected officials from profiting from their own policies in regards to the Wind industry.
What thinks you?
Views: 206
Comment
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Comment by Art Brigades on January 3, 2010 at 1:04pm
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There aren't many. John Lovell was the last real investigative reporter we had in Maine. He was fantastic at uncovering dirtbags. Then in 1992 he wrote Angus King's book...so much for that lead. Maine Public Radio must still be chicken of Rob Gardiner, because they're reluctant to expose what they know to be scandalous. The papers are all depleted. Matt Wickenheiser and Tux Turkel are well versed in the subject, but so far they mostly interview Hagib Dahber whenever they want a quote. They'd be most likely to do it. Al Diamon is great. But he's a columnist. He has consistently ridiculed bad deeds by the industry-- most notably at the failed Redington-Black Nubble project. The kind of expose that could/should be done is a journalistic project of large proportions. Al could do it, no doubt. But would he? Today's MST lead story was refreshing in a way. It must be a shock to lots of folks that wind isn't the panacea they had been led to believe. That said, it was lousy reporting. While Tux focused on cost (what a concept) he neglected to mention all the subsidies, green tags, credits, grants, etc... He only told part of the story because he called Dahger.
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Comment by Lyle on January 1, 2010 at 6:40pm
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I can see Al Diamon now talking about NIMBY's, WIMP's, BANANAS, WHITE ELEPHANTS and TURKEYS left over from XMAS.
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Comment by Long Islander on January 1, 2010 at 6:27pm
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"Whether she takes it up or not, the press should be all over it. Spoon feed a real reporter the info you have. If they don't touch it, I bet Al Diamon will. But Al only writes opinion columns".
Who are other good investigative journalists in your opinion Art? By the way, I regard Al very highly.
What about Edgar Allan Beem? I know he has the horsepower to go after this, but I fear that some folks left of center may never take the time to give industrial wind more than the most cursory of looks - because it stows away on the green bandwagon.
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Whether she takes it up or not, the press should be all over it. Spoon feed a real reporter the info you have. If they don't touch it, I bet Al Diamon will. But Al only writes opinion columns.
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The land agreement between Rep Mcleod and First Wind seems to be THE issue along with the bank lending from First Wind's financial backers HSH Nordbank to Rep Mcleod. That is what stirred me to call the AG again this weekand think a petition to the AG might work now.
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Lyle- I hear you. It all seems dastardly. But does it seem dastardly enough to get the AG to investigate? "Conflict of interest" is a very high legal bar, as I described below, and it applies to public officials. When First Wind was the Platinum Sponsor for the Maine League of Conservation Voters annual awards dinner, they were probably buying future MLCV support of Big Wind...and they were probably thanking MLCV for its previous support. Scummy tactics to be sure. But that is not conflict of interest. I think if we raise enough credible suspicions that bad deeds are being done -- particularly viv a vis public officials -- she might take an interest, and might even investigate with fangs bared. But if she considers it a fool's errand or just a bunch of sigruntled windpower haters grinding their axes, she's apt to leave it alone.
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"The Wind Industry Ethics Code is a result of the Attorney General’s investigation into, among other things, whether companies developing wind farms improperly sought land-use agreements with citizens and public officials, and whether improper benefits were given to public officials to influence their official actions relating to wind farm development. Both Noble and First Wind fully cooperated in the inquiry and their assistance was instrumental in developing the Code of Conduct that is being announced today." http://www.ag.ny.gov/media_center/2008/oct/Code%20Signed%20by%20Fir...
AG Cuomo responded to the complaints of citizens of NY State by investigating First Wind and Noble. That is what lead him to subpeona First Wind. Why should we spend all our days investigating this matter. There is already a precedent in NY State that this company acts improperly and the hard work of drawing up a code already done. The evidence on Rep Mcleod is in the deeds for land and mortgages. Of course the FOI request for all communications between Kurt Adams and the Governor since he was appointed to work for First Wind turned up nothing. As Greg has pointed out and I discovered there is a conflict of interest in the people responsible for holding up the Citizens Right to Know and the legal advisors to the Governor of which Kurt Adams was one. The other area that there are conflicts are in the monies handed out by First Wind to Environmental Non-profit groups that are supportive of the Wind turbine projects. $100,000 was handed over to a trust here from First Wind for the upgrading of private properties along the Baskahegan stream.
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Now you're talkin, Lyle. Not sure it's a smoking gun, but it smells like it could be one. Is it enough to get the AG or the Ethics Commission to launch an investigation? Need to get very specific and provide enough appearance of impropiety to give her the impetus to launch. Regardless of whether unsuccessful at that, it seems sensible enough to harass the rascal in the court of public opinion.
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We all know the path that Kurt took to where he is now. But I ask you, what do people complain about to the AG? That they don't like Kurt? That Kurt got a sweetheart deal? That he has allies in the Administration? All true, but against the law? Likewise First Wind. They sure seem like dirtbags to all of us, but what's an AG to do about that? Even if "enough" people "complain" to her, they need something legit to complain about or she's powerless to do much. She could, I suppose, bust their chops and harangue them - making life difficult for them - all based on suspicion or based on some appearance of impropriety. Jerry Reid is LURC's lawyer. He is upstanding and he and then AAG Jeff Pidot did not tolerate the illegal activity of Endless Energy and Pat McGowan when Harley Lee was corrupting the LURC permitting process at Redington-Black Nubble. One LURC Commissioner was forced to recuse himself and LURC staff, as well as McGowan, were clearly exposed as engaging in ex parte communications with Lee (the applicant) in an effort not to regulate him but to assist him. I have faith that the AG will stand up to improper conduct, but you gotta show it to her.
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Rep Everret Mcleod was there at the celebration for the opening of Stetson 1 and it was only a few days after that that his wife and he signed a lease agreement for his land to First Wind (In the Penobscot deed records 12/05/08) with options for Wind Turbine placements on the land. What is worse though is that shortly afterward he took out mortgages with HSH Nordbank, a taxpayer bailed out German bank that capitalized First Wind, again these transactions a part of the public record. That was why Cuomo subpeoned First Wind in NY State. Land agreements + other stuff where citizens were threatened to keep quiet by officials from the Wind companies.
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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