Cashman, Do you view us in Maine with our heads in the sand, too ?


Former Mass. House Speaker Sal DiMasi found guilty

Guilty of conspiracy, extortion and fraud

What can this mean to you ? READ ON


Apr 25, 2011
 
BOSTON — An amendment that critics say would open Buzzards Bay to unlimited wind turbine development was quietly slipped into a House energy bill last week, with some lawmakers unaware they had voted in favor of it.

Many lawmakers and observers saw the fingerprints of Boston developer Jay Cashman on the amendment, which the House speaker's office denied. Cashman and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi are close friends, which DiMasi publicly disclosed in a letter to the House clerk last March.

The amendment, if approved by the Senate next year, would remove a major obstacle to Cashman's proposal to place up to 120 wind turbines in Buzzards Bay. The proposal would change a state law to allow renewable energy projects in five areas of the state coast, including Buzzards Bay, that are defined as ocean sanctuaries.

Development in the sanctuaries has been limited to gas and electric transmission lines, unless a project is deemed a "public necessity."

No debate allowed

The amendment was filed after a House deadline and was not posted on the Legislature's Web listing of pending amendments last Thursday. It was tucked into a bundle of consolidated amendments that were voted on together with no debate. The consolidated amendment was introduced last Thursday night by Rep. Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

The text of the amendment caught many lawmakers and others by surprise after the House unanimously approved the energy bill.

"We are terribly discouraged by this," said Peter Shelley, a vice president at the Conservation Law Foundation and director of the environmental group's Massachusetts Advocacy Center. "The public interest involved on both ocean management and renewable energy policy development is very high. That whole public interest is being mauled by this legislative process of introducing secretive amendments that are not subject to debate."

The Conservation Law Foundation, Mass Audubon and the Coalition for Buzzards Bay have objections to the substance of the amendment.

Shelley said Conservation Law Foundation officials had spoken to several legislators "who had no idea what they were voting on because this was not debated. It was not made public..... They would have had a different take on it had they known."

Available to members

DiMasi's spokesman, David Guarino, said the House Ways and Means Committee had broad power to amend bills. He said the text of the consolidated amendment was available to members for 15 to 20 minutes.

Guarino added Rep. Brian Dempsey, D-Haverhill, chairman of the House Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee, was available before the vote to answer questions.

"The text of the amendment was fully and readily available to the members, and several of the members asked about it and had conversations with Chairman Dempsey before they voted on it," Guarino said. "We think it was entirely appropriate. The bill is now moving to the Senate. There will certainly be debate on all facets of this there."

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Comment by alice mckay barnett on September 20, 2011 at 9:43am
Reads just like Baldacci's Wind Law.

 

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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Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?

We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.

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 -- Mahatma Gandhi

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Vince Lombardi 

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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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