CT energy commissioner sued over $1B Maine wind contract
DECEMBER 27, 2013
CT energy commissioner sued over $1B Maine wind contract
EXCERPTS:
Esty ultimately awarded contracts to a 250 megawatt wind farm in Maine and a 20 megawatt solar center in Lisbon. Esty said he picked those because, among other reasons, the combined cost of the electricity from those installations was less an eight cents per kilowatt hour, a expense lowered by the size of the wind farm.
Allco argued in its complaint to U.S. District Court in New Haven that Esty violated the U.S. Constitution and the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) in establishing a fixed price for wholesale electricity. That right belongs exclusively to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the company said in its lawsuit.
The company argued that a 250-megawatt wind farm in Maine called Number Nine Wind Farm, which was awarded a contract, doesn't qualify under PURPA the program because it's too large. PURPA was designed to encourage development of 80-megawatt and under projects, the suit said.
Allco also argued that a 20-megawatt solar farm in Lisbon called Fusion Solar Center, which also won a contract, does not qualify because state regulators didn't evaluate the pricing to determine if it reflected the utilities' avoided costs, which Allco said also violates PURPA.
Dwayne Gardner, a spokesman for DEEP, said in an email that the agency couldn't comment on pending litigation, but said the agency believes the lawsuit has no legal merit.
"DEEP worked closely with the Attorney General's office, the Office of Consumer Counsel, and outside legal resources to ensure the process was conducted to the full letter of the law. We believe this procurement will meet the state's goal of bringing cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable energy to the residents and businesses of Connecticut," Gardner wrote in an email.
Read the article at:
http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20131227/NEWS01/131229973
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Comment
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Comment by Sherwin Start on December 29, 2013 at 10:18pm
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THIS HAS TO BE STOPPED-NOW-EVERY State In The Region is Planning on Puting Up Wind Turbines On Every Mountain and Every Hill In The State! The State of MAINE Legislature and BALDACHI Have opened PANDORA'S Box for The Complete and UNCONTROLLED Exploitation of the State of MAINE! SOMEONE HAS To step in VERY Quickly and Put The BRAKES On-IMMEDIATELY!!
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Comment by Dan McKay on December 29, 2013 at 3:18pm
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The plaintif claims the commissioner illegally set the wholesale price of electricity. I wonder if this contract set by the Conn. commissioner is the same type of contract the Maine PUC established for Rollins Wind and CMP, Bangor Hydro ?
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Comment by Hart Daley on December 29, 2013 at 12:52pm
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I am glad Gardner is fighting so hard to bring cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable energy to the residents and businesses of Connecticut! MAINE CAN EAT S......well you know.
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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