First Wind key backer hits skids
Please note that D.E. Shaw is also a major backer of First Wind.
Deepwater Wind's key backer hits skids
Big layoffs at D.E. Shaw as assets plunge
Updated: Wednesday, 29 Sep 2010, 10:19 AM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 29 Sep 2010, 10:03 AM EDT
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - The New York hedge fund backing Deepwater Wind, the company picked to build two wind farms off Rhode Island, has run into financial problems just as the project faces a court challenge.
D.E. Shaw & Co. fired 10 percent of its work force, or 150 people, to deal with a 46 percent plunge in the value of its assets, Bloomberg News and other outlets reported Tuesday. The fund's holdings fell to $21 billion as of Sept. 1, Bloomberg said.
D.E. Shaw is also conducting a strategic review of its investments and operations, according to the Financial Times. The fund had sunk "tens of millions of dollars" into Deepwater Wind as of June, a company executive told The Block Island Times .
An exclusive WPRI 12 poll set for release tonight shows the Deepwater project is popular with Rhode Islanders, with 56 percent of likely voters saying they would be willing to pay an additional $1.35 to $3 per month for electricity to support it. Only 32 percent opposed doing so, and 12 percent were not sure.
The news comes as lawyers prepare to argue before the R.I. Supreme Court over the R.I. Public Utilities Commission's (PUC) controversial decision to approve a contract between Deepwater and National Grid to buy power from the first of the two wind farms, a smaller development off Block Island.
The PUC rejected the proposed contract earlier this year, but reversed its decision after the General Assembly and Gov. Donald Carcieri, a strong supporter of the project, intervened to force a second review. Carcieri's administration picked Deepwater to develop wind farms here in September 2008.
D.E. Shaw has been one of the world's largest and most successful hedge funds since it was founded by the mathematician David Shaw in 1988. The Wall Street Journal described the layoffs there as "among the largest cutbacks in recent memory among major hedge-fund firms."
Spokeswomen for Deepwater and Carcieri were not immediately available to comment on whether the developments surrounding D.E. Shaw would impact Deepwater's Rhode Island projects.
Deepwater Wind formally moved its headquarters from Hoboken, N.J., to Providence earlier this month. The company has also explored offshore wind farm projects in New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.
http://www.wpri.com/dpp/money/business_news/deepwater-winds-key-bac...
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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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