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Patrick’s ship of fools
Credit: By Boston Herald Editorial Staff, www.bostonherald.com 29 October 2010 ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
It’s a $91 million mystery – a mystery that won’t be solved now until after the election.
Last spring all the skids were greased for a publicly funded $91 million “specialized vessel for installing offshore wind farms,” according to a report filed by Danish ship builder Kurt Thomsen, who also happens to be a consultant to Cape Wind, which plans to build just such a wind farm in Nantucket Sound. His timeline, Thomsen noted would “allow the vessel to be ready for the Cape Wind project.”
Ah, but the plot – uncovered by Herald reporter Christine McConville – thickens.
On Aug. 6 the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center – headed by the Patrick administration’s Energy Secretary Ian Bowles and funded by a surcharge on our utility bills – put out a request for proposals for a consultant to develop a plan to acquire the ship “by leveraging public support to underwrite the design and construction.”
The Center got one bidder, a Somerville company that listed Thomsen as a member of its team. Their application said its “business case will be based on the assumption that the Cape Wind Project would be the first Offshore Wind Farm to be installed in the U.S.”
Later in August Bowles insisted, “This has nothing to do with Cape Wind.” In September the agency postponed the ship-building project.
Hmmmmmm. Wouldn’t have anything to do with the upcoming election, would it?
Bowles insists, “This could pay for itself in a few years.”
Well, if it’s such a good investment wouldn’t some sharp private company foot the bill?
Yes, it’s an outrage. Yes, it would be yet another huge public subsidy for Cape Wind. And yes, it’s one more reason to vote Deval Patrick and his team of big-spenders out of office.
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