May 17, 2011
Connecticut
Connecticut
Wind farm opposition group asks Attorney General to investigate Connecticut Clean Energy Fund
By Janice Podsada, The Hartford Courant, www.courant.com 17 May 2011
By Janice Podsada, The Hartford Courant, www.courant.com 17 May 2011
Save Prospect Corp., a citizen’s group that opposed construction of a commercial wind farm in Prospect, has asked state Attorney General George Jepsen to investigate a $500,000 grant that Connecticut Innovations/Connecticut Clean Energy Fund made to BNE Energy Inc. of West Hartford in 2007 and review Clean Energy’s application and loan process.
In a whistleblower complaint filed with the attorney general’s office, the group said BNE was ineligible for the $500,000 grant because the Prospect property did not meet the electric generation requirement of having the capacity to produce at least 5 megawatts of power.
Save Prospect says that in BNE’s pre-loan application, the company said the site’s two proposed turbines would generate 3.2 megawatts of power. At that level, the group says, BNE was only eligible for a $250,000 grant, said Tim Reilly, the group’s president.
The group is asking that BNE return $250,000 to the Clean Energy Fund, which is funded by the state’s utility rate payers.
The Connecticut Siting Council last week rejected BNE’s proposal to construct two industrial wind turbines in Prospect.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/05/17/wind-farm-opposition-group-asks-attorney-general-to-investigate-connecticut-clean-energy-fund/