February 14, 2012
Letters, Massachusetts

State green energy firms’ success questioned

MetroWest Daily News, www.wickedlocal.com 14 February 2012

Mass Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs best defense, ‘State says clean energy firms thrive in Massachusetts’, hangs a lantern over the state’s inability to pick winners.

From the perspective of the public funding approximately 60 percent of these investments, Evergreen Solar and Beacon Power are in bankruptcy protection; Boston Power is moving to China; A123 Systems’ battery defect, according to Fisker Automotive, has prompted the recall of 239 Karma cars in the U.S. Boston-based First Wind, New England’s largest wind developer, has lost $333 million in needed capital by Maine Public Utilities Commission recent ruling against their merger plans with Algonquin Power.

According to US House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan ‘Promise of Green Jobs’ study, “The Costly Consequences of Crony Capitalism” 11/21/11:

First Wind Holdings, received a $117 million loan guarantee in March of 2010.

First Wind withdrew its initial public offering in October of 2010, due to a lack of investor demand. [11] According to the Boston Globe, investors shied away from the company because “First Wind owes more than $500 million, loses money on a steady basis, and reports a negative cash flow.”[12]

Alternative energy companies with 10 percent “skin in the game” is a business model that shifts all risks and costs to Massachusetts ratepayers told to expect green energy savings.

When signing the Green Communities Act into law on July 2, 2008, Governor Patrick said the legislation sponsored by Sal DiMasi, .”..will reduce electric bills,…”

We now know by ratepayer advocate, Attorney General Martha Coakley, that the Green Communities Act will cost ratepayers and extra $4 billion.

he Patrick Administration can continue to ignore the green bubbles bursting around us, while it’s in the public interest that they provide us with an honest accounting and some painful acknowledgments.

BARBARA DURKIN

Northborough

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/02/14/state-green-energy-firms-success-questioned/