An ill wind blows on Beacon Hill
Firetower Wind | mjoecool.wordpress.com 26 June 2012
The renewable energy legislation pushing wind development in our communities has been released from committee, with deadlines for amendments today, and floor debate will start on Wednesday. House bill 4198 undermines local property tax authority and House bill 4112 gives the state the power to override local decision-making. Allowing wind farms to operate in towns that don’t want them.
The Patrick Administration has restructured the Massachusetts energy market by the ‘Global Warming Solution Act’, the ‘Green Communities Act’, its net metering provisions, the ‘Green Jobs Act’, and similar mandates. The Commonwealth’s Citizenry had been informed that these laws would extend public and environmental benefits. They have not. Though green jobs have been created as a result of American public funding green initiatives, there has been little else in the way of beneficial return.
The architects of MA green laws almost exclusively enjoy publicly-funded green jobs. Grants and loan guarantees flow to Patrick Administration Public Officials as CEOs, founders, Directors and Advisors, stock holders, etc., behind several for-profit, publicly-funded, green business ventures. Mass Public Officials and Advisors hail from UPC First Wind, Second Wind, DeepWater Wind, EnerNOC, TPI Composites, Flo-Design, Rhumb Line Energy, Harvest Power, Epsilon Associates, etc. Limited Liability Corporations, favored by the Patrick Administration’s green laws, have many high paid executives.
As example, Falmouth’s own, former State Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Ian Bowles. Mr. Bowles is currently a Senior Director of a global strategy firm, where he advises clients on energy, environmental, natural resource and sustainability issues. He is also Managing Director of an energy LLC, focused on clean energy development.
The Public interest is not served by this administration’s green mandates. The Public good will further be eroded if House bills 4198/4112 are enacted. All because Massachusetts Public Officials have failed to observe the line state ethics law draws between public policy and private gain. Crony capitalism and corporate welfare are the only drivers behind MA green energy policies.
Tell your State Representative, if these bills go through, it will be disastrous, ecologically and economically in Falmouth. We can’t afford to exempt a tax revenue stream, nor can we subject more residents to improperly sited (state forced) wind turbines. And we certainly can’t afford to line Duval’s ‘friends’ pockets with green.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/06/26/an-ill-wind-blows-on-beacon-hill/