Clean Line makes deals behind closed doors 

In response to the Department of Agriculture:

Apparently Clean Line Energy Partners does its best work behind closed doors, making deals with select groups without public input.

Politicians let the banks off the hook for bankrupting our country at taxpayer expense, leaving homeowners to lose their houses in foreclosure. Now they face losing homes to back-door energy marketeers speculating Enron-style on projected energy markets strictly for personal profit.

Has the Department of Agriculture researched Clean Line’s business practices or history? Would doing business with an Enron clone makes sense for Illinois?

Politicians allow this stimulus plundering at the expense of taxpaying citizens who stand to lose property to an out-of-state company that wants the power to use eminent domain. Clean Line’s past history shows they are likely to turn the reigns over to EDP Renewables, a foreign energy giant, once routes are established sending billions in tax dollars right out of the country.

Horizon Wind/EDP (previously owned by Michael Skelly) is collecting millions through university programs with sponsored interns having the ability to manipulate studies to their advantage.

Jimmy Glotfelty ran the Department of Energy under the Bush administration, giving Enron a free pass. While director he helped establish the ground rules for this industry and stands to make billions in the private sector. Would his clout have any influence on FERC decisions – a branch under DOE?

Clean Line claims it has no opposition. However, 11 Eastern governors have written Congress rejecting CLEP’s proposals, with thousands of landowners voicing opposition along their routes. CLEP wants to give wind a fair chance in the market? The Illinois Portfolio Standard (CLEP staff helped establish the IPS) shows wind got an unfair advantage while solar got the shaft, being put on the back burner for several years.

Is the Department of Agriculture going to look into the negative effects of wind turbines and local weather changing significantly over the past few years as more large-scale wind farms are installed, perhaps contributing to more deadly weather patterns?

“Given the present installed capacity and the projected growth in installation of wind farms across the world, I feel that wind farms, if spatially large enough, might have noticeable impacts on local to regional meteorology,” said Liming Zhou in anemail to Discovery News. He is anassociate professor at the State University, New York, Albany, and authored a paper published April 29, “Nature Climate Change.”

According to research, the warming surface temperature increased from 2003 to 2011, which is consistent with an increase in the number of wind turbines in the Texas area used for this study. Because this warming could impact crop yields of local farmers or have an even larger effect on the increase in global temperatures, study authors say more research is needed.

Politicians should investigate projects fully before dropping free reigns to the likes of Clean Line Energy Partners/Enron clone because the economic/environmental outcome may not only affect the landowners defending property but our own fragile climate.

ANDREA RACKMYER

Sheridan