Something fishy between Deepwater and state?
Transparency would help to Deepwater Wind proposal | Lonnie Barham | Cranston Herald | 10/2/13 | www.cranstononline.com
Transparency would help to Deepwater Wind proposal | Lonnie Barham | Cranston Herald | 10/2/13 | www.cranstononline.com
If Deepwater Wind, the company that wants to build an electricity generating wind turbine farm in Rhode Island Sound, wants the public to accept it and its extremely high per-kilowatt charge for electricity, it needs to be more transparent in its dealings with the public. And the state, via its State Properties Committee, needs to be equally transparent. From what happened last week, it appears there might be some collusion between Deepwater and the state to delude the public.
On a Sunday, a day few people pay attention to state pronouncements, the State Properties Committee published an agenda for its upcoming meeting that included an item listed as pertaining only to the DEM and National Grid; there was no mention of Deepwater Wind. Yet, in the following days it became apparent the agenda item was all about Deepwater Wind’s proposal to run an electrical cable from its wind farm under Scarborough Beach to a National Grid power connection. When the public and news media began asking questions, the agenda was quickly removed.
After losing its fight with the Town of Narragansett to run the cable under Narragansett Beach, Deepwater appears to be seeking approval from the state to run the cable under Scarborough Beach instead. Yet, it apparently wanted to keep its new proposal a secret. More important, it appears the State Properties Committee was in cahoots with Deepwater in its quest to hide the proposal from the public. The Attorney General’s Office needs to look into this quickly. Otherwise, the public will continue to lose confidence in the state’s oversight of Deepwater’s activities.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/10/02/something-fishy-between-deepwater-and-state/