September 26, 2015
Massachusetts, Opinions

Massachusetts commercial wind: news media untrustworthy

By Frank Haggerty (Open Post) | Falmouth Patch | September 26, 2015 | patch.com

Background of the extensive misleading media commercial wind renewable energy campaign carried out in Massachusetts.

The public continues to express skepticism about what they see, hear and read in the media.

Massachusetts bet big on land based commercial wind turbines. The state created a monster called the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative today known as the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.

The agency was tasked with getting 2000 megawatts of commercial wind energy by the year 2020. A single commercial wind turbine has a rating of around 1 or 2 megawatts.

In order to achieve the renewable energy agenda the state politicians called for a real all out war on fossil fuels and they are fighting the war just like a real war. The war calls for agencies of the state to look the other way when it comes to enforcing laws that affect the installation and operation of commercial wind turbines. That equates to taking your health and your property rights for the “Agenda.”

Today it is an established fact families and communities throughout Cape Cod and our commonwealth are being severely affected by land-based wind turbines. Individuals have developed health problems. Real estate prices have dropped. Otherwise peaceful towns are in an uproar over existing and proposed turbines.

Falmouth is ground zero for poorly placed commercial megawatt wind turbines in the United States.

Would it surprise anyone in Massachusetts to report on corrupt hiring and promotion practices within the state or political connections in obtaining state jobs of course not.

How many people have gone to work for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and then gone on to work for commercial wind turbine companies. The MassCEC is a stepping stone to a promise of a higher paying job. One hand washes the other for a six figure job.

The news media in Massachusetts has a cute trick when it comes to commercial wind turbines. The majority of news reports only report positive news about commercial wind never any negative news. They call this reporting by omission or just plain lying to the public.

The former Massachusetts Attorney General sat on her hands while the wind turbine industry created a second class group of citizens in Massachusetts called the wind turbine victims. These citizens health and property rights are considered collateral damage on the war on fossil fuels by our politicians and news media. Their health and property rights were taken with no notice or compensation.

The former Massachusetts Attorney General now works for a law firm that specializes in wind turbine installations.

Now comes the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal that started out at 35 million in 2010. The news media has the general population of Massachusetts thinking the terminal is complete at 113 million. Don’t believe it ! It’s an outright lie !

The terminal remains incomplete. It has two temporary entrances on Blackmer Street because of a radio station that had to be moved off four acres of toxic land. There are no large walking type cranes and the rail link is half a mile away.

The hurricane gates have an opening of 150 feet but only a legal opening of 120 feet. Commercial wind turbine “ jack-up” barges don’t fit through the gates.

The public was told Cape Wind was going to build and construct wind turbines in New Bedford. Cape Wind never had a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management permit to build in New Bedford. The BOEM permit was issued ten years ago for Quonset Point, Rhode Island.

Quonset Point, RI has two 1500 foot wide channels to the ocean. During World War II the base could handle 4 full size US Battle Ships at one time. Deepwater Wind is currently using Quonset Point as its construction and assembly area. Compare that to New Bedford Harbor with a legal opening of 120 feet at the hurricane gate.

The former editor of a local New Bedford newspaper is also a wind turbine consultant. Your local news media in Falmouth told you the town Falmouth Harbor was going to host Cape Wind. Every town and city on the coast of Massachusetts was told they were going to profit somehow by Cape Wind.

The state and media does a good job of hiding spending. The bonds borrowing with intersest is costing taxpayers $187,500.00 a month for the next thirty years on the incomplete financial fiasco at the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center months ago put out an RFP, Request for Proposal to operate the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal. The MassCEC has refused to announce the operator that was awarded the bid.

Who could afford to lease the terminal for more than the $187,500.00 a month in bond payments being paid by taxpayers?

Massachusetts next week is considering more spending on ocean wind turbine projects.

The New Bedford port if it was built with Cape Wind in mind with smaller 3.6 megawatt ocean wind turbines what now? Today ocean wind turbines are nearing 10 megawatts three times the size of Cape Wind.

The seeds of public distrust were sown long before the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal financial fiasco. The poorly placed land based turbines led the way to the credibility crisis in the news media.

The news media has hit a low point with Massachusetts citizens and taxpayers over commercial wind. We are now reluctant to trust the news media in this regard. After all, more and more citizens each year don’t think they can trust the press at all.

The Massachusetts legislature next week is about to multiply the land and ocean wind turbine financial fiasco by ten times what happened in the past ten years.