Honesty needed
Honesty Needed - Letter | The Falmouth Enterprise | July 7, 2017 | www.capenews.net
“The Water Pollution Abatement Trust, using dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, gave Falmouth an interest-free loan of $4.85 million for the construction of Wind 2.
“In 2013 officials with the trust told the town that if the turbine ‘ceases to function as an energy-efficient project,’ it would require Falmouth to pay principal and interest on the loan.”
Town officials would like you to believe this and have done nothing since 2012 to stop perpetuation of this myth. (I believe this came from the Clean Energy Center, the same folks who sold Falmouth the turbine they couldn’t sell elsewhere, assured Falmouth that three times as big a turbine as Town Meeting approved would be better, and (a year or so ago) gave Falmouth $1.5 million to sustain operating losses (and fund litigation?) after Superior Court, decision by decision, began crippling turbine operations.)
The truth about the $4.85 million repayment came to light in a sworn deposition of a Water Pollution Abatement Trust representative during wind turbine litigation. The Water Pollution Abatement Trust representative, under oath, stated that the Water Pollution Abatement Trust, to date, had never been approached regarding whether the loan had to be repaid.
Friday’s Enterprise also published the response to an inquiry: “Town Manager Julian M. Suso said last week that the loss of revenue was not known.”
May I remind Mr. Suso that revenue numbers were established way back in 2012 (as part of the Wind Turbine Option Process, which cost us $399,000). Those numbers are also in town budgets from years covering wind turbine operation (2009-2017).
The town manager’s job requires working with these budgets all the time.
It is beyond credible that Town Manager Julian M. Suso can say that wind turbine revenue numbers are not known.
Selectmen and the town manager need to be honest and forthcoming, not only with the wind turbines, but also in all matters. The public needs to demand it.
J. Malcolm Donald, Ambleside Drive, West Falmouth
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/07/08/honesty-needed/