A bankrupt Enron, Florida Power & Light and the rest of the multibillion dollar large wind power companies, Out of State Environmental Lobbying & Legal Firms and Governor Carcieri and why they all don’t want you to have SMALL wind
The First Great Wind Rush
The year was 1981. Congress enacted financial incentives to support the wind industry in California and elsewhere. This was the first era of modern day wind called The Great California Wind Rush. It was short lived however and in 1985 all the financial incentives were withdrawn and the whole Large Wind Power industry collapsed. The business model can not work without taxpayer subsidies and incentives and without this the business model is completely unworkable. In 1985 in Altamont Pass, San Gorgonio Pass and Tehachapi Pass more than 14,000 wind turbines that had been built between 1981 and 1985 were quickly abandoned by the Large Wind Farm developers. They still stand there today almost 30 years later, unworkable, rusted and broken. A complete failure in public policy by the Government.
The Second Great Wind Rush
It was the decade of the 90’s and the wool was about to be pulled over the American taxpayer’s eyes once again. This time by a multibillion dollar politically connected corporation called Enron headed by the late infamous Ken Lay. He saw this failed public policy as an opportunity to reap tens of billions of dollars at the expense of hard working taxpayers. Enron with the help of Ken Lay’s leadership, who’s scams cost innocent people their life savings, set in motion a plan to lobby Congress. They disguised their plan as an environmentally friendly “renewable energy” project, and packaged it in with their “electricity deregulation” lobbying and political maneuvering efforts. Their efforts worked and they got laws passed at both the state and federal levels. These laws would do the following
1.) Permit them to tie into the grid
2.) Require utilities to buy the unreliable and unpredictable electricity under “Renewable Portfolio Standards”
3.) Allow them to sell “Renewable Energy Certificates” separate and apart from the electricity
4.) Provide them with an inflation-adjusted 10-year “Production Tax Credit” that now equals $.019/kWh
5.) Allow tax write-off of the 20-year project cost using an accelerated 5-year double-declining balance method (40% per year)
These subsidies are costing taxpayers and utility ratepayers in America to this day over $1 BILLION per year!
Even after Enron’s mile long lists of fraud were exposed and they declared bankruptcy and as millions of people lost their life savings because of Ken Lay and Enron, the Large Wind Energy business lived on. General Electric (GE) purchased Enron’s wind turbine manufacturing business, while Florida Power and Light (FPL) purchased Enron’s wind farm projects and adopted their business model. Florida Power and Light (FPL) has carried on Enron’s tradition of lobbying Congress to get what they want and according to the political watchdog group Opensecrets.org the $26 billion corporation has spent $30million lobbying members of Congress since 1998.
Now Florida Power and Light and numerous other multibillion dollar Large Wind Farm corporations want to pull the wool over the Rhode Island taxpayer’s eyes.
Now Along Came A Governor….
October 17th Governor Carcieri began receiving campaign contributions from Mitchell Jacobs who is the treasurer and general counsel of Energy Management Inc. (EMI) a fossil fuel company which owns Cape Wind who is currently seeking approval to erect more than 130 large 400 foot turbines off the shores of Nantucket and the Cape.
Exactly 7 days later on October 24th Governor Carcieri began receiving campaign contributions from Jim Gordon, President of Energy Management Inc. (EMI) the fossil fuel company which owns Cape Wind who is currently seeking approval to erect more than 130 large 400 foot turbines off the shores of Nantucket and the Cape.
Less than 6 months later on April 23, 2003 Governor Carcieri goes public and endorses the Cape Wind project which would be owned by Energy Management Inc. (EMI) and as we pointed out in the previous paragraphs is a contributor to his campaign for Governor starting in 2002 and again during his reelection campaign in 2006.
It is interesting to note that Energy Management Corporation also was a business partner of Calpine Corporation, another multibillion dollar fossil fuel company, and they jointly owned a fossil fuel company called Tiverton Power. The natural gas plant is located at 304 Progress Way in Tiverton, Rhode Island. The facility is worth more than $172 million. In 2004 Tiverton Power was named to the dangerous two-dozen list by a Washington, DC based watchdog group called The Working Group on Community Right-to-Know. They are an affiliation of public interest organizations who are concerned with toxic hazards and solutions to the environmental problems. According to a news article written by Bruce Burdett, the watchdog group says “If the gaseous ammonia were to be released in large amounts, the group warns that it could create a lethal cloud. Although many plants use ammonia, the Tiverton plant makes the list, according to Director Paul Orum, because some 75,000 people live within a close radius of the facility.” Two years later in 2006, the plant declared bankruptcy.
Below are some news articles related to the Massachusetts project Cape Wind, Energy Management, Inc and Rhode Island’s Tiverton Power.
2007 Rolls Around and Pandora’s Box has begun to be opened…
August 31, 2007
Florida Power & Light (FLP), the $26 Billion company which bought Enron’s wind farm business when Enron declared the largest bankruptcy in United States history gave $150,000 grant to the Governor’s RIWINDS project. This money was used to fund almost half the cost of a 132 page study, which was prepared by Applied Technology & Management another company based in Florida and has a project office out of the Middle East in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Ask yourself a few questions: A $26 billion wind farm company from Florida who bought Enron’s wind farm business when it declared the largest bankruptcy in the history of the United States, where thousands upon thousands lost their life savings funds this State’s wind report with a $150,000 grant. Governor Carcieri who has been accepting political donations from multibillion dollar wind farm companies since he first ran for Governor in 2002 turns around and hires a company Applied Technology & Management who’s headquarters are also located in Florida to do the 132 page study. There is no mention in that entire 132 page report of any downsides to large scale offshore industrial wind power. Why is the Governor so worried about a independent RI Coastal Resource Management Council (CRMC) study and a CRMC 1 year moratorium on all offshore wind farms? His administration pressured the CRMC to not have a moratorium and they caved to his wish and now won’t have one. He wants all offshore wind projects built less than 1 mile off our shoreline and completed before he leaves office in 2011. Less than 3 years from now!CRMC seeks wind farm, wave generator moratorium
Controversies surrounding Florida Power & Light (FPL) in other parts of the United States
Hess Corporation a $30 billion oil and gas company which is based out of New York is also a Conservation Law Foundation client.
The Conservation Law Foundation has been fighting towns and citizens who live on the Cape & Islands of Massachusetts. These citizens want to protect their tourist industry, their jobs and their pristine environment from Jim Gordon and Mitchell Jacobs of Cape Wind (who’s parent company is Energy Management, Inc or EMI, a fossil fuel company and as we mentioned before a financial campaign contributor to Governor Carcieri) from dredging Horseshoe Shoal, a shallow portion of Nantucket Sound south of Cape Cod and erecting 130 wind turbines each 400 feet tall which will be able to be seen for up to 26 miles away.
The Conservation Law Foundation helped the Rhode Island General Assembly draft bills which will bring in private investment in large-scale wind projects. This opens the door for these large multibillion dollar wind farm companies to come in and build hundreds of 400 foot wind turbines less than a mile off the shores of Westerly, Block Island, Newport, Middletown and Little Compton. These waters in most cases are shallow and prime fishing, sailing and tourist destinations for Rhode Island’s tourist, fishing and lobster industries.
Did you know? Rhode Island’s tourist industry is a $5 billion a year industry and Newport alone makes up $2 billion of that. This industry provides tens of thousands of jobs for our citizens and is the very livelihood for Rhode Islander’s across this State.
The New York Based $7 billion Wind Power companyAllco and what they want to do in Rhode Island
This is the beginning of the permit process which Allco has initiated with the State of Rhode Island. They have picked 4 different locations. They wish to build more than 335 turbines, each more than 400 feet tall. In most cases these turbines will be less than ¼ of a mile offshore of Watch Hill in Westerly, Ocean Drive, Cliff Walk and Easton’s Beach in Newport, Easton’s Point, Sachuest Beach, Sachuest Point in Middletown, Southern portion of Little Compton from Sakonnet Point on eastward to the border with Massachusetts. These Turbines only have a life expectancy of 20 years after which they become rust farms right off our shores.
Below are the offshore wind farm sites which correspond with the map up above which Allco wishes to build along with a description of how close they are to land. You can click on the link and see the beginning of the permit application which they have filed with the Rhode Island Coastal Resource Management Council. Many of these sites are in very shallow waters which will be dredged and destroyed if this is not stopped. Our views which tourists travel to from all over the world will be gone forever.
Less than ¼ of a mile from Cliff Walk in Newport. Less than 1 ¼ miles from Easton’s Beach in Newport. Less than ¾ of a mile from Easton’s Point in Middletown. Less than ½ mile from Sachuest Point in Middletown. Less than ¼ of a mile if that off the whole southern portion of Little Compton starting at Sakonnet Point on eastward to the RI/Mass state line. You will be able to see hundreds of wind turbines from wherever you are from the beginning of Ocean Drive all the way to the end of Little Compton near the RI/Mass line.
So how tall exactly is 400 feet? 400 feet is the same height as the two main towers on the Newport Bridge. Each one of these 400 foot turbines will have red flashing lights on them that will light up the night sky at night and fog horns which will be able to be heard miles away. Now imagine 335 of these right off these prime tourist destinations.
The picture below is one example of what our future could look like if the Governor and Allco have their way. Is this what you want? There’s so many other ways we can get clean energy which is more reliable, cheaper and won’t hurt our economy. Let’s not let these billion dollar companies take our hard earned money and get billions of dollars worth of tax subsidies while destroying everything we hold dear as Rhode Islanders
This picture is taken from the beginning of Cliff Walk in Newport looking out on Easton’s Point in Middletown with how one particular wind farm that the Governor is proposing could look from shore. Throughout the Governor’s wind power plan turbines are situated this close to shore and in some cases even closer. In Newport for example hundreds of thousands of people a year visit Cliff Walk and Easton’s Beach for its spectacular breathtaking scenery and rich history. This can all be gone in a blink of an eye if we let this happen.
What the Multibillion dollar Large Industrial Wind Power Companies, the Environmentalists connected to them and the politicians don’t want you to know about Large scale wind power
Wind Farms use Oil and Lots of It!
Wind farms do indeed use oil and lots of it. The proposed offshore 130 large industrial turbine wind farm in the Cape in Massachusetts calls for a 100 foot (10 story tall) offshore transformer substation. This offshore platform would house over 40,000 gallons of transformer oil. In Rhode Island where New York based Allco and Governor Carcieri propose erecting more than 335 turbines in most cases ¼ off our pristine shores and successful tourist destinations, which our citizens rely on for jobs, the plan is much more grave. Through our research we have calculated that the offshore transformer substation which would need to be built for Governor Carcieri and Allco’s massive wind farm project would house over 103,180 gallons of transformer oil.
Not to mention that the turbines would have 63,650 additional gallons of oil (approximately 190 gallons in each turbine). That would mean that the Governor Carcieri’s plan would put more than 166,000 gallons of potentially hazardous oil within a ¼ mile striking distance from our shores! Many things could go wrong such as a vessel collision, a fire on the offshore transformer substation, a major hurricane as forceful as Hurricane Katrina or a hurricane such as the one which hit Rhode Island in 1938 which was the same strength as Hurricane Katrina. If there is any catastrophe associated with this wind farm especially the more than 166,000 gallons of potentially hazardous oil that will sit a ¼ mile off our coastlines it could potentially wipe out the whole fishing and lobster industry in Rhode Island causing thousands to lose their jobs and their very livelihood. To make matters worse it would wipe out a $2 billion a year tourist and yachting industry in Newport and cost Rhode Island tax payers hundred of millions of dollars to clean up. The environmental impacts would be irreversible. This could all happen within minutes! GOVERNOR CARCIERI WANTS TO DO THIS; ALL WITH OUT YOUR CONSENT OR YOUR VOTE!
To the left is a picture of what a 10-story tall industrial offshore transformer substation housing more than 103,180 gallons of potentially hazardous oil would look like.
The picture below is what can happen when a transformer substation has a fire.
Below is a video of a transformer substation having a fire and blowing up. Imagine a offshore transformer substation 100 times bigger, right off the shores of our prime tourist destinations and housing 103,180 gallons of potentially hazardous oil!
Wind Farms Pose Potental Risk to National Security
With a major military installation on Aquidneck Island (The Newport Naval Base) and the Governor and Allco’s plans to build an offshore 335 industrial wind farm a ¼ mile south of Newport, it is extremely alarming that NATO is currently investigating defense threats from wind farms in the United Kingdom. They have discovered that wind farms create a blind spot in air defenses. With our nation currently at a state of high alert and currently at war, a wind farm being built so close to a major military installation such as the Newport Naval Base could put our citizens especially on Aquidneck Island in jeopardy. NATO Investigates Defence Threat From Wind Farms
Noise During Construction
Please click on the movie link below to see and hear a wind turbine being pile driven into the sea bed 8.5 miles off the coast of Denmark (a may take a couple of minutes to download). The pile driving for Governor Carcieri’s plan will be less than ¼ miles off our shoreline. Imagine what this earth shattering sound will do to our tourism. http://www.windstop.org/images/Horns_Rev.mpg
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