I am not going to say "I told you so," but I did tell you so. As an attorney representing community residents, I fought every one of these projects in front of the BEP and, for some, in court. We lost every case because at that time the state was all hot on how wonderful these projects are! And the counties were at best complicit. None of them fought side by side with their residents against these projects. Now the cash is decreasing and, in my opinion, will disappear completely in a few years. What is not mentioned in this excellent article, is the fact that most of them were not required to have a decommissioning escrow fund set up. So as they become obsolete they could in fact be abandoned by the owners, who seem to have a penchant for "going out of business" (probably bankruptcy to avoid debt) and then creating a new entity to sell the project to at a bargain basement rate. Oh, and Stacey Fitts, Maine asset manager for Onward, the one that screwed Somerset County, was in the legislature at the time of the surge of these companies' ascendancy, and on the Energy and Utilities Committee the whole time. While I recognize the urgency of addressing climate change, I truly think we should try to do it without putting billions of dollars into a bunch of companies that will eventually show their true colors. So, as we move into offshore wind, let's please keep this in mind.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  Budgets are not everyone's cup of tea. But for those who want to know a bit more about Maine's current proposed supplemental budget, I've included some information below. First, a supplemental budget is a revision to the budget passed last year that make some changes in income and spending in order to make sure the budget is balanced at the end of the fiscal year (June 30, 2021). A balanced budget is required by our Constitution. So the Appropriations Committee has made such adjustments and following is a description of many of those changes, compliments of my friend and fellow State Representative Rebecca Millett. "Budgets are about priorities. Last week, the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee passed a supplemental budget that targets relief where it’s most needed. Under this budget, 100% of Maine’s businesses do not pay any state tax on Paycheck Protection Program loans. Mainers who lost their jobs because of the pandemic will not pay tax on unemploymen...
Read more
 As anyone who how knows me is aware of, I am NOT a late night person. But I was pleased and honored last night to stay up until about 2 am to help pass the Maine Supplemental Budget at the Augusta Civic Center, which passed unanimously less one vote. It had to pass by a 2/3 majority in order to qualify as an emergency and go into effect immediately. In short, the supplemental is an adjustment to the 2020-2021 budget, which is passed in order to make adjustments to the original budget that reflects situations that arose subsequent to passing that budget last year. The major situation that had to be addressed was the financial costs of the pandemic to the people of Maine. Following is what the supplemental passed last night includes: Critical relief for 160,000 Mainers who lost their jobs due to the pandemic: The supplemental budget includes $47M to exempt unemployment benefits from state income taxes. Without this relief, Mainers who relied on unemployment benefits at some point du...
Read more
  Viewpoint: Time to improve rural public transportation - Mount Dese... https://www.mdislander.com/opinions/commentary/viewpoint-time-t... (Printed from url=https://www.mdislander.com/opinions/commentary/viewpoint-time-to-improve-rural-public-transportation) Viewpoint: Time to improve rural public transportation January 5, 2021 on Commentary , Opinion  By Rep. Lynne Williams I am so pleased about my election to the Legislature, from House District 135, including the towns of Bar Harbor, Lamoine and Mount Desert. Thank you to everyone for giving me your trust and I will work hard to make that trust well-placed. I am pleased that I have been appointed to the Transportation Committee. I am a decades-long supporter of rail, and also of increasing and improving rural public transportation. During my campaign, I posted a short commercial on Facebook that had as its tagline: “What ...
Read more