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.

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