CAPE WIND, already at death’s door in the wake of decisions by the state’s two largest utilities to terminate their power purchase contracts with the project, absorbed another blow on Monday.
The US Court of Appeals ruled that a district court judge erred in dismissing a lawsuit brought by foes of Cape Wind challenging the Patrick administration’s role in engineering one of the power purchase contracts. The contract for slightly more than a quarter of Cape Wind’s power output was signed in early 2012 by NStar Corp. in return for Patrick administration approval of the company’s merger with Northeast Utilities.
The appeals court decision means the district court will now rule on the actual claim of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound – that the Patrick administration violated the US Constitution “when it used its influence over NStar’s merger request to bring about NStar’s entry into an above-market wholesale electricity contract with Cape Wind.”
US District Court Richard Stearns dismissed the case in May 2014, ruling that the lawsuit could not proceed because the state is protected by sovereign immunity. The appeals court on Monday held that was not the case.
At the time of Stearns’s decision, Cape Wind issued a press release saying the judge rejected the lawsuit based on technical grounds and the merits. The press release included a quote from Stearns’s decision: “In this case, the governor, the Legislature, the relevant public agencies, and numerous courts have reviewed and approved the project and the power purchase agreement with NStar and have done so according to and within the confines of the law. There comes a point at which the right to litigate can become a vexatious abuse of the democratic process. For that reason, I have dealt with this matter as expeditiously as possible.”
Many think the Cape Wind project suffered a fatal blow when NStar and National Grid terminated their power purchase contracts after the wind farm failed to begin construction as required under the contracts by December 31. Cape Wind, however, insists it is operating under the so-called force majeure clause in the contracts, which effectively suspends the construction deadlines because of events beyond the wind farm’s control, in this case a wave of lawsuits brought by opponents.
Jim Gordon, the president of Cape Wind, said in December 31 letters to the two utilities that litigation against the project over the years mounted by the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound is “extraordinarily unusual, unexpected, and significant. It has been completely beyond Cape Wind’s control and could not have been prevented or avoided.”
New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal – Cruel Joke On Taxpayers
Cruel Joke On Taxpayers New Bedford Ocean Wind Port
December 10, 2014
New Bedford, Massachusetts
Massachusetts’s tax system and spending needs to be modernized from top to bottom.
Massachusetts has created the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center with no oversight from the Massachusetts legislature.
What the state does not need in 2015 are lawmakers who engage in wind turbine projects aimed at making them look good while putting the burden of enactment on us the taxpayers.
The result has been giant renewable energy failures starting with Evergreen Solar, Charlestown wind turbine blade facility that has never tested a wind turbine blade to the economic fiasco at the New Bedford ocean wind turbine port today.
The latest example of this is the New Bedford Ocean wind turbine port proposal that started out at 35 million in 2010 with a completion date of today.
It’s classic Massachusetts politics out of control spending.
Governor Patrick announced the building of the New Bedford Marine ocean wind turbine port in 2010 and the 91 million dollar ocean wind turbine jack up barge to nowhere.
What the public dose not know is the barge is almost built and is called the RDMacDonald. The New Bedford ocean wind turbine project has become such a joke they named the barge after a hamburger. The joke is on the taxpayers.
New Bedford should never been selected for the construction and assembly of ocean wind turbines. The hurricane gate is only 150 feet wide with a legal clearance of 120 feet. Jack up barges for the construction of ocean wind turbines are over 120 feet wide and do not fit into New Bedford Harbor. One special barge named after the hamburger is being built to fit into New Bedford Harbor. The taxpayers should be asking how do you construct and assemble 130 ocean wind turbines with one small barge ( aka the joke is on you )
Massachusetts officials testified to legislative bonding committees they were 100 percent sure Cape Wind would assemble and construct their 130 ocean wind turbine project from New Bedford. Cape Wind has a federal permit to construct and assemble wind turbine from Quonset Point, Rhode Island not New Bedford.
Building the New Bedford ocean wind turbine port was supposed to create 1000 jobs. The project brought in up to 60 workers from New York and New Jersey and hired a few local people but never the large forecast of the bright economics.
The incomplete New Bedford ocean wind port financial fiasco is nearing 200 million dollars today and in the next few years could be headed to one billion dollars. Embarrassed state officials refuse to comment on the finances of the project.
There are those that say one billion dollars is far fetched but let’s look at all the negatives the news media refuses to publish :
1. A local AM radio station and antenna on four acres of land on the site need to be moved to a new location.
2. The radio station was built on an old Brownfield site and 1600 cubic yards of toxic PCBs need to be removed
3. An oversight in dredging the inner harbor caused another 10 million in additional expenses. The Army Corps of Engineers will not comment on the oversight until March 2015.
4. The terminal was advertised with a rail link that is still 3000 feet away.
5. When officials were questioned about the rail link the response was this is part of phase 2
6. The large cranes to lift wind turbine parts are not yet at the terminal and whereabouts remain unanswered.
7. The channel outside the hurricane gates hasn’t been dredged since 1955. The 30 foot draft requirement can only be reached at high tide.
8. New Bedford Harbor is still facing the dredging of almost one million cubic yards of PCB contaminated material and the mapping of Oxford Village and Marsh Island.
9. New Bedford still has a massive ocean fishing fleet and Siemens wind company needs access to the ocean wind turbine port 24 hours a day.
10. Cape Wind filed a project revision with BOEM, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on September 17 ,2014 to use New Bedford Harbor .No one has seen the project revision filed with BOEM or the lease agreement between Cape Wind and the owners of the New Bedford ocean wind terminal the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
Folks, The New Bedford ocean wind port has become a political embarrassment. The project remains incomplete going into 2015 and probably 2016 .
Is one billion dollars of your tax dollars worth this project while Quonset Point, Rhode Island has already been built ?