Dear Honorable Jacklyn Brilling,
Dear Editor,
Four hostile newspapers are more to
be feared than a thousand bayonets... Napoleon Bonaparte
Albany and Art. X control siting
wind energy projects. Part of the Art. X procedure is the Public Involvement Program(PIP).PIP
is a written plan for engaging,interacting, and informing the community about
the wind proposal. In Cape Vincent, British Petroleum has written what they
consider their PIP. While that PIP is weak and vague it seems there is another
more powerful public involvement program quietly afoot.
BP wind leaseholders and members of
Voters For Wind, a group BP claims credit for assisting to form (see PIP
Exhibit 2 A.), filed a lawsuit last summer that seeks to subdue and quiet our
local blogs voices.
While our community bloggers have
stood firm and continued to convey information and documents into the public
domain there seems to be little doubt that the intention is to intimidate and
shut these sources of information down as Article X proceeds.
The lawsuit is ongoing and
unresolved. The lawsuit seeks to intimidate the blog authors and to expose John
Does 1-10, authors of anonymous comments, and includes "continued
findings" meaning that additional comments and John Does could be added to
the lawsuit. The BP leaseholders and Voters For Wind plaintiffs seek general
damages, exemplary damages, and punitive damages.
It would be appreciated if the
Siting Board of Art. X would simply ask BP if they are indeed directing or
financing this lawsuit through their local group and their leaseholders or
through a sweet in house deal with the law firm Vorys? Would they care to
acknowledge this lawsuit and its attempt to curtail public discourse in their
official Public Involvement Program (PIP)?
Sincerely,
Hester Chase
Prior to the letter appearing in the
newspapers Town Councilman Clif Schneider asked BP Project Manager Richard
Chandler and BP Attorney John Harris what kind of shadow outreach is BP
involved in? He asks what kind of involvement has BP had with the lawsuits in
the Town of Lyme and a pending lawsuit against the bloggers in Cape Vincent.
Listen here to a recording of that exchange.
The next day Councilman Schneider
asked BPs Chandler and Harris the same question again. Listen here to their
response when they had had time to think it over. Additionally Marion Trieste
defends her Public Relations firm at the end.
Over the last 6 years we have lived
and defended our community from a series of civil rights abuses by BP'
leaseholders and BPs Voters For Wind- Each of these abuses is well documented
and each time the citizens of Cape Vincent stood up for themselves and affirmed
our rights.
the right to record public meetings,
the right to speak in public meetings
the right to be represented by our
government
the right to vote
--- currently we are seeing a new level
of abuse--
the right to post anonymous comments
on blogs
the right to comment on public
matters in a public forum.
Now the Siting Board is in charge of
siting projects and has the responsibility to protect not only the physical
environment but also to protect the environment that fosters and encourages
public involvement.
Surely the Siting Board does not
condone nor reward a company for attempting to crush the most basic American
rights.
BP has no place in Cape Vincent.
Please send them away.
Sincerely,
Hester Chase
10 comments:
Add to the list that Voters for Wind along with a developer lawyer attended the JCIDA and asked them NOT to give local taxing jurisdictions the right to vote on the awarding of PILOTs. Lyme's Julia Gosier spoke on behalf of the Voters for Wind and also she once stated in a letter something to the effect that BP was more American than most. Cape Vincent Voters for Wind attended that meeting.
Ms. Chase is right in suspecting that the present PIP and past Voter for Wind "information and education" was really about taking away the rights of Cape-Lyme AND JEFFERSON COUNTY citizens.
These are great sentiments,Hester,and thank you for having the conviction to speak out for the community, but I fear they are directed at the wrong target.
It is not the PSC, or the ART. X siting board's job to rule on any of your well-presented points of concern.
They have their tasks before them ,with the rules already spelled out. They cannot be burdened with citizens rights or fairness in the process. It is obvious from the responses by the PSC, and the actions of BP,that this process is designed to maximize the chances for wind development.
Your,and our, target should be Andrew Cuomo ,and his spineless New York State Legislature.
They have stolen our right to self-govern by establishing a review board with the authority to over-rule our local zoning laws.
Until we challenge that law, principled and rights- based objections such as yours directed to the PSC,will do little to guarantee a fair process.
At some [point we will have to get serious and realize we are letting ourselves be bulldozed by a governor with a history of "getting the job done" with little concern for the damage done to community and individual rights.
We can continue being reasonable until we talk ourselves into a corner we can not escape from, or we can demand our home rule rights back by refusing to engage any further with this process and assert the authority of our legally adopted local laws.
Respectfully,
Dave LaMora
Think of this Andrew Coumo appointed D. Aubertine to his cabinet. They are very close friends in the party. Don't be surprised if BP doesn't get a favor from the governor on the art 10 situation. Someone said the governor doesn't have any say on the article 10, well that's a safe bet I'll take that they are wrong.
Write a letter to Andy. Tell him you are Dave Lamora and you want to put a stop to all this. See how that works out for you.
"Until we challenge that law, principled and rights- based objections such as yours directed to the PSC,will do little to guarantee a fair process."
Voters for Wind have already spent years trying to stop people from the right of expression. Now you are doing the same thing by trying to stop people from making comments to the PSC.
I commend the nearly 200 people like Ms. Chase who are sending their opinion to the PSC. Don't listen to Mr. Lamora and his Bp supporters and keep the comments coming.
7:28 "Write a letter to Andy"
Already tried that,you're right didn't accomplish much. But consider if every intelligent, responsible, concerned citizen and patriot, such as yourself, wrote to Andy, and also convinced our own Town officials and the Association of New York Towns to write to Andy. What if everyone spent as much time and energy demanding our home rule rights back, from Andy ,as they are writing letters to a condescending ,unresponsive, irrelevant, PSC secretary who has no authority or inclination to make sure we get a fair shake.Their job is to site wind turbines, for god's sake,not to rewrite Andy's procedural rules just to accomodate us.
What if all the above mentioned towns told Andy to take a hike(rhetorically), that we intend to apply our own zoning laws to any commercial or industrial devloper interested in any kind of development in our township.
Sure the State could sue us and put us in a pickle. Do you think they will sue every town or do you think the legislature might rethink their irresponsible approval of this legislation.
I'm not trying to prevent anyone from expressing themselves. Go for it ,write all the letters you want, send the PSC a handwritten book if you like. It won't change a damn thing until we either take unilateral legal action, or just outright refuse to comply with the law,and force the state's hand.
"They are very close friends in the party"
Other than downtown Rosiere I don't think Aubertine is all that much respected. Remember, he lost just like the other lease holding public officials in your town.
I think it is a waste of time for Start a Business in Cape Vincent to try a slur campaign against the pure ethics of all the fine public officials we now have working for us. None of them have taken any money from Bp or any other wind developer. Even the New York State Commissioner of Agriculture who lives in Cape Vincent has taken money from a wind developer. That is why I voted against him. But Cuomo appointed him anyway.
I didn't vote for him...neither did my neighbors.
....a downtown Rosiere resident
8:37
You and the green greed have done your best to undermine the Hirschey gang. But it won't work because it is a legitimate government elected by the majority.
They event tried to impeach Hirschey.
Remember at a public meeting when
According to a member of voter for wind and Bp contract holder,
“With the public evidence that we’ve read many times we think it would be wise for Mr. supervisor, Mr. Hirschey, to resign or at least refrain from conducting business regarding the wind, at least until the courts decide, and they will, that there really is a conflict of interest to do what has been done.”
Not all of the Bp helpers wear green.....but nice try.
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