IS BP ON THE WAY OUT IN CAPE VINCENT?

British Petroleum is the third largest energy company in the world and the fourth largest company of any flavor in the world. They are not only big, they are among the biggest. Along with being really big allows BP to have a major influence on whatever they decide to do - they have the money and power to push aside opposition, curry the favor of politicians, business people and the public.

Given BP's deep, deep pockets and also given their long-standing interest in screwing Cape Vincent with up to 200 industrial sized wind turbines, you would think they would use their corporate muscle to brush aside the silly inconsequential activities of a small town zoning committee and town board. But, that has not been the case here in Cape Vincent.

Rather than acting like a big-time world player in the energy field BP's response to our 2012 draft zoning law, a single page letter from their latest wunderkind, tells all of us that BP really does not give a crap about our little town. If BP was frothing at the mouth to put a wind project in Cape Vincent and a draft zoning ordinance hindered or preempted their plans, do you think the third largest energy company in the world would send a single page letter to the town telling us if you enact this zoning law it will kill their project and their plans - boo, hoo, whaa?

No, you would expect the third largest energy company in the world to pounce on our draft zoning law as soon as it became available weeks ago and have a team of experts pour over the draft law demanding changes that are backed by law, experience and general practice. You would expect they would call on their acoustic experts to shoot holes in the section on noise, lawyer upon lawyer to go after the setback restrictions, and lawyer upon lawyer to support BP's outrage over having their lease agreements preempted by the zoning law. In short, we should have been bombarded, we should have shell-shocked by now, but no BP's response was a single page of drivel they cut and pasted from one of their glossy sales brochures.

Our draft zoning law is not the only example of BP's flaccid response to the push-back from Cape Vincent's new, honest officials. In BP's comments to the PSC Article 10 rule-making effort they failed to make any substantive comments on the noise section. Noise restrictions you will recall are BP's single biggest concern with local laws; it alone can have the greatest influence on the size of a project. Back in May 2010 BP sent a detailed letter to the Town complaining that noise restrictions would kill their project plans. It is a really big issue affecting the plans of the third largest energy company on the planet, yet their response to the PSC's Article 10 draft noise regulations was "ditto to what she said"! Remarkable, but BP never had their own acoustic experts review the Article 10 draft regulations and provide a complete re-write of the regs. You would expect a team of top notch, world class acoustic experts to bombard the PSC with strongly backed recommendations that were BP friendly - you would expect that response from the third largest energy company in the world. But no BP's response was to quote the noise review and recommendations of Alliance for Clean Energy New York (ACENY), Carol Murphy's Albany-based lobbying group. This is not how the third largest energy company in the world would respond if they were serious about a project.

When you look at these two most recent documents from BP there are two messages you can take home. The first and obvious message is that BP is interested in moving forward with the Article 10 siting board with a project for Cape Vincent and that our draft local zoning law is too restrictive and is "unduly burdensome." The other more meaningful message is that BP is not using its muscle, not using its powerful resources to move the PSC and to move the Town of Cape Vincent in the direction that would benefit BP.

This leads any thoughtful, small town Cape resident to conclude that BP is not serious about their Cape wind project, they are not bringing the resources they need to get this project moving and that they are really preparing their leaseholders for their ultimate decision to abandon plans for Cape Vincent. If you are the third largest energy company in the world and you throw around the same corporate muscle as Mr. Fixit, then you are most assuredly on your way out of town. For many of us, BP's recent letter was a breath of fresh air - good bye, fair well and good riddance.