Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Is the Desire to protect our environment a Conflict of Interest?


Hon. Jaclyn A. Brilling
Secretary, New York State Public Service Commission
The Empire State Plaza
 Albany, New York 12223-1350


Re: BP Cape Vincent Wind Power Project (Case No. 12-F-0410)



 I strongly believe as do many residents of this community, that nominees submitted by the Town of Cape Vincent as Ad hoc committee members to participate in the review process of the British Petroleum application case referenced above should be looked at very carefully in order to ascertain the "impartiality" of the nominees. This review process must not be tainted by misrepresentations submitted to the Public Service Commission by the elected officials of our community whose agenda is preventing the Bp project from becoming a reality. In the words of one of our officials -"it ain't gonna happen."
One of the Ad hoc nominees submitted by the Town of Cape Vincent is Thomas E. Brown of this community. A review of the comments submitted to the Public Service Commission by Mr. Brown and posted on November 28th and November 29th of 2012, are far from being comments of an impartial nominee. His anti-wind sentiment is quite obvious.
Here are two excerpts taken from Mr. Brown's comments posted on November 28, 2012 and November 29, 2012 respectively: #1 -"To let this happen would be a sad day for New York State and its hard fought legacy of environmental protection." #2 -"Please don't allow this to happen to this coastline of such environmental importance and truly one of New York State's very special and beautiful places."
On November 25, 2012 the Public Service Commission posted comments they received from Mr. Brown's wife Patricia. An excerpt from her comments is as follows: "ALL OF THIS WILL BE DESTROYED -IF -bp is allowed to build this wind farm."
The comments of Mr. Brown clearly reveal that he is against the siting of a wind farm project in our community. Therefore, his name should be removed from the list of nominees to serve as an Ad hoc committee member.
In contrast to what others would have you believe, there are "many" residents in this community who do support British Petroleum's wind farm project. We do not support however the all-out assault on this project by each and every elected and appointed official in our community_ Those of us who support the development of a wind project in Cape Vincent are left to fend for ourselves as our local officials have a Uno wind" agenda for those opposed to the project and IIno time" agenda for proponents of the project.
Respectfully  
Margarett Jolliff



2 comments:

Stay Focused said...

Maybe Ms. Jolliff knows of some Rip van Winkle who has been asleep in a cave somewhere in town for the last seven or eight years. That might be someone who is not yet up to speed on the implications of large-scale wind development in Cape Vincent. Maybe such a person would be considered sufficiently "neutral" to satisfy her.

There is an ongoing effort that will not stop until BP pulls up stakes and leaves town. That effort is aimed at creating the false impression that there is a wedge roughly dividing the town between a group that wants wind and a group that does not. That effort wants to characterize the opposition as a false majority that has relied on deceit and electoral trickery.

Please respond to these latest absurd comments on the Siting Board webpage with your own honest comment. All you have to do is state a few basic facts. Large-scale wind development in Cape Vincent and Lyme will hurt the towns (and the surrounding region) economically, culturally, ecologically, and scenically. The majority of the town's residents fully understand that and have expressed their opposition repeatedly to allowing such harm to happen. Amen.

Anonymous said...

"There is an ongoing effort that will not stop until BP pulls up stakes and leaves town."

And there is an ongoing effort that will not stop, I hope, ever:

One that educates the public, and encourages everyone to vote in the place they love, and where they stand to lose the most.