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Towards a just & healthy democracy in the Commonwealth... and beyond!
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Wed Aug 25, 2010 at 11:34:05 AM EDT
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 Graphic by Jeff Walsh, Boston Herald
As Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein called out the backroom deals with a monopoly utility at last week's Cape Wind debate by MassINC, her demands for transparency, accountability and fair competition by municipal energy providers surprised many observers. David Bernstein of the Boston Phoenix didn't even know how to categorize her criticism, incorrectly pigeon-holing Stein's critique as opposition to the Cape Wind project, end of story.
The Boston Globe reported on Martha Coakley rushing in to show that they weren't hiding anything. Nothing to see here! So it was interesting when the Boston Herald reported that Coakley's 85-page report to the Department of Public Utilities was heavily redacted. According to the Herald:
The report, which was Coakley's official justification of her rate settlement with Cape Wind and National Grid, includes "redacted" words, numbers, sentences, paragraphs and charts. It even blanked out a question asked of an energy expert hired by Coakley's office - and the expert's response was also crossed out. |
| eli_beckerman :: Backroom dealing toward our green energy future |
| Coakley's defense is that DPU mandated that this information be kept from public view, and that keeping proprietary information secret during rate settlement negotiations is routine. What seems really odd to me is that footnoted sources are themselves redacted. What proprietary information could be revealed by naming the source of the information?
At this stage of the game, the estimated $2.5 billion project could easily parallel what was supposed to be a $2.5 billion Big Dig. And as Stein asserted in the debate, the potential for this becoming "Big Wind" should be a serious concern for taxpayers. We know the Big Dig culture is alive and well on Beacon Hill, and it's critical that we don't allow our support for renewable energy become blind support for the crummy crumbs thrown our way.
Backroom dealing toward a secure green future is an oxymoron. |
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Green Mass Group is an online forum for Green thought and collective action in Massachusetts. It is a community forum for justice, sustainability, democracy and health in the Commonwealth and beyond.
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"Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No. I believe that we could have made the tough choices required - on entitlement reform and tax reform - right now, rather than through a special congressional committee process. But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year. Most importantly, it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America."
--President Barack Obama on the debt ceiling "deal"
"Despite Democratic control over the White House, despite Democratic control over the Senate, despite overwhelming opposition from the American people, a small minority of the members of the Republican-controlled House have successfully pushed an extreme right-wing agenda onto the American political landscape. It is an ideology which believes that despite the fact that the rich are getting richer, the middle class is shrinking, and poverty is increasing, all - all of the burden for deficit reduction should rest on working people."
--Independent Senator Bernie Sanders on the debt ceiling "deal"
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Then and Now
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Then...
"Last year Evergreen, a Massachusetts company, agreed to establish their first-ever United States based manufacturing facility here in Massachusetts. They did so, or are doing so, at Devens. They have now agreed and chosen to triple their size at Devens. Their next phase of expansion, right here in Massachusetts, a signature company in a signature sector, and we congratulate all of the folks at Evergreen and look forward to continuing to work with you...
We made a personal commitment to Evergreen for the sake of Evergreen, but also because we wanted to show that there are ways in which state government, in working together with private industry and with the utility companies, could begin to create a different kind of environment, a different kind of business climate here, to grow that sector, and it is happening. It's happening. Evergreen is one of the most prominent examples, but there are a whole host of examples."
--Governor Deval Patrick, April 7, 2008, boasting about state investment in Evergreen.
and Now...
"Evergreen Solar Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, completing a stunning reversal of fortune for a high-flying alternative-energy company that once seemed to herald a new era for the Massachusetts economy... At its peak, Evergreen employed roughly 900 people locally and attracted more than $50 million in state support, as its stock price soared above $100 a share.
Yesterday, Evergreen's stock closed at 18 cents. The company shuttered its manufacturing plant in Devens earlier this year and now has only 85 employees left. Massachusetts is one of its top creditors, owed $1.5 million in rent."
--Erin Ailworth, Boston Globe, August 16, 2011
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