Less than two weeks ago, a Canadian energy company and a major wind power developer with turbines in Maine announced they had closed a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars to expand wind power projects across the Northeast.
But the announcement left out one important fact that could jeopardize the deal: Legal appeals had been filed just days before by the state’s Office of the Public Advocate and a Maine utility company challenging a ruling by a state agency that cleared the way for the joint venture.
“I was somewhat surprised” to see the announcement that the deal had closed, said Eric Bryant, the attorney in the public advocate’s office who filed one of the appeals.
“It’s unusual for a company to make a decision when there’s risk involved that it may have to undo it because of a legal matter.”
The partnership is between Emera, a Canadian energy company that owns electric utilities — including Bangor Hydro Electric Co. — in the Northeastern U.S., Atlantic Canada and elsewhere, and First Wind, which develops, constructs, operates and owns utility-scale wind projects across the United States and in Hawaii. First Wind is the Northeast’s largest wind power developer and has four major wind projects in Maine, with a fifth, Bull Hill, under construction.
“The completion of the joint venture could lead to up to $3 billion in future economic investment in the region in the coming years,” stated the June 15 announcement.
The deal meant First Wind was getting the cash from Emera that it needed to build more wind turbines after a failed attempt to go public in 2010. Maine currently has 205 commercial wind turbines that can produce 400 megawatts of electricity. The Emera-First Wind venture could pave the way for construction of turbines producing an additional 1,200 megawatts.
The appeals by the Public Advocate and Houlton Water Company argue that the state Public Utilities Commission, or PUC, should not have allowed Emera and First Wind to go ahead with the joint venture. Those appeals were joined by a third, similar appeal on June 20 that was filed by the Industrial Energy Consumers’ Group, which represents large energy users and advocates for lower electricity prices.
The PUC approved the joint venture in April, which cleared the way for the two companies to complete the process that led to the June 15 announcement.
The applicants to the PUC were actually Bangor Hydro and Maine Public Service, the regulated utilities in Maine that are owned by Emera. Commissioners gave their approval despite the PUC staff’s recommendation to reject the deal because it posed a risk of higher prices to ratepayers.
The arguments made by the Public Advocate and the other appellants in the case, filed with the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, are similar to their objections when the issue was debated before the PUC.
They said the proposal would violate the state’s landmark electricity restructuring act that barred transmission companies such as Bangor Hydro from owning electricity generation. That law prohibits utilities from owning both transmission and generation because it was seen as anticompetitive and contributing to high electricity prices.
“The commission committed an error of law, abused its discretion, and failed to follow the mandate of the Legislature … in concluding that the ownership of generation assets in Maine by an affiliate of a transmission and distribution utility is not prohibited by the electric industry restructuring statutes,” wrote Bryant in his notice of appeal.
But the appeals go further and claim that the PUC acted outside of its legal authority when commissioners imposed a long list of conditions on Emera and First Wind designed to mitigate any potential harms from the deal.
The problem with imposing those conditions was that technically, Emera, First Wind and one other party to the deal, Canadian company Algonquin Power & Utilities Corporation, aren’t regulated by the PUC. So the companies filed letters with the PUC saying they would submit to the commission’s jurisdiction.
First Wind’s letter, for example, says it “accepts the commission’s authority to enforce the order … including the commission’s authority to enforce all conditions in the order applicable to First Wind, as if First Wind were a party to this proceeding.”
The parties appealing the decision said that neither the PUC nor the companies who submitted to the PUC’s jurisdiction can, in fact, extend the commission’s statutory authority by simply saying so.
“The commission has, in order to make this deal reasonable, set forth a slew of conditions that apply to First Wind, Algonquin and Emera,” said Alan Stone, attorney for Houlton Water Company. “We argued you can’t do that because you don’t regulate those entities and they’re not parties to the case.”
Stone says that without the legal authority to impose and enforce the conditions, the conditions can be challenged at any time.
“The commission said, ‘Just sign a letter that you agree to them,’ and our position is that it’s not enough, you can’t invest the commission with powers it doesn’t have by simply signing an agreement.”
A PUC spokeswoman, Pauline Collins, said “We don’t have any comment on the merits of the appeals. What we have to say will be in our brief” to the court.
Both First Wind and Emera spokespeople declined to comment on the appeals.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is likely to consider the case in the fall, after the appellants file their briefs in August and the PUC files its response in late September.
The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting in a nonpartisan, nonprofit news service based in Hallowell. Email: mainecenter@gmail.com. Web: pinetreewatchdog.org
The wind industry has a consistent history of ugliness and underbelly in Maine.
The time has come for them to be reined in by the law.
We already have the laws but they do not apply if it means achieving the greater goal: RPS. Did the PUC provide an analysis to justify its decision and it potential consequences to rate payers? They didn’t need it because they are not accountable.
DUMP the PUC’s David Littell.
The PUC is charged with ensuring that rates are just and reasonable. Littell double dips as chairman of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) which is charged with shoving high cost wind energy down our throats.
This is a conflict of interest folks.
And let’s not forget that the head of our Dept of ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, Patty Aho serves on the board of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) right alongside David Littell (see: http://www.rggi.org/rggi/board/patricia_aho). This ought to scare the $%#* out of us all now that DEP has the sole authority to permit industrial wind projects. That might explain why she said recently that there will be no public hearings on wind projects.
Any state can attract tourists by building a zoo or a waterpark, but Maine has its outstanding natural lakes, mountains and vistas… and no other state can build those resources. Of course once the Littells, Kings, Baldaccis and Ahos destroy those resources, Maine won’t be able to replace them either.
Governor LePage: PLEASE replace Patty Aho ASAP!!
this is absolute BS , they are losing our support for windpower thru tax mandates so now they want to steal our money to fund these useless windturbines thru a proposed increase in our electric rates. Bangor Hydro has enough down time without severe weather and conventional power resources, what do you think will happen when they rely on the wind power generation with enclement weather? Maine Public Service was a very reputable company with a great track record and customer service, I said it before and I will say it again, they will be drug to the bottom by these other companies and it is by NO fault of the employees because at least 90% of them are there for the customers. Be forewarned about the fall out of this merger!
Maine Public Service sold out. Bought out by Iberdrola of Spain. Funded by Abu Dabi oil. They push these wind farms saying we are getting off oil . Perverse sense of humor. Disdain for average Mainers intelligence…which they have underestimated.
This is all part of the wind industry’s corrupt plan, a plan which involved the former governor.
From September 27, 2009:
“A law on the books prevents power-transmission companies from owning power generation facilities in their market areas. That seems to be blocking development of renewable energy, said Baldacci, and he said he would look at whether the law should be changed.”
http://www.pressherald.com/archive/maine-writing-the-energy-story-for-america_2009-09-26.html
This deal has to be stopped. If they are allowed to proceed Maine will never be the same. They intend to ruin Vacationland with a blitz of thousands of 40 story turbines that we don’t need, and that do us no good. Why? So they can pipe their part-time power to Massachusetts to “satisfy” government renewable mandates down there. It would be one thing if Maine windmills could replace Massachusetts fossil fuel plants, but they can’t, so we’ll still breathe Boston smog. And they want our tax dollars to pay for it. Unfortunately turning Maine into a power plantation also hits us in the light bill because we are in the same power pool as Massachusetts. This appeal has to succeed.
They are now 50 story units, with larger ones planned for “efficiency”.
If you’re not aware of it, you should check out the brouhaha down here about Cape Wind and how the FAA gave its stamp of approval because of “political reasons’, (our governor and Obama have a bromance over ‘green’) and is now under investigation. Just follow the email trail. It would be our first wind farm and would cost (in today’s $) 1 billion to remove it after its 25 year lifespan of charging rates of 4x the current rates.
As a native Mainer who’s lost his ancestral farm to this debacle through (ahem) shenanigans in Oakfield, I’ve been very aware of the lies known as ‘wind power’.
Even Wal Mart doesn’t want the off shore wind farm in Mass..right off of Ted Kennedy’s old home place. Reason ..they can’t pay for the increase in their electricity bills. And you are right about Obama…the green is clouding his judgment.
Cape Wind same as First Wind. They change their name everywhere they go. Sometimes after they get there. First Wind was Evergreen when they first got to ME. The LLC is always attached , however. Limited Liability Corporation.
Funny thing , how they got the fast track through LURC to build Stetson II with no money and no public hearing ..yet if you want to cut down a tree in your yard in Unorganized Territory, the wait is agonizing.
Money talks, esp. in Augusta
AH, Nevergreen. The one that had the solar plant at the defunct Ft. Devens in Mass. The one that got roughly 38m in State loans to hire x # of employees for 5 years. That “LLC”?
It was another Solyndra debacle. They screwed to China too…..
Green energy will come around eventually (and should), but only when private investors (not the Gov) make it happen. Until then, it’s a pipe dream before its time. Just don’t force it down the taxpayer’s throats before it’s fully baked. That’s what we long term pragmatists hope for..:)
Oh, and to he@@ with what Teddy wanted. That was a blatant conflict of interest (only his last of many).
If I sound angry, then GOOD. :)
the SOLE purpose of the CMP Upgrade was and still is transporting wind electrons to places like Massachusetts and Connecticut. It was “sold” to us as needed for reliability, but the wink was that wind power created this need. CMP and Baldacci talked about “aging lines” but had Baldacci ever paid an electric bill, he would have known that every month part of the payment goes to keeping the lines maintained and up to date. Baldacci also cited population growth. Yet a look at U.S. Census figures reveals that the population growth across the New England region over the next 20 years was only 6.0%, and just 4.0% in Maine.
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/what-s-all-the-fuss-about-population-growth-in-the-northeast
WE WERE LIED TO.
The next big lie was Baldacci said that Maine would pay only 8% of the CMP upgrade $1.5 billion bill, 8% being our share of the grid. But what he didn’t say is that we would also have to pay 8% of any such other similar wind transmission projects in the ISO-NE grid, estimated at $30 billion, with Maine’s share at $2.4 billion. (8% x $30 billion). Divide that by the number of Maine ratepayers (not population, but the smaller number – ratepayers) and the tab is near $5,000 per ratepayer. Average struggling ratepayers buying the thieving wind industry their power lines.
If the bird slicing wind projects are the crime, then the new transmission is the getaway car. And Joe Sixpack pays.
How did the CMP Upgrade get approved? Well, for one, Kurt Adams, then Chairman of the PUC, worked long and hard while at the PUC to make it happen. He greased the skids. Adams was interviewing for months at wind interloper First Wind, while he chaired the PUC. Then, while at the PUC, he took over $1 million in stock options at First Wind, and a month later he left the PUC to become First Wind’s director of transmission.
Of course when citizens demanded action on this, what they viewed as a blatant conflict of interest, Baldacci’s Attorney General, Janet Mills, did a kangaroo court investigation and ruled “no conflict”. It was almost as nauseating as her sister, the state’s CDC director Dora Mills denying the mounting stack of eveidence worldwide that the thumping roar of wind turbines cause human health problems. Two Baldacci plants, doing his bidding in what was an extraordinarily corrupt administration.
It’s frankly time that the current AG William Schneider re-opens the Adams investigation.
James Lovelock, the 92 yr old scientist and inventor of the Gaia theory and regarded the father of modern environmentalism, calls wind turbines “ugly and useless”. He told The Guardian:
“It’s just the way humans are that if there’s a cause of some sort, a religion starts forming around it. It just so happens that the green religion is now taking over from the Christian religion. I don’t think that people have noticed that, but its got all the sort of terms that religions use. The greens use guilt over their CO2 emissions”. He also mentions the condemnation of heretics as another tactic. Excerpted from National Review.
Pretty rough stuff from “the father of modern environmentalism”.
Round and around it goes, where it stops nobody knows. LaPage should assemble the legislators in emergency session and make wind genarators illegal in Maine. If Maine wants profit from energy, a hydro plant in the county would solve a lot of problems there, and keep Maine in charge. It does’nt get any greener then hydro.
“They” will do whatever they like. Sort of like the fox watching the hen house. Amazing how the rules only apply to some. Need to continue looking into this hornet nest. Wind power had been quite profitable for some, right Mr King??
The Wind Cartel, Maine at work.
Defy laws, defy citizen concerns, cost , environmental damage, noise, illegal takings, and anything in their way.
The reason is , Maine was bought and perverted by the Expedited Wind Law of 2008 and the corrupt wind lobby.
Scoundrels like Angus King now wish to shove the knife in deeper by pushing for more subsidies if elected senator.
King epitomizes the self – serving nature of the developer.
It is Obama crony-capitalism at its worst.
Wind in Maine has nothing to do with the general good or power generation.
It is a failed fad world wide. It is all about subsidy scamming green fadism.
It is all about getting subsidy money from the Obama administration.
It is an Enronesque and Solyndresque plan, that will econmically and environmentally kill the state for decades to come, unless it is stopped now.
Wake up Mr. LePage, Do Somthing please!
It will kill business development with increased costs to all,long term.
Failed fad worldwide?
Global installed wind capacity is currently 239,000 MW and growing by more than 41,000 MW each year.
Hydro Quebec is developing 3100 MW.
“failed fad” fail
Yessah
Quebec hydro is not global, your comparison would have to be with global hydro.
What part of 239,000 MW of globally installed capacity don’t you understand?
China has surpassed the US in wind power capacity and plans to greatly expand their wind power generation in the coming decades.
Why?
Cuz they are smarter than we are.
Yessah
I can’t understand how you can compare the total global output of one source to just a single plant’s output.
China? They can build anything, anywhere they want. The people are conditioned for it.
After the unbelievable pollution from their sudden industrial rise, together with the masses dumping their bikes for 8 hour traffic jams (we’ve sold more Buicks there than here for at least 5+ years), it’s no wonder they’ve gone to wind power. Don’t forget, they built the 3 Gorges Dam for hydro power, and it tilts the earth’s axis something like 1.5 degrees!! They HAD to come up with something besides coal.
Smarter? No suh!
It’s because they don’t give enough of a damn to have anything even close to our EPA or a conscious over what they’re doing to the planet or their own people.
Think wind developer Angus King , his son at First Wind, and how Scoundrels rise to high places.
Then think, MAINE!
One wonders why there has not been a strong outcry against the PUC’s ilegal decision. I guess the powers that be think that the prospect of attracing more “road to nowhere” federal dollars justifies all sorts of illegalities. ClydeMacDonalf, Hampden
This last weekend, the largest investor in wind, T. Boone Pickens, said on a network news program, “Wind is now out of the energy loop.” When asked why? he said it is too expensive. The costs are high and we have enough natural gas to last for several hundred years at rates that leave wind costs at THREE TIMES the cost. Can’t anyone see the scam? Can’t anyone see the rise in our rates? Can’t anyone make the PUC and our legislators see the light and shut down this fraud? November is coming up soon. Let’s get candidates thoughts on the record and vote accordingly in November. We the people hold the power, not the Bozo’s in Augusta.
First Wind’s letter, for example, says it “accepts the commission’s authority to enforce the order”
Gee, that’s nice of them. How arrogant these politically connected FW thugs are to condescend to say they’ll abide by the law when it’s bent in their favor.
The ME PUC is totally corrupt to allow this merger in violation of existing law regulating ownership of both generation and transmission. They would probably never enforce any of the conditions anyway.
“Commissioners gave their approval despite the PUC staff’s recommendation to reject the deal because it posed a risk of higher prices to ratepayers. ” What does this say! Disregarding staff recommendations at this level can only infer some personal agenda on the part of the Commissioners. Should they fire the staff, in that they apparently wrongly advised the Commisioners ? Or do they intend to simply disregard their professional advice?
The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting has become about the only entity that publishes a fair and balanced reporting of the wind industry’s impact and issues regarding Maine. If we had similar reporting by the state’s newspapers, television and radio, I believe the public’s awareness and knowledge of the realities of this industry would easily have resulted in much larger opposition to wind energy. Instead we get news articles that appear to be verbatim press releases from the industry that pat themselves on the back, report inaccurately what has or will possibly occur, and tells of how they have spent our subsidy dollars on PR programs and events in schools, communities and universities in an attempt to brainwash the general public who otherwise gets little reporting on the realities of wind power.
It almost seems as if the media is acting like the PUC in disregarding the facts and the full story for some private personal agenda.
Mr. Bryant:
Don’t be surprised by any moves made by First Wind that suggest that they may have an inside track with ME PUC. It’s not plausible that FW is unaware that their list of conditions provided to the ME PUC are unenforceable. First Wind’s Kurt Adams, without any doubt, is certainly well versed on what’s under the PUC’s purview. First Wind Director Patrick Wood III was Chairman of the TX PUC when the RPS was adopted in 1999. First Wind labor pool is the TX PUC, ME PUC, MA DPU, (a VP served as a utility analyst for MA DPU).
Check out First Wind’s activities in Hawaii and NY and note how many First Wind projects feature Clipper Wind turbines that fail mechanically, under Trade Secret, and that are publicly funded.
Please protect ME citizens from energy market manipulation. First Wind Director Patrick Wood III was charged to do so by President GW Bush who appointed Wood to address market manipulation, Enron and the CA Energy Crisis. Wood spectacularly failed at this task as Ken Lay’s recommendation to Bush to chair the Federally Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC. One decade later, First Wind’s Director is positioned to benefit by his failure to address energy market manipulation, Enron and the CA energy crisis as FERC Chair.
Discount coincidences and you will better serve ME ratepayers.
Thank You,
Barbara Durkin
P.S. Mr. Bryant:
First Wind Director Patrick Wood III was chair of the TX PUC when the model renewable mandate for the states, the Renewable Portfolio Standard, RPS, was adopted in 1999.
Those public advocates sure make you feel warm and fuzzy.
If the Commission can’t explain how such a deal is going to save on the ratepayers’ bills, the only popular choice they can make is to reverse their decision and reject this deal. People can expect a lower price in electricity as the natural gas glut grows. I’m sure the commission can understand this, as I’m sure the people of Massachusetts will soon understand.
MA Governor Devalued Patrick is a rabid wind zealot who appoints MA DPU Commissioners. First Wind Paul Gaynor is Patrick’s appointed Advisor on green energy policy in MA as a Boston-based wind developer. It’s impossible to distinguish Public Officials in MA from renewable energy entrepreneurs. The public interest is not being served because we are forced to fund the worst fraud of the 21st Century.
The 3-member PUC commission “committed an error of law, abused its discretion, and failed to follow the mandate of the Legislature”. It even over ruled the recommendation of its own staff.
Something about this deal and the PUC Commissioners just doesn’t smell right. Why would these comissioners vote to increase electric rates on the citizens of Maine and violate the law? Are these commissioners looking to be hired by one of the utilities or First Wind when their term expires? Unfortunately, the State of Maine has no laws preventing such corruption from happening. It has happened in the past when First Wind hired the former governor’s chief of staff and pro-wind lobbyist (Kurt Adams) and gave him a multi-million dollar job.
This decision by the 3-member PUC Commission has all the smell of corruption.
IT IS CALLED HIGH LEVEL CORRUPTION!
It is called Federal Collusian and Crony Capitalism.
A lot of Enron’s former employees now work for First Wind. Their business model is
1) Close existing power plants (done in ME)
2) Hike rates (going on in ME)
3) Export energy (going on in ME)
Anybody notice your electricity bills going up? That is the Enron business model at work in ME. Remember California rolling black outs? That is our future. Remember the Enron employees laughing about Grandma being out of power. That is our future.
And just why is New England enacting Cap N’ Trade when it was never made into law by Congress?
This article also contains evidence of corporations controlling public policy, not elected representatives. Not good for our future.;
A U.S. Congressman (D-NY) wrote to President Obama in 2009 about First Wind describing theirs as a Business Model of “Lie, Cheat and Corrupt”.
A PDF of the Congressman’s letter is available here:
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/a-business-model-of-lie-cheat-and-corrupt
What power plants did First Wind close in Maine?
Clue – none.
Maine’s Standard Offer went DOWN this spring – not up.
Vinalhaven’s electric rates went DOWN – not up – when they installed wind turbines on the island.
Please try to keep up.
Texas, Louisiana, North Dakota and Oklahoma are energy export states – and your point is????
Hysterical nonsense.
Try again.
Yessah
”
What power plants did First Wind close in Maine?”
Fort Kent had to sell because Iso New England did not pay agreed upon price for power.
Indeck had to sell for similar reasons. The new buyer did not know the grid was at capacity and there were problems.
Brookfield in Millinocket had to spend a lot of money for lawyers because they were scheduled to be closed ….all of this for the few wind farms that are producing minimal power. Awfully hard to get the data from FERC on wind energy. At best , it is producing 20 to 30% of capacity. If an employer had an employee producing that amt of energy , they would be fired.
But here in ME, laws are broken, taxes are used for wind farms, even part of our power bills go for building these monsters.People who live around them get sick and they are called by govt. and the wind industry business hysterical.
Sounds kinda’ like your comment.Where is Teddy Roosevelt when you need him? An anti trust lawsuit has been filed against First Wind. It can be found at cohoctonwindwatch. But then you probably already have read it.
Now ME is supposed to have 1.4 billion dollars worth of power lines built . They are for the wind farms. People who don’t want the new gigantic transmission lines going through their property are out of luck. In 2007 , our legislature passed law stating that property can be seized by eminent domain for them.
First Wind did not close those facilities.
Fail
Epic
Oh Yeah – First Wind recently reported that its Maine wind farms operated at 27 – 37% capacity last year.
In 2010, Maine wind farms produced 486,683 megawatt-hours of electricity and will produce more than 700,000 MWh this year.
Please try to keep up.
And no one broke any laws.
Yessah
”
And no one broke any laws.”
Enron left California with over a billion dollars of debt, California had to man up.Taxes paid for Enron good times. Ken Lay was out on appeal forever and then suddenly died and was cremated. Laws are made just for the corporations.
As an example , when I found out that we were going to have this gigantic wind farm as our neighbor out here in the wilderness; I called LURC to get “Evergreen’s” phone number.For weeks, nobody answered the phone in Mass or ME of this mult national corporation. So , I called LURC back and was given a new number. My neighbor was also calling. Oddly enough, on the day that my call went through, it was the last day to file for intervenor status at the hearings and the law had just been passed that day for eminent domain.
That is the reason that I mentioned anti trust laws need to be inforced. Seemed like a little collusion to me.
‘
Conflating Enron = First Wind is pretty dumb.
and silly.
First Wind has broken no laws.
Try again.
Yessah
From the Boston Herald in 2009. Where there is smoke is there fire?
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1212055
Nov. 15–The Massachusetts native who helped found controversial wind-energy developers Cape Wind and First Wind expressed surprise late last week at news that his one-time partner in a separate wind-energy company in Italy has been arrested and charged with fraud.
IVPC is Italian Vento Power Corp., a company that Caffyn, 50, once owned with Vigorito, a well-known Italian soccer club president. The pair worked together for seven years in Italy and even lived next door to each other for a time.Last week, the Italian finance police arrested Vigorito, his Sicilian business associate Vito Nicastri and two others, according to the Financial Times. Eleven others were charged in a probe dubbed “Gone with the Wind” that began in 2007, the Financial Times said.Caffyn, who has amassed a fortune starting wind-energy companies, sold his interest in Cape Wind in 2002. He sold his interest in IVPC in 2005, according to First Wind spokesman John Lamontagne. Caffyn remains a shareholder and director with First Wind, Lamontagne wrote in an e-mail statement.
Again – First Wind has broken no laws.
yessah
there are no words for the corruption and evil toward humans and wildlife that represent what the DEP, BEP and all those cited here are doing..may this appeal prevail, FW and their deceit need to be removed from Maine and if not it will never be the same, it already isn’t- so many layers to justify financially and otherwise that they take their scam and leave.