Falmouth Select Board Fought Hard To Keep Wind Turbines Why?

Almost 1,200 select board members serve in 292 towns in Massachusetts but the Falmouth board over the years takes the cake. These board members took money to build wind turbines like kids in a candy store never telling the public the strings that were attached.

The Falmouth board members even today claim they were pathfinders in leading land-based wind turbine renewable energy in Massachusetts when in fact the two town-owned wind turbines are the worst sited in the United States taking health and property rights. On top of that, the town misled the federal EPA borrowing funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 buying foreign-made wind turbines after General Electric refused due to residential setbacks.

In 2005 Falmouth had a study done by KEMA Inc that said a single General Electric wind turbine would affect 99 residential homes with noise and the town needed to file a special permit. GE in 2008 refused to place one wind turbine because of residential setbacks. The special permit required notification and a hearing of up to 200 residential homes around the wastewater treatment plant with the Falmouth Zoning Board.

In June of 2009, the town held a rare Special Town Meeting to obtain the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds in which town meeting members approved not knowing the money today is a loan due at 2 percent. They were misled as you can see in the video at the bottom.

At the June 2009 meeting, it was never explained the town got 1 million dollars upfront from what is today the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to take the first Falmouth foreign wind turbine because the state agency couldn't sell it at auction in 2008 and no one else wanted the old gear-driven wind turbine that had been in storage since 2004.

Prior to June 2009 Falmouth Special Town meeting, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection had already brokered a Project Regulatory Agreement between the Town of Falmouth and the Massachusetts Clean Water Trusts' State Revolving Fund funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection is controlled directly by the Governor of Massachusetts and needed the 2009 Falmouth Special Town Meeting to approve three funding articles at that meeting in which they did not know all the strings attached.

Town Meeting Members were never told by the Select Board that MassDEP had brokered the loan in which required the second foreign wind turbine to remain energy efficient or the 5 million loans had to be paid back at 2 percent.

Town Meeting Members thought the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money was a grant never being told of strings attached. The Select Board Members never told Town Meeting the ARRA funding would become a loan if the turbine was no longer energy efficient.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection in 2009 became the advocate for the land-based wind turbine agenda set by the governor of 2000 megawatts of power by today in 2020. This is evidenced by the MassDEP brokering financial wind turbine deals in which they had to ignore their own state noise guidelines.

MassDEP or Dept of Public health never to date has ever interviewed a single wind turbine victim because they knew prior to installations the turbines were too loud.

In 2010 and 2012 the Town of Falmouth installed two foreign-made Vestas V-82 type 1.65 megawatt wind turbines each twice as loud as the original General Electric wind turbine in the 2005 KEMA Inc study done for Falmouth.

The Town of Falmouth was warned by email and in a written letter prior to the installations of the turbines, they generate 110 decibels each.

The Town of Falmouth could not file a Special Permit as they knew each Vestas wind turbine was twice as loud as a GE turbine.

The Town of Falmouth hid August 3, 2010, Vestas noise warning and prior warnings from the public even today.

The Town of Falmouth withheld multiple noise documents in 2013 over twenty-six meetings with wind turbine victims. The purpose of the Falmouth Wind Turbine Option Analysis Process (WTOP) managed by the Consensus Building Institute was to engage in an open, transparent, and collaborative exploration of the range of options for the long-term future of the Town’s two Wind Turbines – Wind I and Wind II.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center in an April 2013 memo admitted acoustic noise mistakes installing the Falmouth wind turbines.

The Town of Falmouth held an election in 2013 to take down the turbines but still never told the public about the 110 decibel Vestas noise warnings or the memo from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center admitting the acoustic noise "mistakes."

The Falmouth Select Board has never admitted the Falmouth Special Town Meeting Members were misled in the three articles they voted for in the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funding. If Falmouth Wind II is no longer energy efficient the town has to pay back the loan plus 2 percent.

Why did the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection write the project regulatory agreement to state the money had to be paid back at 2 percent the answer is obvious. The state was the former owner of two Vestas V-82 type 1.65 megawatt wind turbines each generating 110 decibels.The state had all the noise specifications.

The MassDEP under the direction of the governor knew the Select Board would have to fight in court to keep the turbines operational or pay back the ARRA money plus interest.

In June of 2017, the Massachusetts courts shut down the nuisance wind turbines forever.

The Falmouth Select Board Members are not leaders of Green Energy but of Greed Energy misleading, inaccurate, and disheartening.

The Falmouth Select Board took part in an industrial wind turbine bunco scheme of enormous consequence. The people who value intellectual honesty should not quietly be fleeced by such mendacity, even from their government officials past and present.

Falmouth Special Town Meeting June , 2009 - YouTube

Starts 20 minutes after ads https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8LFk6JbxhU

ARRA Funds Town Meeting Thought It Was A Grant -Three articles