Falmouth Wind Turbine II EPA Regulations Rotten To Core

It's hard to picture a federal EPA less willing to fight for public health and the environment but that's exactly what happened in Falmouth.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency allowed a waiver to bypass the buy American requirement of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The purpose of the federal EPA waiver was to loan money to buy the second town-owned wind turbine #2.

This brand of federal and state corruption is bumbling and often transparently self-serving, polished and insidious to take health and property rights with no compensation.

The EPA through its bad-faith actions has been exceptional at perverting the agency’s mission and cultivating mistrust among all Americans.

The Town of Falmouth in the federal waiver misled federal officials over the availability of domestic wind turbine companies' refusal to place a single wind turbine due to safety and health. The town had a study by KEMA Inc in 2005 that showed the noise from one wind turbine would affect 99 residential homes at 110 decibels of noise. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center the original owner of the first wind turbine admitted making malicious obvious mistakes in noise studies years after the installations detrimental to health and property rights.

The two foreign-made V-82 types 1.65-megawatt wind turbines were installed in 2010 and 2012 Falmouth Wind I & II.

There is no study of how much noise both wind turbines operating at the same time. The town of Falmouth knew one foreign-made wind turbine at 110 decibels was twice as loud as the domestic wind company which refused to place a wind turbine because of residential setbacks and ice throw at a nearby highway.

The Massachusetts courts shut down both town-owned nuisance wind turbines in June of 2017

State and town officials double and tripled down on the ARRA grant money given to the State of Massachusetts at taxpayers' expense.

Now comes the double-triple-dip:

In order to stimulate the economy in 2009, the federal government through the ARRA program took the money paid by federal taxpayers and granted the money out to states all over the United States. Federal taxpayers are Jill and Joe citizens and corporations and anyone who pays federal taxes. Your money.

Massachusetts received millions of dollars from the ARRA program and deposited the money in the Massachusetts State Revolving Fund.

The Massachusetts Clean Water Trust had control of millions of dollars of the money in the SRF, state revolving fund.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection a state agency to promote health and safety brokered a loan on Falmouth Wind Turbine II the second town-owned wind turbine despite thousands of noise complaints from the first town-owned wind turbine number one.

MassDEP & Mass Clean Water Trust "lent" the 5 million to the Town of Falmouth to build Falmouth Wind II through what is called their Project Regulatory Agreement.

The Project Regulatory Agreement states Falmouth Wind II has to remain an energy-efficient project or according to federal EPA regulations the 5 million is due plus 2 percent interest. Both turbines were shut down in June of 2017 in which case 3.5 million is due plus interest.

So in retrospect, the federal government gave the state your money and the state lent out your federal dollars which now became a loan through the state of Massachusetts on Falmouth Wind II.
You're paying twice!

The state of Massachusetts is breaking the federal regulations to require Falmouth to pay back the Mass State Revolving Fund where it can be revolved out to other green renewable energy projects. In other words, political favors are taking place.

Massachusetts gets an "F" Failure in any kind of State Integrity Investigation which is a comprehensive assessment of state government accountability and transparency.

Triple dip:

In November of 2019, the Falmouth Select Board asked Town Meeting for 2.5 million from the free money in the town bank account to move Falmouth Wind II. Town Meeting Members approved the 2.5 million.

As of today, the Town of Falmouth owes 3.5 million plus 2 percent interest on the federal EPA approved loan using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. The funds can not be used if they create a public health or safety related to the implementation or use of recovery funds.

Falmouth Wind II which originally installed for 5 million was installed in 2012 around 1.5 million has been repaid to the Massachusetts State Revolving Fund. The turbines are old of date gear-driven wind turbines no longer manufactured.

The outstanding balance on Falmouth Wind II is 3.5 million owed plus interest and the 2.5 million from the Falmouth town bank account.

After eight years of millions in as many as eleven lawsuits over noise and shadow flicker the Falmouth Wind II turbine present price tag is now 5.5 million.

After eight years of interest payments, taxpayers are looking at Falmouth Wind II now cost one half million more than its purchase price in 2012.

You paid again for the third time!

#Note - Falmouth Select Board omitted this important fact about moving Falmouth Wind II for 2.5 million-plus more down the road.

A modern-day state of the art commercial wind turbine at a brand new location larger than the current Falmouth Wind II turbine would cost less than 4 million