Falmouth Wind Turbine Litigation Exposes Bonds And State Debt

Massachusetts has great credit ratings and is perceived to be financially strong but has one of the worst ratios of debt as a percentage of personal income. Massachusetts’ liabilities exceeded total assets by as much as 50 percent.

The main stream media does not report Massachusetts only has around 20 billion of assets available to pay bills totaling over 100 billion. Taxpayers remain oblivious to the how much the commercial wind turbines and all the renewable energy projects have cost in human health and finances.

Massachusetts today is a sink hole which owes more than it owns but continues issuing bonds for renewable energy projects that intentionally took health and property rights with poorly sited commercial wind turbines.

Massachusetts commercial wind turbine financing problems started with the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 which established Clean Energy Renewable Bonds (CREBs) as a financing mechanism for public sector renewable energy projects.

Massachusetts had a state renewable energy goal of 2000 megawatts of commercial wind power by the year 2020 but has only achieved around 100 megawatts because the state got caught intentionally taking the health and property rights of its own citizens with poorly placed commercial wind turbines. Politicians would like to turn the page but health issues and court actions have slammed the book shut.

The federal and state government officials have known about two distinct types of noise, regulatory measured in decibels and infrasound, from wind turbines since 1987. Studies were conducted by NASA and the US Department of Energy in Boone, North Carolina. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center warned of the two types of noise in 2005 when they owned two Vestas V-82 wind turbines. In 2011 the Chief Executive Officer of Vestas wind company CEO Engel Ditlev wrote a letter to Karen Ellemann admitting there was nothing he could do about the low frequency noise. These are three sources over 40 years admitting wind turbine infrasound or what politicians refer to as "human annoyance."

The noise is described as torture from lack of sleep or unable to work on your property while the turbines spin. The descriptions range from sounding like sneakers in a dryer, a back window partially opened in the back of car at high speeds, helicopter or a jet noise high up above the homes and appears to be louder in the homes.

Massachusetts politicians will have you believe the people who live around the wind turbines in twenty one communities are a bunch of Hollywood actors who got together seven years ago and all have the same story about the wind turbines noise. The real fact is any serious legal decision against the turbines will affect the financial status of the state.

Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi in 2008 was the architect of Green Communities Act. It was revealed that Governor Patrick used the fake email of sally.reynolds@state.ma.us in the federal corruption trial of Sal Dimasi who spent eight years in a federal prison. The email address was presumed to be used with wind turbine contractors to avoid FOIA, Freedom of information Act requests.

Former Governor Deval Patrick in 2012 said the state must continue to support renewable energy businesses despite high profile failures of government-backed companies such as Evergreen Solar of Marlborough or California solar panel maker Solyndra LLC.

When Governor Patrick made that speech in 2012 the installation of two 1.65 MW Vestas V-82 commercial wind turbines had been going on at the North Central Correctional Institution in Gardner (NCCI Gardner) since 2011. The NCCI Gardner project took two years because of electric cable problems and lightning strikes. The cost to taxpayers over 10 million dollars.

Both former Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and the current AG Maura Healey the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have failed to protect consumers and protect civil rights. The state under their watch has created in at least twenty one communities a second class group of citizens living under the wind turbine blades.

The Massachusetts Attorney General Environmental Crimes Strike Force selectively investigates and prosecutes crimes that harm the state's air. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection in 2012 notified the Town of Falmouth the wind turbines are breaking state noise regulations.

Attorney General Maura Healey is also charged with promoting meaningful economic recovery. In fiscal 2014, after the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, renegotiating of an additional 1.8 million of state funds into the Falmouth renewable energy contract the discrepancy between the legally mandated and actual sources of revenue became even more pronounced. Exactly 70 percent of the center’s 2014 revenue came either through state grants for the New Bedford Ocean Terminal or general state appropriations. This amounted to about $63.7 million in state money for a center that is supposed to be independently-funded .

The news media reports the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal an ocean wind turbine port is complete with no rail link, no large walking cranes, dredging needed for the channel 5 miles outside the hurricane barrier and only a 120 wide legal opening at the hurricane gates in which wind turbine "jack-up" barges do not fit.

The project has a twenty three million dollar dredging lawsuit and taxpayers are paying $187,500.00 per month for thirty years on the incomplete terminal built for small ocean wind turbines. You won't read this in your local newspaper.

Finally , Falmouth, Massachusetts has at least nine ( 9 ) current lawsuits over its two commercial wind turbines. Information released through FOIA, Freedom of Information Act requests show written letters, maps, memos, emails and admissions by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center that " mistakes " were made in predicting acoustic noise levels. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center also knew the turbines were 110 decibels prior to the installations twice as loud as General Electric turbines used in noise modeling.

We have to ask why the state has taken no action to protect its own citizens from the wind turbines. The answer is simple.The Falmouth wind turbine litigation could be the straw that broke the Camel's back . The litigation could put Massachusetts in a "precarious financial situation."

Perhaps its time to have a federal grand jury look into documents of millions of dollars of federal stimulus grants awarded to Falmouth Wind Turbine II. How was an EPA waiver approved to buy a foreign made Vestas wind turbine when General Electric a domestic wind turbine company refused to build a single wind turbine because of residential setbacks and ice throw.

It's clear Massachusetts has put the health of its own citizens over bonds, Green energy bonds and bond ratings.