Falmouth Wind Turbine Status Quo - MassCEC Needs Judicial Oversight

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Technology Center (MassCEC) in 2008 was established by the state Legislature and opened its doors the following year. The center’s mission was to promote the development of clean energy in Massachusetts, improve quality of life, and gradually help the Commonwealth transition towards renewable sources of energy. Massachusetts has twenty one communities with poorly sited wind turbines.

In fiscal 2014, after the renegotiating of the Falmouth renewable energy contract the discrepancy between the legally mandated and actual sources of revenue became even more pronounced. Exactley 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 ?

Falmouth taxpayers will undoubtedly will be asked for more legal preparation money at Fall 2017 Town Meeting and for the foreseeable future.

The only ones with a revenue stream today are powerful Beacon Hill law firms.

Questions remain today why with all the hidden documentation, admissions and mistakes over the Falmouth wind turbines why is the MassCEC only helping finance the town litigation fees and not the neighbors.The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center is financed by all the taxpayers of Massachusetts through a tax on their electric bills. The residents around the turbines are paying both bills.You can say they are being shot with their own tax dollars.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center by only help finance the town litigation fees through an infusion of 1.8 million dollars into a renegotiated renewable energy contract shows the state agency has only one agenda. The agenda is 2000 megawatts of wind turbine power by the year 2020 ignoring the health and property rights of anyone who stands in the way. The state has created a second class group of citizens living around the turbines.

The Falmouth wind turbines started operation in 2010 without Special Permit 240-166 as recommended by KEMA Inc.

KEMA was a firm hired by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative today known as the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. The KEMA study was known to all the Falmouth town officials in 2005 five years prior to the installations of the turbines.The MassCEC sold Falmouth Wind I to the Town of Falmouth.

It is a well known fact General Electric a domestic wind turbine company refused to build a single wind turbine in Falmouth.

A Vestas wind turbine company warning letter, emails, maps and documents today show Special Permit 240-166 would not have been granted because it required additional notifications to the neighbors and further studies by the Falmouth Zoning Board of Appeals.The purpose of a Special Permit is to provide additional notifications and studies. The turbines should never have been built but the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, a semi-quasi state agency with no judicial oversight, through an infused 1.8 million dollar renegotiated renewable energy contract is helping the town fight the residents who live around the turbines.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center is helping finance litigation to only one side of the litigation.The Massachusetts legislature never intended to create a state agency that finances wind turbine litigation cases.

In 2012 the town withheld the written Aug 2010 Vestas noise warning of 110 decibels of noise from the WTOP -CBI negotiations. “The purpose of the Falmouth Wind Turbine Option Analysis Process (WTOP) 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 WTOP -CBI negotiations were financed by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center who are financed through a tax on all electric bills in Massachusetts. Keeping the 110 decibel Vestas noise warning letter out of the negotiations was probably not a way to be open and transparent.

The town did not make the Vestas 110 decibels noise warning letter public when it received it in 2010 or during the 2012 WTOP -CBI negotiations.The town only made it available after a FOIA, Freedom of Information Act Request.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection in 2012 notified the Town of Falmouth the turbines are breaking state noise guidelines.

In 2013 the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center in an April memo admitted to the town "mistakes" were made in original acoustic noise assumptions 5 years before the installations.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center after admitting the acoustic noise mistakes later re wrote the town renewable energy contract infusing another 1.8 million dollars to help pay the town litigation fees.

The Massachusetts court system became aware of the wind turbine noise described as torture from lack of sleep in November of 2013.

Town counsel Frank K. Duffy Jr. and select woman Rebecca Moffitt, representing the town, came to an agreement with Barnstable Superior Court Judge Christopher J. Muse in November of 2013. Judge Muse was said to have done a great job to shape a "global settlement." The Falmouth Select board voted one week later to renege on the court agreement thumbing their nose at the judge.

Judge Muse then after the town reneged found there is a substantial risk that the residents around the turbines will suffer irreparable physical and psychological harm and granted an injunction .The judge shut down both turbines 12 hours a night 6 days a week.

The Falmouth Zoning Board of Appeals found Falmouth Wind I should have Special Permit 240-166 which shut down that turbine 24/7.

In July of 2016 the Falmouth Select Board and town officials announced to the entire town and local news media they agreed to pursue an alternate path to resolve the numerous wind turbine lawsuits filed against the town by offering mediation to the plaintiffs. The select board was offering another "global settlement." The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center holds the keys to the renewable energy contract signed by the town. Officials never included the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center in the mediation. How do you offer mediation without everyone involved the mediation again failed.

In a recent jury trial over the wind turbines a Notice of intent to file motion to Set Aside Judgment and to Grant a New Trial has been filed.

The Barnstable Superior Court Case, ,Town of Falmouth vs Town of Falmouth ZBA, is set for a trial assignment conference on June 23, 2017

The Land Court Case ,Town of Falmouth vs Town of Falmouth ZBA, scheduled for pre trial conference today May 23, 2017 has been moved to September 6, 2017

The bottom line here is Falmouth and state taxpayers are paying for this entire mess.

It's time to admit the mistake -shut down the turbines