MassDEP Caught In Falmouth Wind Turbine Regulatory Capture

Former Governor Deval Patrick is an American politician, a civil rights lawyer, author, and businessman who served as the 71st Governor of Massachusetts, from 2007 to 2015. He is responsible for the tortuous land-based wind turbine agenda of 2000 megawatts of power by the year 2020 which has slowed to around 120 megawatts by 2019. Every resident, politician, judge, jury or anyone for that matter can see the catastrophic failure of an agenda gone horribly wrong.

The executive branch of Massachusetts includes the governor and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs which controls the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. These agencies and those in control of agencies report to the Governor of Massachusetts. In other words, the past Governor Deval Patrick and today the current Governor Charlie Baker have direct control over the agenda of the MassDEP.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) defines noise as a public health concern that falls within the scope of their agency as air pollution. MassDEP also defines noise as something that causes a nuisance or injurious based on current information that could be injurious to human health or interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property. They even have a noise regulation (310 CMR 7.00). MassDEP ignored and is continuing to ignore these regulations over the installation of land-based commercial megawatt wind turbines in Massachusetts.

Regulatory capture is a form of Massachusetts state government failure which occurred when the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advanced the commercial land-based wind turbine agenda of 2000 megawatts of wind power by the year 2020. MassDEP ignored their own regulations to put political concerns of the wind turbine industry ahead of health and safety of Massachusetts citizens.

The executive branch of Massachusetts state government turned the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection into a brokerage firm to finance the Falmouth Wind II turbine with ARRA, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds. ARRA funds were supposed to be used to buy American to put Americans to work and not to be used to endanger public health or safety related to the implementation or use of recovery funds.

MassDEP provided a Project Regulatory Agreement to the Town of Falmouth using ARRA funds. The ARRA funds were deposited in the Massachusetts State Reserve Fund.

MassDEP brokered a loan/grant between Massachusetts Clean Water Trust and Town of Falmouth to build the second town-owned wind turbine Falmouth Wind II.

The MassDEP Project Regulatory Agreement had a hitch and that was the power production part of the contract. Under the terms of the agreement to keep the loan/grant at zero interest or even forgiven the town agreed to operate Wind II at a level that permits it to continue to qualify as an "energy efficiency" project in accordance with MassDEP requirements for the duration of the loan. This also required various town departments to ignore the safety and health of residents living around the turbines.

The Town of Falmouth signing the MassDEP Project Regulatory Agreement which also served as a power production agreement made Wind II subject to specific provisions of ARRA and applicable federal regulations and guidelines.

In addition to the terms and conditions of the Project Regulatory Agreement ("PRA") and the Loan Agreement associated with the funding of Wind II, Under Federal Law and the PRA and Loan Agreement, the Town must maintain Wind II as an "energy efficiency" project, as described in EPA guidelines dated March 2, 2009, in order to benefit from the financial subsidy provided by the Trust under ARRA and the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust State Revolving Fund program. Thus placing the energy efficiency ahead of safety and health of those around the turbine.

The Project Regulatory Agreement ("PRA") put the town in the embarrassing position of losing the financial subsidy of the ARRA funds or ignoring the health and safety of those living around the wind turbines. Since the installations of the wind turbines documents which include emails, maps, memos, and letters show the town always put the state wind turbine agenda ahead of its own citizens.

Here is what we know today:

Former Governor Deval Patrick used a fake email address (sally.reynolds@state.ma.us) most likely to contact and discuss wind turbine contracts. The emails have never been released by the state. The email address appears to have used to avoid FOIA, Freedom of Information Act Requests over wind turbine business.

The executive branch of Massachusetts state government which includes the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and offices of Health and Human Services has never interviewed or examined a single resident living around a wind turbine in Falmouth or anywhere else in Massachusetts. An admission of guilt.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center was the original owner of Falmouth Wind I which is identical to Falmouth Wind II both the town-owned wind turbines. MassCEC had all the specifications of the foreign-made Vestas V-82 type 1.65 megawatt wind turbines. They knew the turbines generate 110 decibels of chest pounding noise.

General Electric a domestic wind company refused to build a single megawatt wind turbine in 2009 because the town had a study done by KEMA Inc in 2005 that showed one single megawatt wind turbine would break MassDEP noise regulations.

The Town of Falmouth prior to the installation of Falmouth Wind II with ARRA funds had by August of 2010 been warned by email and in writing the Vestas turbines generate 110 decibels of noise twice as loud as the single General Electric wind turbine.

On March 29, 2013 former Massachusetts DEP Commissioner Kenneth Kimmell sent a letter to Julian Suso, the Town Manager of Falmouth, concerning the Wind Turbine project at the Town's wastewater treatment facility ("Wind II") that was funded with money provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ("ARRA").

June 2017 the Massachusetts Courts shut down both Falmouth wind turbines as they are a nuisance.

The Town of Falmouth has determined Falmouth Wind I will never operate again but is trying to move Falmouth Wind II and reuse the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds to save the town money.

The Town of Falmouth is negotiating with Susan Perez the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Water Trust to reuse ARRA funds used to endanger public health or safety related to the implementation or use of recovery funds.

October 15, 2018 Report of Weston & Sampson to Falmouth Select Board To Move Falmouth Wind II & Reuse ARRA Funds

Select Board Member Doug Jones 38 Minutes ; "Second point to make is if we relocate Wind II the likelihood that our 5 million dollar grant stays as a grant is very high as opposed to it turning into a loan that we have to repay. So there is also that additional 5 million dollar that does enter into the calculations of what we do with Wind II."