MassDEP Financed Falmouth Wind Turbine Up For Sale

The two Falmouth wind turbines have remained controversial since their installation in 2009 and 2010. Vestas had warned the town in advance the turbines would break state noise guidelines as each turbine generates 110 decibels of noise well above state noise regulations.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and other state agencies ignored the noise warnings putting the health and safety of many communities at risk. This begs the question which branch of the Massachusetts Legislature is more corrupt — the House or the Senate? The answer is the House, of course, has three consecutive speakers who are convicted felons.

Wind 1 was shut down on September 2015 after the Falmouth Zoning Board of Appeals issued a cease-and-desist order. Wind 2 financed by MassDEP was shut down on June 2017, after Barnstable County Superior Court Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty II upheld the zoning board of appeals’ decision deeming the turbines a nuisance.

The Falmouth Select Board in a separate vote January of 2019, Megan Braga, Doug Brown, Doug Jones, and Susan Moran, unanimously voted to direct Town Manager and Town Counsel to prepare three requests for proposals (RFPs).

Falmouth town manager, Julian Suso, had expected to issue an RFP by July 2019.

Regulatory capture is a form of government failure which occurs when a regulatory agency, MassDEP , created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or political concerns of the wind turbine industry or sector it is charged with regulating.