New Bedford Ocean Wind Port 2015

New Bedford Ocean Wind Port 2015

January 1, 2015

Folks, its 2015 and time to look forward to what the news media and our politicians will omit from you this year. They only want you to hear good news. The news media has become the new entertainment channel telling you about a lost cat or a dog almost every night. Aka the dog and pony show.

One newspaper publicly admitted their political sympathies are in general much more aligned with the progressive policies of the Democratic Party, both nationally and statewide. That about says it all for investigative journalism in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Democratic Party Platform calls for an all out war on fossil fuels which includes a renewable energy “agenda” of 2000 megawatts of renewable energy by the year 2020. The “agenda” has taken the health and property rights of commercial wind turbine victims and now your cash building an ocean wind port financial fiasco in New Bedford.

The new year news cycle really starts Monday January 5, 2015.

We can expect the opponents to the proposed Nantucket wind turbine farm to file litigation next week in the federal appellate court.

On or about that same day Abigail Ross Hopper will take over the helm of the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, BOEM. It looks like the Nantucket wind farm has become a political battle as well as a legal battle under the Obama administration.

In October of 2010 Governor Patrick proposed building an ocean wind terminal in New Bedford for 35 million dollars and now today after admitting spending 113 million dollars the terminal sits under construction and has become a financial fiasco just like the “Big Dig.” Even the contractors are the same.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center the owners of the New Bedford ocean wind port have no clue in the world when it will be finished or how much more of your tax dollars will be poured out the back door of Beacon Hill into New Bedford Harbor. They will only say the project has entered “phase two.”

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) is dedicated to accelerating the success of clean energy technologies, companies and projects.We have got to ask how have they now become the owners of the ocean wind turbine port and the ongoing catastrophic financial fiasco.

In recent news media pictures you have been shown aerial pictures of the construction going on at the New Bedford ocean terminal.

What your not being shown is four acres of the project that just had 1600 cubic yards of toxic PCBs removed this month. On top of that the four acres of land still has an AM 1340 radio station antenna that needs to be moved. Who is going to pay to move the radio station ? The radio station antenna is being moved across the city to a new site in which the finances and construction costs have never been divulged.

The radio station antenna could be called “phase two” of the project but there is a “phase three.” The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center advertised the ocean port with a rail link. The rail link is almost a mile away and you guessed it the four acres of land with the AM radio station is holding up the rail link. Who pays for the rail link?

The public need to know in 2015 that the hurricane gates in New Bedford are 150 feet wide but only have a legal clearance of 120 feet wide. Most of the Jack-Up barges used for building ocean wind turbines are 127 feet or wider.

A smaller barge comically named after the hamburger called the RDMacDonald is being built to fit through the hurricane gates. How about an investigative news story on how you construct 130 massive ocean wind turbines with a barge half the size of a normal Jack-Up barge. Who is paying for the barge and if it’s the only one that can fit through the hurricane gates who is going to pay the owners of the barge ?

The federal channel outside the hurricane gates for miles still needs to be dredged to meet 30 foot draft requirements. Who pays for this and is this “phase four?”

Could the New Bedford ocean wind port hit a billion (B) billion dollars in the next two years ? Who are the winners ? We know the loses are the taxpayers and the people operating this project know who the losers are.

Why is this information being omitted from the public ?

My guess is it is a political embarrassment because the ocean wind turbine port was already built and permitted at Quonset Point, Rhode Island four years ago.

New Bedford never had a federal permit from the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to build or construct wind turbines.

Maybe the newly appointed head of the BOEM will hand out a permit next week coinciding with litigation in Nantucket Sound.

Happy New Year Taxpayers