Neighbor News
News Media: Please Tell Public The Truth
New Bedford Ocean Wind Port Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
News Media: Please Tell Public The Truth
New Bedford Ocean Wind Port Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is conducted in just the manner the name suggests: by tying a ceremonial ribbon across the main entrance of the building, which is then cut in a ritual manner by a dignitary to declare the building open for business. So the New Bedford terminal instead of being open at the end of February will “ probably “ be open sometime in April ?
1. The news media refers to the New Bedford port as the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal this is not the name of the terminal. No one knows the real name of the port ! The terminal has been called many names in the past few months such as the South Terminal. The name of the terminal is the Massachusetts Marine Commerce Terminal in New Bedford. Prior to the departure of Governor Patrick the state changed the name of the terminal almost weekly since last September 2014 in order to hide the massive financial fiasco.
2. Previous press releases refers to the port as a multiple use port. It should be brought to the attention of the public that if the port is to be used as an ocean wind turbine port Siemens wind company requires the entire port with uninterrupted 24/7 access. Green energy bonds were used to build the port.
3. Another press release says the port will be completed by the end of December 2014. Mat Morrissey Managing Director of the New Bedford Wind Energy Center has already announced the port will not be complete until sometime “probably” in 2015. The Army Corps of Engineers will not be able to certify the depths of the inner harbor until after March 2015.
4. A third press release states that 250,000 cubic yards of toxic material has been removed. The harbor still has 850,000 cubic yards of material and a problem with the mapping of Marsh Island and Oxford Village. A map mistake was made placing a CAD cell close to a residential location called Oxford Village.
5. A SER meeting press release talks of large cranes. It was said that of course you won’t see the large cranes at the dock this year ? You may want to ask where are the cranes and why won’t they be at the ribbon cutting ceremony only a month away. Massachusetts officials are holding yet another dredging meeting February 23, 2015
6. The New Bedford hurricane barrier has an opening of 150 feet with a legal ship clearance of 120 feet. The Jack -up barges world wide are all over 120 feet wide. One single small barge called the RD MacDonald is being built to fit through the hurricane barrier. How do you use one small barge to build a 130 commercial ocean wind turbine farm with one small barge.
7. The Army Corps of Engineers at a September meeting at New Bedford hall informed the public that the channel outside the hurricane barrier for three miles out into Buzzards Bay has not been dredged since 1956. The required draft for large ocean ships of a thirty foot requirement can only be attained at high tide.
The channel has to accommodate the largest fishing industry in the United States, dredging of another 900,000 cubic yards of toxic materials and now Siemens wind company building Cape Wind.
8. Cape Wind filed a project revision on September 17, 2014 to use New Bedford as the staging and construction port for the Nantucket wind project. No one has a copy of the request. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will not release or has delayed releasing the information until next year.
9. How much has this project really cost and where is the spokesperson for Siemens wind company. The lease of the ocean port given to Cape Wind in September of $187,500.00 per month never has to be paid by Cape Wind as long as they haven’t got financing. The port was leased in September by the owners the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. The MassCEC leased the port without knowing the completion date or the final costs. They don’t care its your tax dollars not theirs.
10. There was supposed to be a freight rail link to the project. On four acres of the property there is an AM radio station with thousands of pounds of toxic material holding up the rail link
The news media,state and local officials owes it to the public to tell the truth about this project. The negatives of this project far out weigh the positives.
We have to ask when is leaving out information called lying by omission. Today the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center refuses to answer any questions about the Cape Wind lease, completion date and how many tens if not hundreds of million are needed
The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center is holding a ribbon cutting ceremony in a few weeks but has also admitted the project is going into “phase two. “ An AM radio station and new site covering four acres at the terminal needs to be moved and the rail link is a mile away ! What kind of a completed port is that ?
The news media owes it to the public to stop ignoring the financial fiasco and stop omitting all the bad news and the loss of taxpayer dollars
