Massachusetts Messed Up Ocean Wind Turbine Port New Boondoggle

New Bedford -Fairhaven Route 6 Bridge in New Bedford remains a barrier to an entire section of that port plus hurricane gate only has a legal opening of 120 feet.

Massachusetts State Sen. Mark C. Montigny, D-New Bedford: "nothing but a boondoggle"

Industrial wind turbine projects Massachusetts a bunco scheme of enormous consequence. We should not be fleeced by government and news media

New Bedford, Massachusetts 6/13/2016

In 2014 the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell through local and state news media outlets announced the completion of the 113 million dollar New Bedford ocean wind turbine port known as the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal. Far from the truth.

The 113 million ocean terminal was mostly bonded at taxpayers expense. The bond payments are $187,500.00 a month for the next thirty years and you the taxpayers are footing the bill on the incomplete ocean terminal.

According to a press release by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center it manages the ocean wind turbine port. They say it is a multi-purpose facility designed to support the construction, assembly, and deployment of offshore wind projects, as well as handle bulk, break-bulk, container shipping and large specialty marine cargo. The first of its kind in North America, the Terminal has been engineered to sustain mobile crane and storage loads that rival the highest load-bearing ports in the nation. ( A total fabrication )

The MassCEC press release is a fabrication and misrepresentation. The port lacks any type of large walking crane to support the commercial ocean wind industry moving large parts. The proposed rail link to the terminal remains one half mile away. When asked about the lack of a rail link the response was the rail link is part of phase two. How many phases are there to a completed ocean wind turbine port ?

A Massachusetts Clean Energy Center brochure states the opening at the hurricane gate to New Bedford Harbor is 150 feet which is true. The problem is the legal opening is 120 feet and the largest ship ever to enter the harbor has been 80 feet wide. Ocean wind turbine specialized "jack-up" barges do not fit through the gates. The port is too small and useless.

To ad insult to injury the channel outside the hurricane gates for 5 miles needs 1 million cubic yards of material dumped in an ocean dump site off the Town of Wellfleet. New Bedford harbor has a high concentration of PCB, Polychlorinated biphenyls, contamination. The channel can only be used at high tide.

Massachusetts State Sen. Mark C. Montigny, D-New Bedford, in December of 2015 described the ocean wind turbine port facility to the Standard-Times editorial board as “a terminal that, if it wasn’t in my own district, I would call it nothing but a boondoggle.”

The New Bedford port was approved by the BOEM, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, as a maintenance port for three small boats for the Cape Wind project. BOEM approved Quonset Point, Rhode Island as the construction port as it has two 1500 foot wide channels. Quonset Point today is being used by Deepwater Wind for its construction. New Bedford was never intended to be a construction port. Siemens wind power company needed twenty six acres the port is only twenty one acres and those were for older smaller Cape Wind turbines

A fraudulent practice is any act or omission, including a misrepresentation, that knowingly or recklessly misleads, or attempts to mislead, a party to obtain a financial or other benefit or to avoid an obligation.

The Massachusetts news media has been quoting statements from the New Bedford Wind Energy Center as authoritative information about the New Bedford ocean wind turbine terminal. The New Bedford Wind Energy Center is a nonprofit community organization hoping wind turbine construction takes place in New Bedford.

The truth is for the last two years the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center has been unable to attract a port operator for the New Bedford ocean wind turbine port. Today the ocean wind turbines are three times the size of the small old gear driven wind turbines of Cape Wind. The New Bedford port is far too small for any type of construction and as State Senator Mark C. Montigny said the port is a boondoggle.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center is responsible for the poor placement of commercial land based megawatt wind turbines in twenty one communities. Falmouth is ground zero for poorly placed wind turbines in the United States

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center needs judicial oversight as the New Bedford ocean wind turbine port remains a twenty one acre ocean front parking lot.

The industrial wind turbine projects in Massachusetts are a bunco scheme of enormous consequence. Taxpayers who value intellectual honesty should not quietly be fleeced by such mendacity, even from their government and our news media.

The Massachusetts state legislature has been saying the state will receive jobs and advantages from the ocean wind turbines.

MASSACHUSETTS HAS NO OCEAN WIND TURBINE PORT -NO JOBS