What ??????? Are You Kidding???!!!

Recently there was a exchange of letters between Cape Vincent Supervisor Mr. Hirschey and BP's project manager Richard Chandler about the agenda of a meeting between the CV and Lyme officials and BP later in Jan.  You can see these letters on the CV blog JLL.  Here is one quote from Mr. Hirschey to Mr. Chandler.  This quote absolutely boggles my mind.   Underlining emphasis is mine.


"Your letter does not in any way reflect or even acknowledge your appreciation of our ongoing difficulties in understanding the full scope and nature of your proposal for Cape Vincent and Lyme. If part of your purpose in wishing to come to Cape Vincent in January is to inform us more fully about the proposed location and design of your project, we would welcome that. We would also welcome discussing the issues mentioned in your revised PIP - namely the listing of potentially negative impacts, studies to assess their impacts and those parts of our local law you will be requesting that the Siting Board extinguish."

My first reaction to this is What The F!!!

Get out of the box a minute and think about it.  Why in the hell do we want to know more about the location and design of BP's project?  We have enough details right now even with only a crude BP map to know what destruction the BP project will do to our community. Hell, you don't even need any map to figure that out...it's a no brainer.  So what the hell is the point of knowing  the specific details of how they intend to destroy our community. If I am told someone intends to drop a nuclear weapon on my community, I really don't need to know the details of how the bomb is designed.  That is really pretty pointless.   Has Hirschey and the Board now reached the point they have accepted that BP's  project is inevitable and  the approach is we are going to argue with BP over the design and details?   Seems to me there is only ONE point in wanting to know the specifics of the detail and design of the project...so you can go down some ridiculous road thinking you can  regulate it or compromise on the design and siting. Seriously????? Because otherwise the town and BP are a long long way apart.  The town if we believe their mantra claims BP must abide by our law and we will defend it, and BP wants 124 turbines that has absolutely no regard or relationship to our law.  So what is allm this meeting dialogue going to accomplish...a compromise?

If our Board is truly intent on trying to stop BP's project in CV as all their supporters like to believe then there really isn't any more point to know more details about BP's project.  What the hell is the point?  We know enough already.

But for the sake of argument let's say BP comes forward with all the specific details the town is requesting and answers all the questions about where every single turbine will be placed, who the non participating neighbors are and their land boundaries, all the setbacks, all the good neighbor agreements, all the impacts and studies, all the the sound issues etc etc etc  blah blah blah.  And let's say the town gets into a debate with BP over all these details and argues them to death which seems to be where they want to go.

WHO CARES... SO WHAT...WHAT THEN!!! 

Did it ever occur to Hirschey or the Board or anybody that it would all be pointless because all BP has to do in the end no matter what our argument is or how hard we argue it with their project details is to say screw you town...we are going to Article X anyhow.  Did it ever occur to these town officials they have NO POWER to argue all these points and detail and specifics with BP.   It's pointless because it is all in the hands of an Art X board.  The town gave away its power  to negotiate any details with BP, so this discussion crap with them is pointless.   BP coming to talk to our town officials is all patronization. Unless of course the town is going to try to pre-negotiate a deal with BP before this all goes to Art X.  There is a scary thought.

Really the only point of argument if the town insists on going with BP into the Art X process will be before a Art X board, not a meeting in Cape Vincent with BP and the town.   And then basically it will come down to the same thing...we will be arguing and hoping for a compromise from the Art X board.

Then there is the last and most absurd part of Hirschey's letter.  Does somebody want to explain to us why in the hell do we want to enter into a discussion with BP of what parts of our zoning BP will want to extinguish.   Wait a minute...I thought we were going to insist on BP abiding by our zoning and we would defend that stance.  That was the overriding theme from our town officials in the Oct 23rd meeting with BP.

 Ahhh well...if that is still the case and hasn't gone by the wayside, then there is no discussion of what parts of our law BP wants preempted. That is beyond absurd and completely pointless. You simply take the stance with BP of abiding by our law our leave town.

I would love for some town official who supports this nonsense of some supporter of them to come on here and explain what the hell the point is of all this talk with BP and what it will accomplish, because it all smells a lot like a path to compromise and negotiation to me.