"So, you will have something to move ahead with as opposed to just sitting back passively seeing what is going to happen."

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“So, you will have something to move ahead with as opposed to just sitting back passively seeing what is going to happen.” 

Geee that almost sounds like something I would say!!!

Actually the title of my post is a quote  from Cape Vincent Town Councilman Clif Schneider at last night's town board meeting.  And I find it kind of refreshing…but with reservations.  He is referring to the upcoming deadline set by Art 10 judge Agresta for BP, to see if BP can sell their CV wind project.  He is recommending a proactive strategy to deal with Art X judge Agresta’s decision about BP’s application.

Well Mr. Schneider…I have the exact and extremely relevant proactive strategy for you.  Read this and forward the information to attorney Paul Curtin as well.  This should be your strategy.

If you, the board, and Curtin and my readers read this and don’t see that this mission statement is EXACTLY Cape Vincent in a nutshell…and what to do about it, then there really is no hope left for our community!

"We believe that we are in the midst of an escalating ecological crisis, and that the crisis is the result of decisions made by a relatively few people who run corporations and government. We believe that sustainability will never be achieved by leaving those decisions in the hands of a few – both because of their belief in limitless economic production and because their decisions are made at a distance from the communities experiencing the impact of those decisions. Therefore, we believe that to attain sustainability, a right to local self-government must be asserted that places decisions affecting communities in the hands of those closest to the impacts. That right to local self-government must enable communities to reject unsustainable economic and environmental policies set by state and federal governments, and must enable communities to construct legal frameworks for charting a future towards sustainable energy production, sustainable land development, and sustainable water use, among others. In doing so, communities must challenge and overturn legal doctrines that have been concocted to eliminate their right to self-government, including the doctrines of corporate constitutional rights, preemption, and limitations on local legislative authority. Inseparable from the right to local self government - and its sole limitation - are the rights of human and natural communities; they are the implicit and enumerated  premises on which local self government must be built."

This quote is from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and their Website mission statement.  I’m not sure there could be anything anywhere more relevant and important to CV’s situation!

I and a few other have researched and actually contacted this group of lawyers for ideas and suggestions outlining our CV dilemma in specifics.  We have been promoting this approach for several years as a possible solution.

http://www.celdf.org/mission-statement

 Will Agresta shut down the application since it has dragged on so long without any significant activity?  Will there be a new buyer?  Will Agresta give BP even more time to find a buyer?   Who the hell cares…take control ourselves.

As Schneider correctly points out in some of his comments the community is left in limbo, or as I like to say "left twisting in the wind by BP and the Art.10 process" 

Schneider is suggesting that Mr. Paul Curtin, the attorney working with the town on zoning and Art 10 issues, draft some kind of legal strategy or initiative to be proactive when the deadline arrives.  Not sure exactly what Mr. Schneider has in mind.  But apparently this is coming from the CV Art 10 Advisory Committee Mr. Schneider is a member of.

He says to the board, as the post title indicates    “So, you will have something to move ahead with as opposed to just sitting back passively seeing what is going to happen.”

Now what I find interesting here is that there seems to be a subtle shift in thinking, in that the town should take some kind of actual action which essentially would be against the Art 10 process if Agresta doesn’t end BP’s application process…but I am not holding my breath on that account.  Because in my opinion what the town has done to date IS exactly  to sit back passively and see what happens next.  I don’t consider writing numerous letters, some of which call the Art 10 process fair and even handed and balanced exactly an aggressive proactive or even wise  approach.  I think they are so over committed to their approach and new law that they are blinded to any other alternatives.

So at a minimum  it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

But I do have a suggestion for Clif and the board and about a year and half ago some of us took this idea to a meeting with Urban Hirschey, John Byrne, and town attorney Mark Gebo.  However, as you might expect it went nowhere.  They opted for the passive approach of appeasing Art 10, and waiting to see what happens as BP and the State continue to control our fate. My view is that is gambling with our community's futre and resources.  And I believe it is a very bad gamble with all the probabilities stacked by the state's Art 10 in BP's favor.  After Agresta's last visit that should now be painfully obvious.

If you want attorney Curtin to draft up and initiative or strategy then I have one for you. ASAP get in touch with the Community Environmental Defense Fund (CELDF) group of lawyers, and have them work with Curtin and the town to draft you a community bill of rights to deny corporate constitutional rights that can allow corporation to dominate your community.   In other words you draft a local community law taking away the power of the corporation, and the state in our case, to dominate the process and make it locally illegal for them to do so.  The community regains full control of who, when, and how they will allow their community to be developed.

Now I can hear my detractors griping already that this is a radical nut case idea. 

Well you might want to consider that the CELDF organization (which is free by the way) and lawyers are working with 100’s of communities all over the country facing the exact same issue of corporate dominance that we are facing with BP, and the state who eliminated our right to home rule to determine our future. They have even worked with cities as large as Pittsburgh PA, and other communities on denying gas fracking and other like issues in their communities.  Note that part about “preemption” in their mission statement.  Well folks that is exactly what Art. 10 is!

As I have said before BP has said they are done in our community. Yet here we are still sitting passively twisting in the wind with no control waiting with only desperate hopes that Art 10 and Agresta will do something to save us.  And that is a mere fraction of the story.  There could be a new buyer…or Agresta will shut it down, BP will leave, and a new wind developer will waltz in and open a new Art 10 application.  So in essence Schneider’s idea, although possibly a small and wise epiphany, brought on by his possible frustration with the process and how it is screwing us is very short sited to deal with the real issue and end it once and for all.  If Agresta shuts BP down all that does is stop the bleeding temporarily.  And tomorrow we could be back in the same boat.

  We need aggressive community political action to eliminate the whole disease.

I would hope at this desperate point as we continue to twist in the wind, that this town would have figured out by now how much precious control we have lost and will continue to suffer with unless we do something much more aggressive to alter our future.  You would think that after nearly a decade of this dominance they might just want to consider that something isn’t working and we just might need a fresh approach.

Of course this would not just be a little strategy to do something only about the Agresta BP deadline.  This would once and for all take control of the bigger issue which is the very root of our real problem of being dominated by corporate control for nearly a decade as our community disintegrates.

So Clif, and Mr. Curtin.  Start thinking out of the box of State and corporate control. 

This CELDF mission statement to me very succinctly sums  up EXACTLY what is happening in CV, and the solution offered makes one hell of a lot more sense that appeasing and enabling the very forces that have taken apart our community for profit and political interests.

The strategy for dealing with Agresta…  no matter what decision he brings us...should be to hand him a new community rights law and tell him… thank you very much, but we are moving forward to control our own community…and don’t let the door hit you in the ass as you, BP, and Art 10 leave town!!!

And finally our new councilman Paul Aubertine should wake up stop being a patsy for pro wind and think hard on and promote this approach. This CELDF approach is not actually anti wind.  What it would do is bring the wind decision back to the community to control. Paul should realize that corporate and state dominance is good for no one in the community…pro or anti wind, and this community will never heal as he suggests when we have no control over our future to be able to attempt to try to heal.  He might want to consider that self determination of our future locally is something we might all agree on, and at least start from there. Stop listening to daddy on this one and show us you can think for yourself!!!

As we are…we…all of us… are essentially slaves, and Agresta leaving us twisting in the wind on BP’s behalf even though BP has left the community should be a severe wakeup call to that fact for EVERYBODY!!!  Nobody gets to move on…not anti wind…not pro wind!

We need real leadership.  Maybe Schneider after being dragged through this knot hole for nearly a decade with is obvious commitment to community on this issue is figuring that out in his own small way. But my fear is this will not amount to much and the appeasement of the Art 10 process will continue.  We shall see!

Maybe Aubertine should show some real leadership as well and explore this alternative instead of being daddy’s clone.  That too would be refreshing and I would support that, and I don’t give a rats ass how many people might erroneously think I am pro wind as a result!!! And if the Hirschey govt took this step and aggressively pursued it I would fully support them too.


For God’s sake people…let’s finally do something substantial and move on as a community!!!!