Friday, August 19, 2016

Re-inventing History



A few days ago I put a post here called  “A Dangerous Premise” (see below).   This fantasy is promoted by the Cape Vincent JLL blogger Rick Wiley.  Here is a prime example of his premise.  A quote from his recent blog post.

So, Article 10 did not go well for bp. And yes it worked for our community because fellow optimists made the law work for them. The threat of that law charged us up. This optimist and optimistic friends didn’t ignore the opportunity. Then,  frustrated by too many Article 10 hoops set up in a public arena,  bp announced that they were selling their American industrial wind interests and at the same time abandoning Cape Vincent "because the community didn’t want it".

This belief by Wiley he has been spreading around for some time and may be directly responsible for seasonal people changing their vote back to their home communities believing it’s all over and we won and there is no more threat. Wiley told us” wind was dead”.   I believe this was a direct reason for some pro wind people to get elected back to the CV town board leaving us vulnerable to another industrial wind attack in the future.  The season votes were lacking!  Even Wiley complained about it.

As you can see the bulk of the premise is that we “defeated” BP through participation in the Art. 10 process and writing a “good” wind law.  The Art 10 process “worked” he claims.

Well let’s take this fantasy apart shall we.

First go look at the NYPSC Art 10 website regarding the BP/CV matter.  



Look at the actual “record” you will see in much the official correspondence from the town to the PSC and many of the public comments that they were mostly complaints about BP and how they were acting in the process.  You will see complaint after complaint about the process and the frustration by the town and their lawyer.

The bottom line is...this WAS NOT GOING WELL FOR THE TOWN as BP manipulated and controlled the process and left the town twisting in the wind!. 
Additional evidence is this comment from one of those letters where the town after months in this process doesn’t think the “opposition” is having any meaningful input. Below is the quote...

“The community of Cape Vincent has spoken in near harmony. We have listened to BP representatives for several years, but a steady series of non-answers leaves us with many unaddressed concerns about the project's impact on their health, safety and welfare. When does this opposition actually have a "meaningful" impact in the certification process?”

So for Wiley to somehow conclude that this all went well in CV is pure unadulterated nonsense and heavy PR spin...with NO facts, mind you, to back it up!  It’s nothing more than a desperate attempt to validate what he thinks supposedly was the right approach to fight wind.  And because the Art 10 process was NEVER COMPLTED in CV he now has the luxury to reinvent history to his whims!

It would be just like playing a game where the opposing team calls the game and was actually ahead and you make up a story that somehow you won.  It’s a delusion and a dangerous one at that!
Wiley quotes some obscure British business source as proof we defeated BP.  The source says BP left CV after lots of opposition.  It DOES NOT say they left BECAUSE of the opposition. It is a statement of sequential events...not necessarily correlating those events...more PR spin! 

The fact is BP left due to financial reasons and they were getting out of the wind business world wide...not just in CV.  AND several other local wind projects lagged as well at the same time due to the possible end to federal tax breaks and financial considerations.

And it cracks me up that Wiley concludes the Art 10 process didn’t go well for BP.  Not sure what planet he was on, but in some ways it went very well for BP.  Like at the end where to assist BP in attempting to sell their CV project the Art 10 judge extended the time for BP with  no solid deadline in the process to see if they could get a sale.  Then he would not even guarantee that if a sale occurred the new owner would have to start over.  This left the town waiting and “twisting in the wind” and the town and their lawyer complained about the process and how BP was manipulating it.

And Wiley continues to think that  participating in the Art 10 process and writing a good wind law is THE path to take.  But he has NO proof to back this claim ZERO!  The Art 10 process was never completed in CV so we don’t have a clue what the result would have been...and there hasn’t been one siting under Art 10 as of yet so we don’t know how those will come out either...NO PROOF.

But the real kicker against Wiley and his Art 10/ wind law  fantasy is Dennis Vacco an attorney now involved in NYS wind battles and who was a former NYS attorney general saying the Art 10 system is “UNTESTED as of yet.  Exactly what I have been saying for a long time.  At least Vacco is living in reality and exposes Wiley’s delusion!!!

These are the FACTS you can look up yourself in the NYPSC record I linked above.

Wiley and some of his flock in CV are living under a dangerous delusion of fantasy, rewriting history, and spin to make them look good...when the facts simply don’t back up this delusion.

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