A little more wind history. Maybe if I report on some past events I was involved in readers will see why I feel as I do about the past and current CV industrial wind battle events, why I am passionate about what I believe, why this blog exists, and the direction it takes.
So here is a little more history.
As some of you may know I have designed several anti wind newspaper ads
for WPEG, and some independent ads as well. Thank you to all the people in or out of WPEG who chipped in with $$$$ that made these ads possible and I believe successful anti wind anti corruption PR in the end, because these ads were NOT cheap to run.
$ 1000’s were spent, not to mention the hours by myself and others to develop and edit them.
This ad below has also been run on the other CV blogs. The CV blogs like to look at the wind history but what do ya say we really peak behind the curtain on the story behind this and other ads, and what they might mean today. Two of which have a very interesting history. I will cover one here and one in another post. Like many other things in the wind battle they have current relevance.
Below is an ad from a period of time (early 2009) when WPEG finally was focused on attacking the main problem in the wind battle…conflicts of interest.
The Controversial Ad in the WDT, 2009.
You'd be surprised who thought this ad was controversial!!!
It was always my contention with WPEG that we could do all studies we wanted but it would be a waste of money and time since these studies had to be filtered through a board who was controlled by wind money. They were not going to listen The whole Sound gate thing with Hessler and Acciona is a prime example. I thought we would have to attack the conflicts if we would ever get anywhere. So my focus through my time at WPEG and on my own was in that direction. The ad below I designed and WPEG members edited was in the WDT in Feb. 2009.
It was edited several times by several people on the WPEG legal committee, including Mr. Hirschey who was not able to be in town at that time, and then reviewed by our lawyer and a very powerful PR guy, who had actually worked on a former presidential campaign and was a former chief of staff to a US
At this time Mr. Hirschey had other commitments out of town and John Byrne headed WPEG, and Byrne and I ran this legal conflict attack for a few months with an excellent lawyer and PR guy, until WPEG let it faded away to my frustration. Sadly, this lawyer was probably the most effective WPEG had ever hired and with important connections to advance the conflict attack and I believe he was instrumental to getting the AG to CV. But WPEG kept putting him off on the conflicts and let him go during their last law suit which once again should have really gone after the conflicts and forget the SEQR FEIS sound stuff. . You might be surprised how the idea for this ad came about and from who…but that will stay confidential. I can say it was born out of a power lunch between some big NNY players outside of WPEG and CV, and not the lawyer or PR consultant.
The side story here is that about the time in Feb 2009 we were ready to run the ad in the paper an EMT from the CV Fire Dept was killed in the line of duty. The community was in shock, and we knew this ad was going to create a lot of turmoil so we delayed it for some time as a result. I am a volunteer on a sheriff’s search and rescue team, and we work with EMT’s and fire dept’s all the time so I was sympathetic to the situation. We have lost people in the line of duty in our work too. But at some point it was critical to show how deep the conflicts were in CV and how the wind companies controlled our govt. as a result. When the ad was finished and ready I went on a remote Mojave Desert camping trip and was scrambling to find a cell phone signal so we could discuss this unexpected situation.
My wife snapped this picture. I was trying to find a cell signal from out
in the Mojave Desert south of Death Valley Nat. Park so I could discuss
with WPEG delaying our WDT conflict ad. You just can't get away from
this wind BS. There weren't many cell towers but I'll be damned if
there wasn't some damn wind company met tower not to far from here!!!!
The ad finally ran a few weeks later. As I remember we forwarded a copy of this ad to the NY AG’s office as well and told then also to get a copy of the WDT and read it.
When Rienbeck saw the ad he was livid. He was interviewed in the WDT and so was I. He was so livid in fact that he was threatening to scrap all the 8 or 9 months work of the 2008/09 wind law committee and the $ 15,000 spent on that work. The reality was I think Rienbeck was just jumping at the chance to dump a wind law that was beginning to look too restrictive. He was livid and he was going to whine and punish us AND the whole community at the same time. He wasn’t even mentioned in the ad. I had no problem with him actually scrapping the wind law because it would have taken conflicted votes to pass it and it might have actually allowed wind development. That was a side benefit I hadn’t planned on. But his behavior and justification was absurd.
This ad was obviously controversial at the time but time has erased that as the election last fall was all about ethics and conflicts. It was controversial with the pro wind faction and particularly the conflicted people targeted in the ad. I do remember that they really didn’t counter the ad because it was well researched, all true and actually the information was mainly from conflict disclosures the conflicted officers had declared and made public. The best they could do was attack WPEG saying that we got a family relationship wrong and spelled one name wrong. I spelled Jeri Mason’s name wrong. Of course we all know what happened to her, but they never denied the conflicts, so it was a damning and effective ad on that account as we had intended.
But this ad was also controversial and distasteful to some people you might not expect. Some of those people are sitting right at the heart of our current govt. They thought it would piss off Rienbeck and the board. I was absolutely stunned that they failed to grasp the fundamental idea of how bad the ethics situation was and what it was doing to CV and our govt, and that they could possibly defend it. I couldn’t give a damn if it pissed off Rienbeck and the board, it had to be exposed how bad and deep the conflicts were and there were a number of key players high up the chain in and out of WPEG that agreed. And ironically, this ad was almost exactly what the NY AG ethics code required of conflicted officers later. We were just way ahead of the curve. I guess the people on our side who this ad upset should talk to the AG’s office and ask them what the point is of their code? Marty and Donny Mason saw no point in it either , and we have that on video…and you can bet the AG took a long look at that little performance. Right here there is another detailed story that diverts, but for another time. There is so much stuff to tell it’s almost impossible…maybe a book someday!
Some people on our side actually wanted this BS wind law that they had worked on with Rienbeck, and failed to see it would take conflicted people to pass it, who were in that ad, (very bad idea) and we could actually end up with wind turbines and Rienbeck was NEVER going to pass any wind law anyhow that might restrict the developers in any way especially since they won against a WPEG law suit and could now call turbines utilities and put them anywhere in town. And people wonder why I am suspect of the “EXPERTS ” and their thinking at times. And some of these very EXPERTS are running our CV govt. right now telling people we shouldn’t have a too restrictive wind law and that we can’t prohibit anything. Not sure based on wind history we should trust that judgment.
The story behind another ad in the next post that played a major role in the CV wind battle. And it never even reached a single paper but probably had more impact than if it had. Only a handful of people know about this story.
Other ads we considered running but WPEG let the effort fade away. I don't think any of these made the paper. I guess it was too controversial to actually attack the conflict issue! Go figure! I guess it wasn't controversial when WPEG wanted its candidates in office last fall and this was almost the entire thrust of the campaign...because wind sure wasn't!!! No one addressed that issue head on.
Hours an hours of work and $1000's of dollars spent on this issue and we STILL have
two wind conflicted officers in our town government despite all this effort.
How would you feel?
Stay tuned
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