The Town of Cape Vincent has written a letter to the NYPSC asking for “assurances” that the Art X siting process will be fair. This was prompted by the fact that a high level NYPSC commissioner Maureen Harris is the wife of the BP lawyer of record for BP’s Cape Vincent Wind Farm. The Town wants assurances Harris will not impact or influence the Art X process. Assurances they will probably never get.
But what if the PSC or the Siting Board don’t answer the letter and give those assurances? Then what.?
The PSC has only “officially” corresponded with the town once by letter that I can find, and that was to inform the Town BP had started it’s PIP and the Town should start considering ad hoc representatives to the town to the Siting Board. The PSC or Siting Board has not responded to any public comments as well. You can check at this PSC website for a list of correspondence to and from the PSC and BP and the public.
So what happens if the PSC does not respond to the town wanting and waiting for assurances that the Art X siting process is fair and the Harris relationship will not impact or influence the process? I don’t think it is likely they will respond, but will just file the letter with the other comments.
Do they ask the PSC again? If the PSC doesn’t answer then does that mean the system IS unbalanced and unfair as the town fears in it’s letter and the PSC is making no assurances the Harris relationship WON’T impact or influence any decisions about BP’s wind farm? How does the Town deal with NO response. If there is no response from the PSC, Siting Board of the State as to whether the Art X system is rigged, does the town then charge ahead in the process anyhow?.
This is going to get real interesting to see what happens.
Maybe the appropriate place to deal with this is through the NY Attorney General’s Office, and NOT the PSC, which seems to be at the heart of this issue. Were any ethics laws violated? Once the process was started with BP should Mrs. Harris have publicly registered a disclosure that her husband WAS the BP lawyer so the public was at least aware and appearances of a conflict could be avoided. This seems like rather BIG news the PSC was sitting on and not disclosing.
The PSC doesn’t seem to see a problem here, but to me that would be like writing our former planning board and asking them if Rich Edsall the chairman who had BP leases would cause any problems that would bias the PB’s decisions.
It’s not even a matter if Mrs. Harris will actually be on the Siting Board, it’s a matter that there is a real negative public perception and question now that are things ethical and unbiased, and the PSC will probably not give the Town any response to their questions inquiring about this relationship, which just makes the matter worse in my mind
So what does the town do now?.
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