Did BP Sell Its Cape Vincent Wind Development? Well Yippy Skippy, More Years Of Community Wind Disaster To Come!

 TI Sun is reporting that BP has a buyer for its Cape Vincent Wind Farm project. 

Assuming this report is true, it raises some very interesting questions.  And to me they are very troubling.

Think about this. 

There is significant local and regional opposition to this project.  The town govt is “supposedly anti wind” and has passed very restrictive wind zoning regulations. They have vowed to defend this law come hell or high water.   The federal PTC tax subsidy is once again up for renewal with no real guarantee it will be renewed which could present significant economic burdens on wind development.  Right now the wind industry is in a slump.  A wind develop in CV would still have to make a case to the Article 10 process to preempt our zoning laws and declare them overly burdensome.

So as a new investor, why take the risk?  What do they know that we don’t know?

Something else strikes me as odd.  If the Sun report is accurate isn’t it funny that this news  comes right on the heels of the Article 10 administrative law judge’s visit to CV visit where he basically told the community you are going to twist in the wind until BP sells its project, and guess what…we are actually going to help them along by giving them a few more months to do so.  How much ya wanna bet this visit was not just random coincidence. 

Keep in mind that Agresta did in fact give a rather detailed explanation how any sale by BP could be structured and it might not require a restart of the Art. 10 process.  Is he sending us a message knowing full well what was going on in the background?  Was the message that we are going to get screwed by wind development, it just won't be BP any longer.

Agresta and the Art 10 process has deferred to BP’s profit agenda, but has not given this community a damn thing, despite all those letters the town and the citizens have written in protest.  Like I said many times.  So much for “input”  

 To me Agresta's willingness to leave our community twisting in the wind with continued social and economic pain tells me that all these letters of protest to the NYPSC have been completely disregarded. 

Agresta gave no guarantee the Art. 10 process would have to start over with a new developer. He gave no guarantee any developer would have to abide by our law.  He gave no real time line to BP other than we might look at this in 3 months.  There was a loose suggestion they MIGHT shut it down, but no guarantee.  Agresta said in fact there was NO time line in the pre-application and stipulation process, and basically said they can’t force the developer to do much of anything.  Now does somebody want to explain to me how this process is fair or good for the community when it is so stacked in favor of the developer?  Most of what Agresa said was pure Albany political bullshit carefully structured to not inhibit BP and it’s profit margin, yet at the same time give the community some false hopes, but with nothing they can sink their teeth into, or pin Agresta or the Art 10 process down with.  It was carefully engineered pure Albany political double talk bullshit!  And probably with full knowledge of what was going on with BP’s portfolio. 

Hey…maybe this after all was a demonstration to the new developer to not worry, your investment is safe.  Look how we can put our thumb on this community at will and ignore their pleas and begging, and make them appease and abide such that you have no serious  worries about community opposition or laws to get in your way.  The community or their govt. aren’t really going to do anything.  They will continue to appease and support our game.  And after all since we removed home rule we can remove any obstacles that might pop up, and we can do it with no political consequences since the town has already bought into the idea that Art. 10 is a fair and balanced process upon which they think they can have an impact.  The local blogs bought into this idea as well.

So what’s going here if the TI Sun report is true.  Why is a new developer willing to put up new money and walk head long into this CV wind fiasco?  How long has Albany known this was in the works?  These things don’t happen overnight or in a political vacuum.  How many winks did Agresta and the Art 10 process give to the new developer if there is one?

So if the report is accurate, then  a new developer gets to kick our community down the road for a few more years with impunity.

But don’t be fooled.  Not all wind developers are like BP and Acciona.  Some are much slicker and play the game much better.  Here in AZ with Nextera the time from met towers to wind turbines was about 2 years.  Slam bam thank you mam!!! And keep in mind the State at this point may be very anxious to put this CV wind mess to bed once and for all for its own renewable agenda.  As judge Agresta said…”we want to move this process along.” I think that can be seen in the Art. 10 process extending a hand to BP to help it sell it’s project.