So The Article 10 Process Allows BP To Jack Us Around For Another Three Months, If Not Longer!

Well Cape Vincent “anti-wind”, how did you feel the morning after the big meeting with the Article 10 administrative law judge Agresta?  Feel a little let down.  Well you should have good reason to feel that way. 

We were all told on the local blogs and in emails how important it was to attend.  Our presence in numbers was supposed to send a big message to the Article 10 process.  Really?   

I could not attend obviously, but viewed the video carefully a couple times.  If I was supposed to feel good after this meeting or see an impressive impact we had then I guess I missed something. 

You walked into the meeting with the entire BP wind farm in limbo with BP jacking and controlling the process and our community,  and when you walked out and today, and next week nothing has changed.  About the only thing that changed was the Article 10 judge was nice enough to come all the way to CV to tell you directly to your face that you are basically powerless to do anything about the limbo and resulting community convulsions BP has put this community through for nearly a decade, and there is little we at the PSC can do either. Sorry about that,   so deal with it.  AND after we have taken all that into account, we are going to give BP more time to enhance their wind investment portfolio using the Article 10 process as a bargaining chip!  Oh well…. yeah we might take another look at this in three months, have another meeting blah, blah, blah, to see if we can move this process forward so another wind developer can continue screwing the community!

Let me see if I get this straight.  Depending on where you start the CV wind fiasco clock, BP has had nearly a DECADE of thoroughly hammering the social and economic fabric of our community submission to clear away obstacles to get their wind farm sited.  Nextera here in AZ did their project in 2 years!  What the hell…a decade for BP to screw with us wasn’t enough time?  Now the Article 10 judge wants to give them three more months to drag this community further down the rat hole BP created out of our beautiful once peaceful community?  And even that does NOT set a definite conclusion.  Just a “re- assessment.”   

At least I wish the judge would stop insulting our intelligence by telling us how aware he and the PSC and Article 10 board are about our concerns in our community.  Then drive back to Albany.  Let’s see… he has been here how many times…twice!!!  Yeah that should be enough time to relate to our experiences in a nice polite little meeting on one day in the winter!  

What?   Are there still some friendships or family relationships BP didn’t get around to destroying in a decade? I guess imploding one town govt. on their behalf was not enough? They need a little more time to finish the job?  And there isn’t even a guarantee at three months.  At that point we will just take another “look at it” to see where it all stands. Or maybe we will start another wind developer fiasco from scratch and continue to drag the community into industrial wind oblivion. 

Maybe BP can sell out and leave the final screwing of the community to another wind developer.  After all, the judge did say we want to “move this process along"   It used to be BP had at least some interest in the community, and at least the project managers were showing up to town and planning board meetings and putting on open houses.  Now they don’t give a damn one way or the other…just get out as best they can  and leave the community holding the bag.  They have this festering boil in their investment portfolio, so let’s just lance the damn thing and get rid of it, and let the community continue to bleed. And apparently the State feels a need to help them along in this process. 

On the Pandora blog she says the message to “take home” is “Shut the thing down”  If that is what she took away…then she must have been in another meeting or on another planet.

To me the very clear message from Judge Agresta was the process right now is controlled and being held hostage by BP and the bottom line to their wind investment portfolio, and there ain’t  a damn thing anybody can really do about it including the State with their Article 10 process.  In fact to be fair and reasonable we are going to help them along by giving them a few more months to carry out this nonsense, and even then all we are going to do is re-assess the process. Agresta even admits the process was designed to have no specific end time line in the pre-application and stipulation process.  

Think Article 10 is a fair even handed balanced process like our town officials are deluded into thinking?  The real bottom line message is what I have been saying for a long time.  Article 10 is a developer lobbied and controlled process, and we have absolutely no business endorsing, appeasing or participating in it, and right now BP has everyone including the State, the town  and the Article 10 process and judges and Article 10 board completely in limbo and at their mercy. And basically Judge Agresta is admitting to it.   And remember that is after nearly a decade of screwing with our community and the wind siting process in CV.   If one thing was truly demonstrated Tue. night it was what a complete failure the Art. 10 process is.  It can't control BP or the siting process and just like the town is being held hostage by BP.

As the judge scrolled through the town letters his basic message on many was…sorry, can’t help you…that’s the process so deal with it!!! 

If this process had any shred of integrity it would shut this BP siting process down immediately. BP has done nothing but abused it and is doing nothing more than now use the steps in the process completed ( and it is highly questionable they were completed) as a financial asset and bargaining chip to attract another investor, and at tremendous social and financial cost to the CV community.  If BP wants to sell the LLC or the assets, OK fine.  But it is absurd for the Article 10 process, or the town,  to be a party to that by extending time so BP can enhance its wind investment bottom line by using the faulty BP Article 10 process as part of the asset value of their Cape Vincent Wind Farm LLC.  By extending BP more time they are in effect extending them investment value.  Like the old saying “time is money”  And a partially finished Article 10 process with endorsement from the State is time and money the next developer doesn’t have to invest.   In effect the Article 10 judge is helping BP make an investment decision…not a siting decision. If this is a fair process as Cuomo claims then ask yourself, how exactly is this fair or balanced for the CV community that has been left in limbo by BP’s wind investment portfolio and living in limbo under the BP industrial wind chaos for nearly a decade?  It is a developer controlled scam with state sanction.  The bottom line here as I see it for the Article 10 judge is simple.  BP has very clearly indicated they have no more interest in siting a project here in CV…end of story.  In fact they have STOPPED the critical Article 10 stipulation process on their own.  As a result the siting process for this development should END!!!  It is over.  Article 10 is a siting process, and BP has indicated they have no interest in siting a project.  Article 10 has no business extending more time to BP to help them enhance their wind investments, or the wind investments of another  prospective wind developer. Article 10 in the CV BP process has now morphed into an investment process, no longer strictly a siting process.   

What’s worse is the town’s Article 10 attorney is going along with this three more months nonsense that helps BP to enhance its wind investments. One would have to assume that if that is his position, it is endorsed by the town.  This twist makes this really absurd on the part of the town.  It is irresponsible and reckless.  Any more time granted to BP just continues to rip the wind scab off this community, and helps BP enhance its bottom line.  The longer the town officers sit still for this nonsense and appease it, the bigger the fools they are looking like!  Then Councilman Byrne “begs” the Article 10 judge to expedite this process.  Really John…now we have resorted to “begging” the NYPSC.  And even with Byrne’s absurd begging performance the judge basically sits there and says…”geee nothing we can do until BP poops or gets off the pot…oh but we will “look at the  pot in three months and see if BP pooped!!!”  Hopefully that makes Byrne feel warm and fuzzy all over!

As a result if the Article 10 process doesn’t end this process, which we can now clearly see has no regard for the community, then the town should not be a party to it and should take steps to end it themselves.    They should have never entered into it in the first place, and the Tues. meeting clearly shows why and who really controls what.  anti wind people are really deluded if they think the town is having an impact on this process. 

So those of you thinking something big was achieved at this meeting or the three month time limit is some type panacea…you better think again and get a grip! 

I noticed on the Pandora blog she has posted a countdown clock for BP or wind development leaving CV.  Last week it was set to the end of this year as per BP’s statement they were selling the project by the end of the year.  Now it is reset to read 13 weeks. Assuming we don’t keep getting passed along to how many wind developers as they bail on bad investments and we end up hold the bag time after time. 

Wiley on his JLL blog on the other hand makes the statement as to how responsible this all is and how the town is on top of all this as proof positive we are involved.  He is also deluded.

Proof of what? for Christ's sake.  That the town is powerless to do anything as we twist endlessly in the industrial wind under the Article 10 process and the Article 10 administrative law judge admits that such is basically the case???