If BP Is True To Its Promises, The Cape Vincent BP Leases Terminate Today, March 31st, 2014

Today is the day!!!  In the sense that BP is gone officially makes no one happier than me.   

But is it really a victory?  Yes, I suppose it is depending on how you frame the events.  And everyone will distort them to their favor. 

My first reaction to this is that the entire thing is just simply very sad.  BP raped a community and then just walked away with no accountability other than the lease payments to lease holders for holding the land.

On Pandora’s blog I noted two comments.  One was apparently from pro wind and one from anti wind.  Neither really grasps the realities of what happened.

First the pro wind comment suggests that anti wind won the battle and the war.  I don’t see it that way.  As I have said many times going way back to when this whole thing started, there really are NO winners.

In addition this person clearly does not grasp what pro wind failed to grasp all along that created a disaster for them and their agenda.  They still frame their argument once again, as us against them dividing the community and failing to grasp the real enemy and what might have transpired if pro wind had taken the entire community into consideration including the seasonal part of our community. 

Dividing this community and entrenching in some provincial turf battle about who has rights to the community and who can vote here was a major downfall for the pro wind side and set them back tremendously for the outcome they so desperately wanted.  And taking this advice from the wind companies and their PR organizers was an unmitigated disaster. 

As to the anti wind comment…one point that person made was the wind developers should never have been allowed to make contact with town officials with leases. 

I do not agree, and that is an overly simplistic overreaction analysis that fails to grasp the actual legalities of the problem.  In fact this departs from American capitalism and ideals.

It is not illegal for a town official to enter into a contract with a wind developer or any other developer for that matter for the use of their land.  In all the contacts I had with the NYAG’s office this was not even a real point of contention.  However, the illegal conflicts this behavior created when a town official acts on matters related to their financial interests is definitely a different and very serious matter that was discussed in great detail with the AG.

That being said, the town official, whomever they might be should take responsibility and quickly and fully disclose this relationship to the public.  They should not act in any manner on these issues.   Then they should fully recuse themselves by leaving the room, and not voting on any issue which would involve their financial interest.  In addition it might, although they would not be obligated, they might consider stepping down or having a temporary unconflicted alternate take their place, or even a full replacement, especially on an issue so intensely controversial  and heated.

And the person who made this comment if they are a Hirschey supporter better get a grasp on the fact that Hirschey allowed and supported the appoint of pro wind lease holders to his administration and in addition let lease holding officers with obvious and blatant conflicts in 2010 engage in matters such as wind law committees where they might have had the opportunity to favorably impact a wind law to their financial advantage.  Hirschey was even willing apparently to appoint Paul Aubertine to a town board seat at one time when Mickey Orvis stepped down.  Hirschey knew full well what a conflict that would cause due to Aubertine's family's leases.

So let's not be too hasty here about taking to task previous officers on the matter of just signing leases, when in fact the simple signing of a wind lease is not illegal in itself.

When pro wind town officials with leases and the pro wind officers that supported them engaged in behavior contrary to what I stated above as to recusal, and decided to entrench they really badly damaged their cause.  In fact it may have been the entire key failure that caused it all to unravel.  It basically led to the election of Hirschey and the supposed anti wind side, and the downfall of the pro wind govt and what they wanted to achieve.  Early on when this etrenched conflicted behavior began I felt strongly that anti wind could defeat them because basically they were defeating themselves, and kept digging the hole deeper and deeper.

Way back in 2007 I had a meeting with pro wind lease holder Paul Mason since he and his farm are a distant neighbors, and our families have known each other for a long time. I felt we owed each other a fair discussion on our opposing stances on wind.   My parents and his parents were friends although I did not know Paul very well. 

I told Paul that his real problem was not me or WPEG but the entrenchment of the lease holders and town officers behind these conflicts of interest.  I felt it would take them down.  And if they insisted on this direction I would do all within my power to challenge this potentially illegal behavior to remove this govt from power one way or the other.  When it finally came to the NYAG investigation it was a gold mine for the Hirschey candidates to run on ethics.

So when we look back let’s make sure we have a grasp on the realities of what happened here…to all of us!!!

 

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