Deval Patrick & Paul Gaynor: Crony Capitalism At First Wind
Taxpayer dollars gone with the wind.
Paul Gaynor CEO of First Wind (left) and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
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Boston's First Wind Suffers Major Setbacks at Kahuku Project in Hawaii
By Green-Energy Analyst Barbara Durkin
The third fire at First Wind’s Kahuku Wind project since operations began in March of 2011 spewed lead and lasted for three days. The publicly-funded multimillion dollar Xtreme Battery storage facility filled with toxic smoke, and 12,000 batteries were completely destroyed. Hawaii News Now reports some fear this environmental threat will be repeated at First Wind’s other projects.
Hawaii Free Press provides a grim prognosis for Kahuku Wind:
“Recent developments reduce the chances that First Wind will ever be able to repair the defective turbines which were supposed to power the burned batteries at Kahuku.”
Boston-based First Wind CEO Paul Gaynor is Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s appointed green policy advisor under the Global Warming Solutions Act. Gaynor is also appointed co-chair of the Mass Department of Environmental Protection Advisory Committee “Low Carbone Energy Supply Subcommittee.” First Wind has benefitted by a $117 million loan guarantee for (12) Clipper Liberty wind turbines at Kahuku despite a trade secret between Clipper Wind and First Wind executed to obscure from the public information about structural and mechanical problems ongoing with Clipper wind turbines.
Cash-strapped-Clipper, founded by Enron’s James Dehlsen, was recently dumped by the parent company United Technology Corporation UTC to Platinum Equity of CA that expressed no interest in providing remedy to Clipper’s $300 million costs in unscheduled maintenance. First Wind has deployed Clipper Liberty wind turbines in projects across the US according to court documents, with 12 newly installed but idle at Kahuku Wind, by loan of $117 million backed by the public.
First Wind recently sought a writ of attachment from the courts against Clipper Wind for $59.5 million dollars in Cedar Rapids, with arbitration proceeding in Chicago. A similar case has been filed against Clipper under sealed documents in Santa Barbara, CA. The (Iowa) Gazette reported on November 3, 2012: “Clipper has not only ceased production of these turbines, but has wrongfully refused to return the advance payments, even though it has no plans to meet its contractual obligations to produce and deliver the turbines to first wind,” the lawsuit said.”
Massachusetts’ Deval Patrick Administration in May of 2009 identified the long beleaguered Clipper Wind as the Wind Turbine Technology Testing Facility's first customer.
While the Pacific Coast Business Times reported on November 16, 2012, “Clipper Windpower appears ready to implement a plan to eliminate all of its South Coast positions and shutter its Carpinteria headquarters by early next year.”
The Charlestown Wind Turbine Technology Testing Center has received ARRA stimulus of $24.7 million, and $13.2 million in grants and loans from Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MACEC), with Founding Chairman former MA Executive Secretary of Energy Ian Bowles. MACEC, formed under the Patrick Administration’s Jobs Act, collects ratepayer dollars to invest in green business ventures of questionable public merit. This publicly-funded $40 million dollar Wind Turbine Technology Testing Center, operated by MACEC, has provided 0.00 jobs for the past 1.5 years according to the federal government's recovery tracker.
NECN Boston refers to First Wind as 'New England’s largest wind developer.' And, waving a bright red flag Hawaii Free Press refers to First Wind CEO Paul Gaynor as the ‘Hawaii Wind Developer tied to Largest-ever asset seizure by anti-Mafia police.’ UPC First Wind got its start when Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) alum Paul Gaynor was tapped by UPC Group to bring the success of wind projects in Italy, Italian Vento Power Corporation (IVPC), to the United States according to WPI Summer News 2005.
While multiple news outlets, including the Financial Times, report that the President of Italian Wind Energy Association and Director of the IVPC was arrested on “charges related to fraud involved in obtaining public subsidies to construct wind farms” in November of 2009 during Operation “Gone with the Wind.” Oreste Vigorito of IVPC was convicted in July of 2012.
According to House Budget Committee’s ‘Empty Promise of Green Jobs’ study, “The Costly Consequences of Crony Capitalism” 11/21/11:
First Wind Holdings received a $117 million loan guarantee in March of 2010. First Wind withdrew its initial public offering in October of 2010, due to a lack of investor demand. According to the Boston Globe, investors shied away from the company because “First Wind owes more than $500 million, loses money on a steady basis, and reports a negative cash flow.”
The House Oversight Committee Report of March 20, 2012 titled, 'The Department of Energy’s Disastrous Management of Loan Guarantee Program' provides blistering criticism of green company executives lining their pockets before filing for bankruptcy in MA. First Wind, developer of "Kahuku" is identified as (S&P “Junk” rated) in this report.
The Interior Department photo above was actually used for promotional purposes by DOI for First Wind’s Kawailoa project in Oahu. It’s troubling that Secretary Salazar has ignored the catastrophic and publicly-funded failures of First Wind and Xtreme Battery at Kahuku Wind in Oahu. Awarding public subsidies to "Junk" rated wind companies whose technology has ongoing mechanical and structural problems under "trade secret” is an outrage.
Neither the Obama nor the MA Patrick Administration have picked a winner in First Wind so much as they have sealed the fate of tax and ratepayers funding First Wind, affiliates’ and subsidiaries’, vendors’ and dependents’ failures. If the objectives are low-cost green jobs, reliable and affordable energy sources that are reasonably safe, we’ve not met these with public funding, grants and loan guarantees to the US pioneers of UPC First Wind.
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Barbara Durkin is the green-energy reporter for the Daily Bail. She has spent the past decade interfacing with regulators and stakeholders in the Ad Hoc review of the "world's largest" Cape Wind offshore wind project. Her independent investigation of wind energy cost vs. benefits has expanded beyond the shores of Nantucket Sound to include land-based renewable energy.
Dec 1, 2012 at 7:22 PM
Reader Comments (48)
Nor does the readership here know of the ties between GE and First Wind.
http://bjdurk.newsvine.com/_news/2011/02/21/6099211-enron-gave-birth-to-the-us-wind-energy-industry
Or the ties between Patriot Renewables/GE and Former Governor and Senator elect, Angus King (I, Maine), who is a wind speculator and whose son is a Vice President at First Wind and also sat on the board of directors of a Bermuda based financial concern.
Folks there is a lot more here (I can guarantee it) and Barb will indeed knock this way out of the park.
The taxpayers pockets are not nearly deep enough to fund those supping at the public trough propping up their Ponzi/ pyramid schemes.
Prefiled Direct Testimony February 21, 2006 http://www.sheffieldwind.com/UserFiles/File/regulatory_sheffield/Cowan-Rowland-Vavrik%20-%20Direct%20Testimony.pdf p.8/70
Quoting UPC's own testimony:
"UPC Group is a group of related companies that have developed large scale wind farms in Europe. To date, UPC Group has developed, financed, constructed, owned and operated over 635 MW of large-scale wind turbine generators in southern Italy and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia through a company called Italian Vento Power Company (“IVPC”) (www.ivpc.com). Certain principals of the UPC Group recently sold their ownership interests in holding companies that own the IVPC companies. In conjunction with this sale, a new European subsidiary of UPC Group has been established and is pursuing several hundred megawatts of wind energy projects in Europe and North Africa, including additional projects in Italy".
"The IVPC subsidiaries of the UPC Group achieved an exceptional operating record, with its wind turbines available 98.5% of the time on a fleet-wide basis. An extensive operations and maintenance organization was established for the Italian projects, consisting of over 120 personnel dedicated exclusively to the day-to-day management, operation and maintenance of the IVPC projects."
The allegations of collecting subsidies for defective turbines and for power not getting on the grid sounds very similar to UPC projects here; i.e. Steelwinds project in Lackawanna,NY, Cohocton, NY, and Steson, ME..
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1212055&format=comments&sort=newest&cnum=2
Ex-partner of Boston wind exec charged
Italians nab soccer club president in energy fraud
By Christine McConville | Sunday, November 15, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets
The Massachusetts native who helped found controversial wind-energy developers Cape Wind and First Wind expressed surprise late last week at news that his one-time partner in a separate wind-energy company in Italy has been arrested and charged with fraud.
“I read about it in the papers, and I was very surprised,” Brian Caffyn said from Hong Kong, where he is now building wind-energy farms in China and the Philipines.
“I know of no fraud with (former partners) Oreste (Vigorito) and IVPC,” said Caffyn, a Cape Cod native and Babson College graduate.
IVPC is Italian Vento Power Corp., a company that Caffyn, 50, once owned with Vigorito, a well-known Italian soccer club president. The pair worked together for seven years in Italy and even lived next door to each other for a time.
Last week, the Italian finance police arrested Vigorito, his Sicilian business associate Vito Nicastri and two others, according to the Financial Times. Eleven others were charged in a probe dubbed “Gone with the Wind” that began in 2007, the Financial Times said.
The group is accused of committing fraud by obtaining millions in public subsidies to build wind farms that either never worked properly or did not supply the promised amounts of energy, the Financial Times reported.
Vigorito has no connection to Cape Wind or First Wind.
Caffyn, who has amassed a fortune starting wind-energy companies, sold his interest in Cape Wind in 2002. He sold his interest in IVPC in 2005, according to First Wind spokesman John Lamontagne. Caffyn remains a shareholder and director with First Wind, Lamontagne wrote in an e-mail statement.
Last February, as part of a parallel probe, Italy’s anti-Mafia police arrested eight others, including an alleged Mafia boss, and accused them of corruption in a wind farm project, the Financial Times reported.
According to corporate filings, Caffyn was a founding partner in Cape Wind, the wind-energy turbine project slated for Nantucket Sound. He went on to establish UPC Wind Management LLC, now known as First Wind.
In the United States, where the Department of Energy has recently set aside $100 billion in cash grants for the clean-energy sector, both Cape Wind and First Wind have been accused by critics of taking advantage of pro-alternative energy programs for financial gain.
In 2006, the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University undertook the most comprehensive review yet of Cape Wind’s public subsidies.
“What we found was quite remarkable,” David Tuerck, the institute’s executive director, said at the time. “Cape Wind stands to receive subsidies worth $731 million, or 77 percent of the cost of installing the project and 48 percent of the revenues it would generate. The policy question that this amount of subsidy raises is whether the project’s benefit is worth the huge public subsidies that the developer gets.”
Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rogers said the wind farm would only receive government monies after it is up and working, and meeting certain production criteria.
“It’s all performance-based,“ he said.
In September, after First Wind affiliates received $115 million in federal stimulus money, U.S. Rep. Eric J. Massa (D-N.Y.) wrote to President Barack Obama, calling the grants “very alarming” and saying the company “abused the public trust.
“No electricity has been produced for sale out of the projects,” but the company “has already collected production rewards for non-existent energy,” Massa told Obama.
First Wind CEO Paul Gaynor responded in a letter to Obama, saying that First Wind’s New York wind farms have produced 133,370 megawatt hours of clean, renewable energy. “We are proud of our work in New York and appreciate the grants we received,” he wrote.
Caffyn, whose 2007 divorce records show he amassed an $82 million fortune building wind farms around the world, said late last week that all the completed projects he has been involved with were properly constructed and met the promised performance standards.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1212055
It would be interesting to find out what those assets were and where they were held.
Brian Caffyn is the owner of First Wind/UPC
Brian Caffyn's ex-wife is defending her view of Nantucket Sound
Fri Mar 18, 2011 10:18 am (PDT)
Mashpee Selectmen Approve Shellfish Grant Off Popponesset Island
By: Brian Kehrl
Published: 03/18/11
The Mashpee Board of Selectmen on Monday night approved a one-acre shellfish grant just off the northeastern tip of Popponesset Island despite strong opposition from about a dozen property owners nearby.
The approval for Richard J. Cook Jr. to grow oysters in 3,000, four-foot-by-four-foot wire mesh cages for 10 years sets up a likely court battle over the grant.
Mr. Cook, though, still has several additional steps in the permitting process before he obtains final approval to begin growing oysters 30 feet offshore from the sandbar that curves around off the end of the island.
In response to concerns from residents, selectmen downplayed the magnitude of the operation and on several occasions pointed out that the town has heard no complaints from abutters to a separate, much larger shellfish grant that Mr. Cook has operated for nearly two decades in Ockway Bay.
“I personally have not heard anything that, to me, causes us to do anything but approve this,” Selectman Wayne E. Taylor said. “I just don’t see this as an industrial thing.”
With the selectmen’s approval, Mr. Cook must next go through standard permitting procedures with the state Division of Marine Fisheries and the US Army Corps of Engineers. He also must go through another public hearing process with the Mashpee Conservation Commission.
Opposition to the grant was led at the public hearing this week by Brian J. Wall, an attorney for Leslie A. Caffyn, who purchased the 1.2-acre property at the end of the island last fall for $4.15 million.
Mr. Wall said Ms. Caffyn was against the aquaculture grant because it would spoil her views of the water; the noise and activity related to the operation would amount to a nuisance in an otherwise secluded area; and it would make her property less valuable.
“She bought this property specifically because of the beautiful views it has of Popponesset Bay and Nantucket Sound,” Mr. Wall said.. “She paid a premium for this property, and she pays taxes based on that.”
Ms. Caffyn did not speak at the public hearing, but when asked what her next move will be after the selectmen’s decision, she said simply, “We take them to court.”
In a subsequent interview, Mr. Caffyn said she thought the decision was “very unfair,” but declined to elaborate or comment further, referring questions to Mr. Wall.
Ms. Caffyn’s ex-husband, Brian Caffyn, is a son of former Mashpee select
man and state representative Nancy J. Caffyn. Mr. Caffyn was involved with James Gordon early in the formation of Cape Wind, the company permitted to install 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound.
Leslie Caffyn, a Wellesley resident, said in a previous interview that her family has been coming to the Popponesset area during summers for several decades. She said the little cottage at the end of Popponesset Island was her “dream house,” in large part due to its privacy.
Ms. Caffyn solicited letters from two local real estates agents testifying that the grant will diminish her property value.
“The proposed grant is against the public interest because it will result in a flood of tax abatements by all affected property owners,”
Read more: http://www.capenews.net/communities/mashpee/news/942
'Mafia Invests in Sicilian Wind Farms'
Tuesday, May 05, 2009 'The Mafia may be going green'.
Sicilian prosecutors are cracking down on Cosa Nostra involvement in the numerous small firms that build wind farms on the Mediterranean island, the Financial Times reports. What's the attraction for organized crime? The best of intentions, of course. The European Union and the Italian government heavily subsidize the construction of alternative-energy facilities, and the operators are guaranteed high rates to maximize their profits. A few wind farms that broke down because of lousy construction still received subsidies, prosecutor Roberto Scarpinato told the Financial Times.
"This is the amazing thing -- that developers got public money to build wind farms that did not produce electricity," he said.
Furthermore, locally-built wind farms are often bought up by multinational energy firms from other parts of Europe, none of which know the true identities of the original owners. "A handful of people control the wind sector," said Scarpinato. "Many companies exist, but it is the same people behind them." Eight arrests have already been made."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519000,00.html
I followed the shell corporations to see if there were LLC connections between NY state wind developers and developers in Italy also said to be buiding wind projects.
I warned the Patrick Administration about UPC First Wind IVPC connections confirmed by their testimony. I citied a complaint to Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs by 94 US citizens against UPC First Wind under the Sherman Antitrust Act. I also provided evidence to the Patrick Administraton that the spokesman for AG Andrew Cuomo said complaints from all over the state, from Franklin to Erie, were coming in on First Wind.
"DAs from eight counties, public officials and citizens", bombarding Albany with complaints about First Wind.
My MA Gov online comments of June 25, 2009 about First Wind remain online--
http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/doer/renewables/wind/public-comments-listening-session-2-barbara-durkin.pdf
It is confirmed that anti-Mob prosecutor Roberto Scarpinato (Fox News Report) was chasing down Italian Vento Power Corporation IVPC Oreste Vigorito who was arrested in Italy that November of 2009, as a subsidiary and affiliate of UPC First Wind, (UPC testimony above shows this relationship).
It doesn't seem to phase Governor Patrick that his appointed Advisor 'n affiliates 'n subsidiaries build failing wind projects where developers continue to collect public subsidies and are accused of having Mob ties.
Thank You,
Barbara
http://veracityvoice.com/?p=7033
http://veracityvoice.com/?p=7033
Spot on.
Thank you for independent, investigative reporting helping to expose the wolf in green wool clothing!
A who's who list of Barack Obama contributors and recipients of his $787 billion stimulus program.
http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/q12012/obama-contributors-and-the-stimulus-scandal-page-244/
[snip]
First Wind – Received $232 million in stimulus funds. An audit revealed the money only created 125 jobs.
David Shaw: Founder of DE Shaw. Obama bundler and one of the top 3 donors to the Democratic Party. Largest shareholder of First Wind.
Larry Summers: Part owner of First Wind. Obama’s Chief Economic Advisor.
Keeping the above in mind, I now present this video.
http://www.necn.com/Boston/Business/2009/09/27/TWIB-Paul-Gaynor-CEO-of/1254084174.html
Counting DOE $54 mil for (First Wind) "Canandaigua"; and $74.7 mil for Canandaigua Cohocton II. (just NY).; add First Wind Kahuku ($117 million) that's $245.7 to First Wind in ARRA stimulus.
Your snip, John, "First Wind – Received $232 million in stimulus funds. An audit revealed the money only created 125 jobs.", is bad enough, but just (3) First Wind projects total $245.7 in stimulus?
There's more here..did First Wind get a third bite of the apple at their Canandaigua projects, $61.8 million?
Source American University School Investigative Reporting Workshop ‘wind energy funds going overseas wind farms built before stimulus’
October 10, 2010
"...In western New York, for example, in the hills near the economically hard-hit cities of Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, the Canandaigua Wind Farm could have created the sort of green-collar jobs that the Obama administration promised would be generated by the stimulus package. The feathery blades of the farm’s 88 gigantic turbines reach more than 400 feet in the air. Each turbine contains 8,000 components and is almost as sophisticated as a jet engine. Hundreds of construction workers were needed to haul and erect the steel towers, each weighing hundreds of tons.
The wind farm was built in two phases. The developer, First Wind, received a total of $61.8 million in stimulus grants on Sept. 1, 2009, when the administration began rolling out money for the program. But FAA records indicate both were completed at least 15 months earlier -- by May 20, 2008..."
http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/investigations/wind-energy-funds-going-overseas/story/wind-farms-built-before-stimulus/
Investigative reporter Ira Stoll writes in Future of Capitalism on Mar 8, 2010 :
"First Wind Holdings LLC will get a $117 million loan guarantee from federal "stimulus" funds to finance the construction and start-up of a wind energy project in Kahuku, Hawaii, the federal Department of Energy announced Friday. Once complete, the project will create "six to ten" jobs, according to the Department of Energy. At $117 million, works out to a federally guaranteed loan of between $19.5 million and $11.7 million for each job created...."
http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/another-117-million-for-first-wind
Enter a First Wind Washington, D.C., office heavy-weight, Julia Bovey, the former Director of External Affairs at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission who admits First Wind has been turned down by 20 banks!
Not the bank of the public though! We assume the risks that 20 banks rejected. No wonder Paul Gaynor brags on NECN video about how easy it is to fleece us.
'Storage Coming of Age' http://energy.aol.com/2012/05/08/storage-coming-of-age/
"Bovey said her company built the 30-MW Kahuku wind project "on the knife's edge of a mountain" on Oahu, adding in 15 MW of Xtreme Power's batteries and software. The key to success, she said, was less the battery chemistry chosen than the software that ensured millisecond reactions.
But even in Hawaii's high price environment, and with a DOE loan guarantee, cashable investment tax credits and a 20-year PPA from Hawaiian Electric in hand, First Wind was turned down for financing by 20 banks, Bovey said."
For the record, the Kahuku project is shut down so there is no "key to success" held by First Wind.
Two senators in Hawaii are voicing public safety concerns about First Wind's Kahuku Hawaii project.
"State senators pressed the developers of a North Shore wind farm on Tuesday about the safety of their technology in light of a major fire that destroyed their battery storage facility and sent toxic fumes into the air."
http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2012/12/04/17819-after-fire-kahuku-wind-farm-fends-off-safety-concerns/
Now come First Wind finger pointing at the fire department for their Kahuku inferno of infamy-publicly-funded-for $117 million-with a Trade Secret-the Clipper Wind turbines used fail structurally and mechanically.
'Fire at Wind Farm Blamed on the Fire Department's Lack of Responsiveness'
KITV News
http://www.kitv.com/news/hawaii/Fire-at-wind-farm-blamed-on-fire-department-s-lack-of-response/-/8905354/17660398/-/j5hg73/-/index.html
The Fire Department did not have the proper equipment to even look at that fire let alone fight it. I saw pictures of the interior and will say that the battery banks were scary enough but the numerous capacitors associated with the banks made me cringe. Most any power-lineman who has ever worked with those can attest to how dangerous those are and almost every fire dept. I know of does not have the training nor capability to fight such a fire. I note that FW will sometimes throw a little money at the departments but that does not replace the extensive training and specialized equipment needed to fight such a fire.
As a former Fire Chief (and Lineman) myself, I would not (for liability reasons among others) send my crew in for safety reasons. FW did NOT have appropriate fire protection inside that to deal with such an inferno and again that facility was experimental. Try telling that to your insurance company.
One interesting note is how many projects FW/UPC has outside of the US and their ties to China. This cropped up today and I hope UPC gets a real hard look as does Brian Caffyn.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324355904578157252180759338.html
Wall Street finds a foreign detour around U.S. derivatives rules
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/02/us-banks-regulation-derivatives-idUSBRE8B10F220121202
[snip]
U.S. banks such as Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) have been explaining to their foreign customers that they can for now avoid the new rules, due to take effect next month, by routing trades via the banks' overseas units, according to industry sources and presentation materials obtained by Reuters.
REC Prices
http://apps3.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/markets/certificates.shtml?page=5
http://www.levin.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/remembering-enron/?section=alltypes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Capuano
and todays story at the Boston Globe.
http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/12/21/with-kerry-nomination-imminent-scramble-replace-him-senate-begins/svafV5UKk3lTIdYBONySEN/story.html
I still expect that Gov. Deval Patrick will be getting a cabinet post and would be the most likely candidate to replace Eric Holder.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/21/usa-kerry-climate-idUSL1E8NLCXO20121221
[snip]
President Barack Obama nominated Kerry on Friday for Hillary Clinton's job and the senator is expected to win swift Senate confirmation.
Kerry has been a dedicated, long-time campaigner for action on climate change. In 1992 he attended the first Rio Summit on climate, which formed the framework of U.N. climate talks. In 2010, he and Senator Joe Lieberman authored a sweeping climate bill that ultimately failed.
http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/01/18/new-details-show-that-patrick-plan-would-raise-taxes-for-percent/5Qjotxeqm4WsOLVXM36CfL/story.html
http://www.projectfinancemagazine.com/Article/3247105/First-Wind-and-Emera-pull-Northeast-Wind.html#.UhihAhafYQI
More about Emera, First Wind and the project.
http://www.emera.com/en/home/mediacentre/archivedpressreleases/2012/newsreleasedetails.aspx?SourceParams=reqid-1557566
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dividendchannel/2013/08/19/emera-enters-oversold-territory-ema/
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/emera-to-acquire-maine--maritimes-corporation-87453642.html
http://cohoctonwindwatch.blogspot.com/2013/09/first-wind-to-provide-wind-energy-to.html?m=1
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/27/patternenergy-ipo-idUSL4N0HN39C20130927
Sept 27 (Reuters) - Shares of Pattern Energy Group Inc rose 10 percent in their debut, as the recent rally in renewable energy stocks rubbed off on the first-ever public offering of a U.S. wind farm operator.
Pattern's IPO comes almost three years after First Wind Holdings Inc yanked its offering in November 2010 after investors balked at an unprofitable company with aggressive expansion plans. ()
Ambri also Announces Plans to Deploy an Energy Storage System in Hawaii Next Year
PR Newswire
MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Nov. 7, 2013
MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Nov. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick joined other state and federal officials in a ceremonial ribbon cutting for Ambri, an innovative electricity storage startup company, which opened its first battery manufacturing facility today. At the plant, located in Marlborough, Massachusetts, Ambri will demonstrate the next-generation equipment and processes that will provide the foundation for global manufacturing of its low-cost electricity storage systems.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120827/NE61705LOGO )
"Ambri's expansion is an example of how a little bit of public investment can catalyze private sector growth and innovation," said Governor Patrick. "I thank Ambri for choosing to expand in Massachusetts, and congratulate all of the dedicated people of Ambri who made this day happen."
"We are honored that Governor Patrick is joining us for this celebration," said Phil Giudice, CEO of Ambri. "Ambri was founded with the goal of creating a more efficient, more sustainable, and lower cost electricity system for the entire world. This manufacturing facility is a big step toward fulfilling our vision. Here, we will demonstrate that Ambri's Liquid Metal Batteries can be produced at comparatively low capital cost, and make large-scale energy storage a practical reality."
Ambri's new factory will produce the Company's first prototype systems for deployment in 2014 and 2015. In 2015, Ambri plans to commission its first full-scale manufacturing facility, which will position the company for worldwide growth. The company will begin the search for a location for its full-scale manufacturing facility next year.
One of Ambri's first prototype systems produced in Marlborough will be installed at the Joint Base Cape Cod, where it will enable the base to reduce electricity costs, improve power quality and grid resiliency, and integrate additional onsite renewable generation. That deployment will be funded through the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center's InnovateMass Program.
"Massachusetts is home to over 5,000 leading clean energy companies like Ambri that are working each day to drive innovation and grow the Massachusetts clean energy sector, which now employs 80,000 workers," said MassCEC CEO Alicia Barton. "We're proud to celebrate this milestone with Ambri and look forward to seeing their first prototype deployment go forward right here in Massachusetts, a true home for innovation."
Ambri also announced today plans to deploy another prototype energy storage system in Hawaii next year. That system will be deployed in partnership with Boston-based renewable energy developer First Wind, with funding from the Hawaii Energy Excelerator, which is sponsored jointly by the Department of Energy and the Office of Naval Research.
"Consumers in Hawaii are plagued by high electricity prices because their generation system is based primarily on diesel fuel. Wind and solar resources paired with energy storage can completely replace the diesel infrastructure, resulting in lower electricity prices and a more reliable electricity grid," said Phil Giudice. "We are excited to work with First Wind and the Hawaii Energy Excelerator team to make this happen."
"Ambri's energy storage technology will help Hawaii integrate more renewable energy sources, like solar and wind, on island grids. As Hawaii transitions from an oil-based electricity system to one fueled by 70% clean energy, the Energy Excelerator is committed to funding the world's best innovation needed to get us there," said Dawn Lippert, Founder and Senior Manager of the Hawaii Energy Excelerator.
About Ambri
Ambri is developing a unique electricity storage solution – the Liquid Metal Battery (LMB) – which is unlike any technology available on the market today. Ambri's LMB technology was invented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the lab of Professor Donald Sadoway. Ambri was founded in 2010 to scale the technology to a commercial product. Ambri's LMB will enable widespread use of renewable energy sources, reduce electricity costs and enable power systems to operate more reliably and efficiently. Ambri's investors include Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates and Total. More information is available at www.ambri.com.
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Note: O came to Boston to pitch O care on the day the Red Sox took the world series. On that day the media reported that he was here to explain O Care. What followed was a private, $65,000 a plate fundraiser and more of the same which the media did not report.
Durkin: The ‘confluence of influence’ behind state energy grants
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinion/x1275651457/Durkin-The-confluence-of-influence-behind-state-energy-grants?zc_p=1
A confluence of the influential is thriving in the green sector, while citizens required to fund politically favored green initiatives remain jobless and overburdened tax and ratepayers. Public officials appear too closely aligned with industry and businesses that rely on public funding. It's difficult to distinguish the regulator from the regulated. Businesses take actions based on their bottom line, and these actions may conflict with public interest.
Our collective wealth continues to morph into socialized debt with Evergreen Solar, Beacon Power, Boston Power, A123 Systems, and Konarka Technologies. The Solyndras of Massachusetts will cease when public and environmental merits drive Massachusetts energy policies.
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Here is the original:
Project merit does not appear to be the driver of the renewables' sector in Massachusetts. The money trail reveals crony capitalists moving through revolving doors while they collect public subsidies. When politics influences renewable policy, publicly-funded, non-solutions to our energy needs, and less reliable and more costly projects, like the proposed offshore Cape Wind project, are advanced.
Gov. Deval Patrick has just cut the ceremonial green ribbon for the “Ambri” Liquid Metal Battery (LMB), manufacturing plant in Marlborough. The Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) award of $6,949,624 to Massachusetts Institute of Technology supports the storage battery technology by MIT Professor Donald Sadoway at a stage, “too early for private-sector investment.”
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MACEC), which collects ratepayer surcharges to fund renewable projects, has announced $734,134 will fund five projects, “including Cambridge-based Ambri Inc. (with the Massachusetts Military Reservation, Raytheon, Analysis Group and Mass Development Finance Agency) – $150,000 (with a $452,355 match) to assist in demonstrating Ambri’s liquid metal battery technology, an energy storage system that will help better understand how large-scale systems can help a multitude of needs.”
Phil Guidice, the CEO of Ambri, is a confluence of influence and former chair of the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, now part of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center funding Ambri. Guidice has served as commissioner of the Department of Energy, and as Undersecretary of Energy of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Guidice was appointed by former U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu to the U.S. DOE's Energy Efficiency and Renewables Advisory Committee.
Phil Guidice led the team that invested over $54 million in federal stimulus dollars in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in Massachusetts. Prior to joining the Patrick administration, Guidice was senior vice president of EnerNOC, which was awarded 20 percent of the state's ARRA stimulus for a $10 million contract, by Guidice's energy department.
Ambri’s batteries are a theoretical solution to the actual problem that wind energy requires back-up conventional energy sources, due to the intermittent nature of wind. Ambri has announced that this nascent technology will be deployed in Hawaii by partnership with UPC First Wind. Ambri’s battery storage plans for Hawaii come as a shock to folks living there, who are well acquainted with the hazards of molten lead, battery storage fires, and with Ambri’s partner, UPC First Wind.
UPC First Wind is Boston-based, and the Hawaii wind developer for Kahuku Wind project that remains offline following a catastrophic battery storage facility fire. The Hawaii Free Press (Oct. 9, 2013, “Playing with Fire: Kahuku to Install Molten Magnesium Batteries”) bemoans the arrival of Ambri, and return of their partner, First Wind, “16 months after the inevitable Kahuku wind farm battery fire spewed molten lead across the sacred 'aina, First Wind, the company that couldn't see the August, 2012 fire coming even after two earlier fires, is doing it again."
A confluence of the influential is thriving in the green sector, while citizens required to fund politically favored green initiatives remain jobless and overburdened tax and ratepayers. Public officials appear too closely aligned with industry and businesses that rely on public funding. It's difficult to distinguish the regulator from the regulated. Businesses take actions based on their bottom line, and these actions may conflict with public interest.
Our collective wealth continues to morph into socialized debt with Evergreen Solar, Beacon Power, Boston Power, A123 Systems, and Konarka Technologies. The Solyndras of Massachusetts will cease when public and environmental merits drive Massachusetts energy policies.
http://www.storyleak.com/mit-professor-climate-change/
A leading climate change figure has come out against the government’s continued and ridiculous climate change hysteria.
Speaking in regards to Massachusetts’ new $50 million climate change proposal, MIT Professor Richard Lindzen, a leading figure in the climate change movement, pointed out the absurdity of blaming every weather event on global warming and climate change.
“The changes that have occurred due to global warning are too small to account for,” Lindzen told WBZ-TV. “It has nothing to do with global warming, it has to do with where we live.”
Although supporting the theory of man-made global warming, Lindzen admitted that rhetoric from the political class and green movement has been nothing more than over-the-top “catastrophism.”
“Even many of the people who are supportive of sounding the global warning alarm, back off from catastrophism,” Lindzen said. “It’s the politicians and the green movement that like to portray catastrophe.”
Even more surprising, Lindzen goes on to point out the government’s obvious use of climate change alarmism to push greater state control, even warning over politicians’ use of “crony capitalism.”
“Global warming, climate change, all these things are just a dream come true for politicians. The opportunities for taxation, for policies, for control, for crony capitalism are just immense, you can see their eyes bulge,” Lindzen said.
Lindzen has frequently been attacked by climate alarmists for refusing to give into political pressures regarding climate sThe growing number of failed predictions from the global warming crowd has only cooled the public’s belief in recent years.
---The rest of this story is fabulous----- take a moment to read it all
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/06/newspaper-closes-mind-will-no-longer-will-print-skeptical-agw-opinions/
Our View: There is no debate on climate change
The “debate” over the reality and cause of climate change stopped being scientific long ago. Today, the “debate” is nothing more than a distraction that serves a political purpose for those who would stand to lose the most by policies that would curtail the release of carbon from its restful, stable location below the surface of the earth, in the form of fossil fuels, into our environment.
One hundred percent of the current and former UMass Dartmouth scientists participating in an editorial board meeting at The Standard-Times on Tuesday agree both that climate change is occurring and that human activity — particularly the combustion of fossil fuels — has a significant impact on it.
The point was made in the meeting that it is not typical that scientists would agree so broadly. There’s a reason for that: Theories aren’t agreed upon in the scientific community, but facts are.
Theories are debated. Facts are facts.
-------------------
Okay, here are some FACTS:
The Board of Directors (Which I was looking for to start with) is HERE
These guys are no light weights! (What is it with bankers as news board of directors?)
Quoted from various pages within the site:
Wesley R. Edens
Co-Founder, Principal and Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors
Mr. Edens was formerly a partner and managing director of Lehman Brothers.
Peter L. Briger, Jr.
Principal and Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors
Prior to joining Fortress in March 2002, Mr. Briger spent fifteen years at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he became a partner in 1996.
San Francisco
Randal A. Nardone
Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, Principal and Director
New York
Before joining UBS in 1997, Mr. Nardone was a principal of BlackRock Financial Management, Inc
Michael E. Novogratz
Principal and Director
New York
Mr. Novogratz joined Fortress in 2002 after spending 11 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was elected partner in 1998. Mr. Novogratz serves as a member of the New York Federal Reserve’s Investment Advisory Committee on Financial Markets.
Dr. Richard N. Haass
Director
Prior to his current position, Dr. Haass was director of policy planning for the U.S. Department of State, where he was a principal adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell on a broad range of foreign policy concerns, and acted as U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan and the lead U.S. government official in support of the Northern Ireland peace process. From 1989 to 1993, Dr. Haass was special assistant to President George Bush and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. Previously, he served in various posts in the United States Departments of State and Defense.
George W. Wellde, Jr.
Director
Mr. Wellde joined Goldman Sachs in 1979, became a partner in 1992 and a managing director in 1996. In addition, he was branch manager of the Goldman Sachs Tokyo office and head of its Fixed Income Division from 1994 to 1999. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Mr. Wellde worked for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington from 1976 to 1979.
There appears to be a political agenda held by the BOD of South Coast today that has ended the debate on AGW.
Goldman Sachs on Goldman Sachs-
At Goldman Sachs, we believe that capital markets can and should play an important role in creating opportunities to address today’s environmental challenges. The firm has set a $40 billion target for financing and investing in clean technology companies over the next decade. On this page, we share some of our latest thinking on the clean tech market – in sectors such as solar, wind, geothermal, energy-efficiency, green transportation and advanced biofuels – along with efforts to develop market-based solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.
http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/focus-on/clean-technology-and-renewables/index.html?mediaIndex=video1&cid=PS_01_28_06_00_00_00
http://bangordailynews.com/2014/02/07/opinion/residents-in-maines-unorganized-territories-deserve-basic-right-to-have-say-on-wind-projects/
Some years ago, my wife brought home a bumper sticker that read, “No, you can’t have my rights. I’m still using them.” We never did put it on our car. Maybe we should have.
We’re among a small number of rural Mainers who lost a right to have a voice in our communities’ futures. We live in a part of Maine’s Unorganized Territory that overlaps the state’s vast expedited permitting area, the place where large wind projects are fast-tracked under a law created in 2008.
Last month, we were back in Augusta with our neighbors and other Unorganized Territory residents for the second year in a row. We’re working to regain access to a process that was taken from us, perhaps unwittingly, by the Maine Legislature.
When the Legislature rewrote the rules for siting large wind projects, it treated some Unorganized Territory residents differently than all other Mainers. Exclusively for wind developments, it cut the sole connection we had to the body that serves as our planning and zoning authority, the Land Use Planning Commission.
By eliminating our means to participate in how our communities proceed with this type of development, the Legislature made us second-class citizens. We’re the only people in the state — less than 1 percent of Mainers — who’ve been statutorily denied this basic right to process.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/07/31/dpu-chief-crafts-bill-that-aids-son-firm/xvaMIlFZXeUeCv3jO2bjSP/comments.html?p1=ArticleTab_Comments_Top
The state’s top utilities regulator helped craft a solar energy bill from which her son’s solar development firm stood to benefit.
Ann Berwick, chair of the state Department of Public Utilities, attended at least two negotiating meetings this spring at which her son, Dan Berwick, a vice president and lobbyist for Borrego Solar Systems Inc., served as a lead negotiator on behalf of the solar industry in Massachusetts. Those talks were aimed at reaching a compromise bill that would boost solar generation in Massachusetts through financial incentives and other measures, a top priority for the solar-development industry during the past legislative sessions.
http://worcesterherald.com/2014/09/national-grid-proposing-96-increase-november-1st/
Also in Maine, the same announcement was made this morning but looks like it was scrubbed from the web. There are the people I have been writing about. The decision that HOLDER HAD DECIDED TO RESIGN AND MAY GO BACK TO HIS OLD FIRM, WHICH REPRESENTS RENEWABLE FIRMS, MAY PLAY A PART IN THIS AS THE RENEWABLE FIRMS MENTIONED ARE INVOLVED IN SOME VERY NASTY SHIT. I AM ALSO INTRIGUED THAT the chair of the MPUC HAS ALSO DECIDED TO RESIGN TODAY AS WELL. The former chair was bought off by the same guys that bought off the last one who now works for First Wind/Evergreen/UPC/IVPC et.al..
http://pinetreewatchdog.org/adams-investigation-finds-no-conflict/
Folks, your electric bills will double and maybe tripe in the short term, as will your gas and oil prices due to idiotic and very expensive policy blunders.
http://www.wcsh6.com/story/news/local/augusta-waterville/2014/08/28/state-warns-consumers-about-variable-electric-rrates/14757011/
Public Advocate Tim Schneider says his office has received complaints from customers who have seen their electric bills go through the roof, double or even triple what they had been paying. He says some customers didn't know they had signed up for variable rates, while others didn't understand what that would mean. Schneider says those rates are legal, but he believes some of the suppliers do not do an adequate job of disclosing the variable rate clause, or keep it in the "fine print of the contract".
Offshore wind farms are no public benefit
By Barbara Durkin
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/226050-offshore-wind-farms-are-no-public-benefit
The Obama administration and Department of Interior (DOI) have announced their planned Jan 29, 2015 auction of hundreds of thousands of acres of North Atlantic ocean area to wind developers under President Obama’s Climate Action Plan.
While U.S. energy policy should address the needs of citizens for reliable energy sources that are commercially reasonable and reasonably safe, offshore wind has historically failed to deliver these public benefits to Europeans.
UK’s offshore wind energy projects' results should serve as the catalyst for termination by the administration of its proposed ocean auction to wind limited liabilities corporations. U.S. rate and taxpayers are unacceptably exposed by this administration’s blind eye to the UK’s failed offshore wind program. Neither the ocean area the federal government holds in trust for U.S. citizens, nor U.S. citizens themselves, should be exploited by an industry that historically fails to deliver public benefits.
Germany’s flagship BARD Offshore I is a 400MW wind project intended to supply the energy needs of 400,000 households. But Bard Offshore 1 remains out of operation according to industry source Offshore Wind Biz (June 2014) citing: “frequent technical problems with the converter substation,” “a smoldering fire,” “failure of the system,” “five unplanned outages since the beginning of 2014” and “transmission problems.”
WindPowerOffshore (September 19, 2014) reports the Danish company Vattenfall is going to dismantle the Yttre Stengrund in Swedish waters after only 13 years of operation. “Only one in (5) turbines is currently operational.”
Europe’s offshore wind energy endeavors reveal the challenges of the harsh and corrosive marine environment. GE deployed the Cape Wind prototype GE 3.6 MW wind turbines at Arklow, the wind farm offshore of Ireland. GE subsequently “discontinued” the Cape Wind 3.6 MW wind turbine even while Cape Wind, the wind farm planned for offshore Massachusetts, was under permit review by the DOI. That review advanced Cape Wind as a “reliable” energy source.
Cape Wind changed specifications to Siemens 3.6 MW during their power purchase contract negotiations with the national grid. But Siemens is not boasting offshore wind success, according to the Wall Street Journal [1/08/14]:
“Siemens, the world’s largest manufacturer of offshore wind turbines, and its partners concede they underestimated the challenges behind offshore wind. The financial fallout from these challenges was highlighted on Thursday, when Siemens said it booked €128 million ($171 million) in new charges related to connecting offshore wind farms to the power grid. It blamed unexpectedly high costs for shipping, installing and starting up grid components.”
A Spiegel International article ‘Turbine Trouble: Ill Wind Blows for German Offshore Industry’ says, “Operators of offshore wind farms depend on sufficiently high electricity prices to refinance their investments.” This runs contrary to public interest. Citizens need commercially reasonable energy sources that are reliable, while offshore wind energy technology is historically not reliable, yet its price is high.
The stunning and sobering candor of an executive of the “world’s largest” manufacturer of wind turbines, Vestas, would be comical if not for the serious context — billions in public funding along with the sacrifice of the thousands of ocean acres that DOI intends to grant to wind LLCs.
In 2011, Anders Søe-Jensen, then president of the offshore division at Vestas said, “It’s a bit like buying an old crappy car. It’s starts cheap, but spends most of the time in the workshop costing you a fortune, so you didn’t drive much, and your cost per driven mile is staggeringly high. It’s the same with the cost of energy when you look at capital expense and operating costs with overall production.”
While President Obama’s energy goals should be to deploy energy sources that are commercially reasonable, reliable, and reasonably safe, based on the best science, offshore wind has miserably failed to deliver public benefits to Europeans.
U.S. citizens are entitled to a fair return for the use of the nation’s oceanic resources. It’s not too late for President Obama to call off the January 29, 2015 DOI North Atlantic auction that would exclusively serve the interests’ of wind developers.
Senator Carl Levin, below, was addressing the future Director of First Wind, Patrick Wood III, then FERC Chairman charged by President George W. Bush to address corporate fraud by ENRON.
107th Congress transcript states-
Senator Levin: “The Enron scandal began by exposing dishonest accounting at a number of major U.S. companies that, unbeknownst to most, had begun to eat away at the reliability of their financial statements. It has since exposed the conflicts of interest that have made investors distrust investment reports issued by leading U.S. financial firms. It has exposed how those firms have become unwilling participants in shell companies, phony trade deals, and complex financial transactions used to inflate earnings, hide debt, and increase stock prices..”
Levin: “corporate executives have walked away from corporate disasters with millions in their pockets, often from exercising stock options, while pension funds, investors, employees and creditors have lost everything.”
[cut]. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-107shrg83483/html/CHRG-107shrg834...
While former ENRON execs, more than a decade later, dominate the on and offshore wind energy markets, while creating the rules that govern on and offshore wind development.
Patrick Wood III has served as Director of First Wind. The Former Mass Energy Secretary Ian Bowles of Massachusetts is a current Director of First Wind. And, First Wind CEO Paul Gaynor is former MA Deval Patrick’s appointed Advisor to the MA energy secretary (then Ian Bowles) on green policy under the Global Warming Solutions Act. First Wind CEO participated in the development of the first in the nation offshore wind regulators as a Mass Ocean Management Plan "Working Group" member.
Pat Wood III is the former FERC Chair tasked by President G.W. Bush to address energy market manipulation that led to the CA Energy Crisis. While Wood is a long time promoter of ENRON CEO Ken Lay. See FTCR’s Letter to FERC Chairman Pat Wood, III 6/15/04, here-
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/feature/ftcrs-letter-ferc-chairman-...
First Wind Steve Vavrik Vice President, Origination was with ENRON in London in a project development and gas trading capacity. His role at ENRON included trading natural gas forward contracts and negotiating structured power deals.
UPC First Wind President Michael Alvarez is responsible for First Wind operations and assets. After beginning his energy career with GE Capital, he joined ENRON in London…
5/3/08 ‘Enron's ghost, carried on the wind’ Robert Bradley is a 16-year veteran of ENRON, seven of which he spent as a speech writer for Ken Lay. “As Bradley sees it, most of the "green energy" programs that are all the rage now date to initiatives supported by ENRON.”
In 2002, GE with CEO Jeffrey Immelt, spent $358 million to buy the assets of the bankrupt ENRON Corporation, Zond Wind, founded by James Dehlsen in 1980. Months later, GE petitioned the courts for the return of over half the money they spent on ENRON assets claiming the value of these assets wasn't worth the price GE paid. GE’s Immelt led President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
Mike Cutbirth is former head of Global Finance for Zond Corporation and ENRON Wind. He served 4 years as the first CEO of Clipper Windpower formed by ENRON.
The first customer of the $40 million dollar, publicly-funded, Charlestown, MA Wind Turbine Testing Center WAS Clipper Wind, now bankrupt. Clipper Wind was founded by ENRON Director James Dehlsen. Dehlsen also served as an Advisor to the Department of Energy’s Wind Program, testified at the first U.S. Senate hearings on global warming, and was a delegate to the climate change conference in Kyoto, Japan.
The MA Wind Turbine Testing Center Executive Director Rahul Yarala is a staffer at MA Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), that surcharges ratepayers to invest in renewable schemes, and former Director of Engineering at Clipper Windpower, Inc., formed by ENRON. Clipper Wind has since filed for bankruptcy protection as the Wind Turbine Testing Center’s first customer.
ENRON and Offshore Wind-
ENRON Energy Services Chris Wissemann is Fishermen’s Energy Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Freshwater Wind. Wissermann is Chief Operating Officer of Winergy Power, LLC and the Founder of DeepWater Wind, and past President of Garden State Offshore Energy. Wissermann spearheaded legislation to create long term power purchase agreements for DeepWater Wind which he founded.
http://www.fishermensenergy.com/leadership.php
The push is also on in Maine for FW. It is truly criminal. I popped you an email about the latest a few weeks ago and hope you got it.
http://bangordailynews.com/2015/03/18/business/energy-company-seeks-permits-for-wind-testing-towers-in-somerset-county/
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/04/13/former-gov-deval-patrick-join-bain-capital/QEgS648qXMm2KIq1AUySRO/story.html
Deval Patrick is joining the Boston investment giant Bain Capital, where the former governor will start a new line of business, directing investments in companies that produce profits but also have a positive impact on social problems.
Patrick, a Democrat who led the state of Massachusetts for eight years, joins a firm founded by his Republican predecessor in the State House, Mitt Romney.
http://www.dcclothesline.com/2015/06/13/former-massachusetts-governor-deval-patrick-under-investigation-for-embezzlement-of-27-million/
The former governor of Massachusetts is under investigation for diverting money from state funds to use for travel, advertising and other misc. expenses. Rep. David Linsky, House Post Audit Committee announced the investigation on Thursday against his fellow democrat.
Linsky said:
“As is my practice in all investigations, we will always go where the evidence takes us.”
According to the Boston Herald, Patrick diverted 27 million dollars he could use as a slush fund to avoid cutbacks in the budget. Between 2011 and 2014, Patrick and members of his administration spent 1.35 million dollars in overseas travel, including $535,558 in hotel costs, $332,193 in airfare, $305,976 for limousines and ground transportation, and $175,000 in miscellaneous travel expenses.
One of the slush funds was administered by longtime Patrick confidant, Betsy Wall and it sent $17 million to Connelly Partners, an advertising firm that handles advertising for the Massachusetts tourism department. That money will be investigated because either it was laundered or it was spent on advertising for tourism. Either way, Patrick will be in trouble as it’s illegal for him to spend money not allocated by the state legislature. I’m sure the state will make sure the money went to advertising and not part of a kickback scheme.
The bulk of the money was supplied by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. A spokesperson for the MCCA said they transferred the money at the request of Gov Patrick. Other money came from Massport and the Mass Tech Collaborative. The money that came from MTC could create even bigger problems for Patrick as they receive federal money annually and were also granted money by Obama’s stimulus package, making it a possible federal crime.
http://www.windtaskforce.org/m/blogpost?id=4401701%3ABlogPost%3A89777