Aug
18
Ill wind from New York
Filed Under Sunrise on KGMB9
Most Hawaii residents like the idea of wind power. Me too. The technology is better these days and works well in Europe. I’ve been up close and heard the noise the turbines make and it’s less than the noise of a truck passing your house or the neighbor’s lawn mower.
I didn’t think anything could turn people against wind power until I read what’s going on in northern New York. Massachusetts-based First Wind and Connecticut-based Noble Environmental Power are under investigation for possible corruption of officials.
The New York Times found several examples of local officials who cast votes favorable to wind power companies while receiving money or contracts from the companies in question.
It gathered a lot of anecdotal information that frankly sounded as if officials were corrupt before these companies ever came on the scene. If a local councilman votes for a company’s development plan, then sells supplies to that company or applies for a job with it, the councilman bears the brunt of responsibility, or ought to.
First Wind is backed by UPC Wind Partners II and owns Evergreen Power. It has wind power holdings in Hawaii — the Kaheawa wind farm on Maui belongs to it — and wants to acquire Molokai Ranch. Some good people here in the islands have gone to work for the company and I think can be counted on to keep things on the up and up.
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