LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Deval Patrick’s shift on turbine plans may hit power users like storm 

Credit:  By Jay Fitzgerald, Boston Herald, www.bostonherald.com 20 December 2010 ~~

A broken campaign pledge by Gov. Deval Patrick could end up costing Massachusetts ratepayers big bucks if yet another massive wind farm is built off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

When he first ran for governor in 2005, the then-relatively unknown Patrick broke out of the Democratic pack by endorsing the controversial Cape Wind project.

But Patrick’s support came with a little-noticed catch: He said Cape Wind’s developer should compromise by agreeing to a 10-year freeze on electric rates once the 130-turbine wind farm was “up and running.”

“And I expect to find and reach that compromise with the developer as governor,” Patrick was quoted as saying by Cape Cod Today in October 2005. The Providence Journal also reported on then-candidate Patrick’s “rate freeze” vow.

But five years later, Patrick’s Department of Public Utilities approved a 15-year Cape Wind rate deal with 3.5 percent annual increases – on top of a starting rate that’s more than twice the current cost of electricity generated by fossil-fuel generated power plants.

Bob Keough, a Patrick administration spokesman, said annual rate increases are now standard in most offshore wind projects, both here and elsewhere.

“This was five years ago,” Keough said of Patrick’s rate-freeze pledge. “It was not clear at the time how contracts would be structured.”

Now Deepwater Wind is proposing a massive 200-turbine, offshore wind farm in federal waters southwest of Martha’s Vineyard – and its owner says he’s going to seek a similar rate deal as Cape Wind.

While Deepwater Wind plans to ask for a starting rate price a little below Cape Wind’s beginning rate, the New Jersey developer also wants annual increases similar to what Cape Wind will get.

“That type of escalation is not unusual,” Bill Moore, the CEO of Deepwater, told the Herald.

Moore said his firm has already submitted rate bids to Nstar, the Bay State’s second largest electric utility, which is now reviewing clean-energy rate proposals submitted by various firms.

With a construction price tag of about $2 billion, Cape Wind’s rate contract with National Grid – which is buying half of the wind farm’s electricity – is expected to cost ratepayers about $2.7 billion over 15 years.

With a construction price tag of about $4 billion to $5 billion, Deepwater’s final rate deal with New England utilities could financially dwarf the Cape Wind deal.

Critics say Patrick should have held the campaign-pledge line with Cape Wind, but now it’s too late for Deepwater and other future offshore wind farms.

“It shows they promised lower prices, and we’re not getting lower prices,” said Bob Rio, a senior vice president at Associated Industries of Massachusetts, a business group that has been a harsh critic of Cape Wind’s costs.

Keough said Cape Wind and other future offshore wind projects will have stable prices over the years, compared to volatile price changes associated with fossil fuels.

Source:  By Jay Fitzgerald, Boston Herald, www.bostonherald.com 20 December 2010

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon