byte&chew

Just off the press.........

Clean Power Development

130 Pembroke Rd.

Suite 100

Concord, NH 03301

603-224-4053

 

 

For Immediate Release

 

 Clean Power Development (CPD) has received the draft conclusions from ISO New England regarding analysis of interconnection for its renewable energy project in Berlin, NH onto the regional transmission system known as the Coos Loop.  This study concludes the result from months of extensive evaluation of the existing transmission system to determine if the interconnection of CPD’s 29 MW biomass power plant would have any adverse effect on, or require additional upgrades to the system.

 

Siemens Power Technologies conducted the study for ISO-NE and determined that the project would cause no relevant thermal or voltage violations in the system.  Their further analysis showed that the 29 MW biomass power plant would not cause the system to be overloaded.

 

Favorable results from this important study represents yet another milestone achieved in the long and expensive development process undertaken by CPD to bring this regionally beneficial renewable energy project to fruition. 

 

For additional comments, or for the answers to any questions, please contact

Bill Gabler

603-224-4053

 Cell 603-481-0696

bill@cleanpowerdevelopment.us

Communication, A+

I want to let you know that I read each and every comment that is posted on byte&chew and that I appreciate everybody's contribution to this blog. To date I never had to remove anybody's comment (came close) which is a tribute to all of you. Some of you are prolific contributors and the information you bring to the community as a whole is very important to the proper functioning of our democracy. I often have to remind myself when I post that, it's always best to keep a positive tone to what I have to say even when the topic is rather negative or against one thing or another. This is not always easy, but as my father taught me, "even if you're telling someone to go to hell, there's a better chance of that happening if you say please". So my post of a few days ago should have read "Please Go To Hell Laidlaw", on the subject of the $10K PR stunt by Laidlaw. So dad, you were right, I did not say "please" and they're still here! .... As I read the comments this past week, I came to the conclusion that our City government is not working like a well oiled machine, but more like a dysfunctional family. Berlin is our community family and, much like any dysfunctional family it's often very difficult to really see, never mind understand, where the problems really are. In a dysfunctional family most of the family members have no clue as to what role they play in the scheme of things. The matter is even more serious when the head of the family is the source of the problem, but keep in mind that nobody in that family unit escapes the impact, there's no place to hide. When a mom or dad have serious social or health issues even the youngest child's life suffers from the impact of the problem and the child becomes part of the total turmoil. As a City, if we have a dysfunctional City Hall, if staff and Mayor & Council are not in harmony, then the rest of the community pays the price and becomes part of the problem. We also need to keep in mind that nobody's family or city is 100% functional, but an effort at identifying and correcting the flaws should be an ongoing task. The best tool to address the issues that plague all human institutions is good communications. I hope that this blog and the efforts of Erik Eisele of The Berlin Reporter help facilitate some of the communication that needs to take place in our community.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

To be honest, I'm still fuming over the $10,000 bribe to the Youth Hockey League by Laidlaw. It's so....demeaning of our community and its people. It's bad enough reading the comments of LLEG investors who regularly make fun of us as being backwards, broke, destitute and desperately burning down our properties and too stupid to recognize the "Laidlaw opportunity", but to have them come to the community and smear that attitude in our faces with this bribe.....makes my blood boil. Laidlaw is still a pig, I don't care how much lipstick they put on it, it will never turn into a silk purse either. There's nothing honorable about this company, their history is riddled with lies, empty promises and unpaid bills. They've left a trail of victims across several states and Berlin is just beginning to feel the effects of their venom. The dirty dozen committee headed by Max is also a fraud trying to sugar coat the negative impacts with empty promises. Like it or not, the former City Administration drove us into a cesspool and now we have to deal with the task of cleaning up the mess. These same characters are in the wings waiting for the November elections so they can stir the same sh//...ingredients and again and continue to sell our community to the highest bidder. I did it again! I worked myself-up into a %%#$@% dither.

Go to hell

Front page in today's The Berlin Daily Sun "Laidlaw commits to $10,000 for Berlin Youth Hockey". Let me be quite clear about my position on Laidlaw, I personally believe that the old recovery boiler and 300ft stack is an eyesore and will have a long term negative impact on Berlin and any attempt for the City to re-invent itself. I admit to my prejudice up front and I'm sure this prejudice is contributing to my feelings about this latest "ploy" by Laidlaw management. I'm outraged and disgusted by this obvious move to sucker people to think Laidlaw is our friend/godsend. To me it only demonstrates to what level this company will stoop to pollute the minds of the locals and I hope it blows-up in their face. This PR move by Laidlaw is an insult to every resident of Berlin, its hockey community and to our kids who are being used as pawns by this two bit (sorry, $.0008) penny stock company.  I'm disgusted and insulted!!  As much as they can use the money, I hope that the Berlin Youth Hockey Association turns down the offer and, they remind Laidlaw that our Youth Hockey League and our City can't be bribed or bought. (Maybe suggest that they take the money and pay their bills in Ellicottville) I further believe that it's an insult for Laidlaw to even believe that they can use our Youth Hockey program to further their questionable financial ambitions. Go to hell Laidlaw, you're proving what the folks in Ellicottville said about you and how you do business. I also wonder out loud ...who had the twisted mind to come up with this disgusting PR stunt? Now there's a friend of Berlin!

Hostage to PSNH

While talking to a friend of mine today, I was reminded that Clean Power Development is all but ready to go forward with the construction of their biomass facility in Berlin. The obstacle he said, was PSNH. As most readers of this blog know, PSNH has refused to sit down to negotiate a power purchase agreement with Clean Power because they claim, "Mr. Mel Liston of Clean Power is a bad man". Strange don't you think that, PSNH can make a deal with Laidlaw/Mr. Michael Bartoszek (a good man?) who sued the town of Ellicottville NY and left a trail of unpaid bills there, but won't talk to Mel Liston. I think somebody needs to ask PSNH what in their eyes makes Mr. Liston such a "bad man"? I challenge Erik Eisele of The Berlin Reporter to interview PSNH and Mel Liston and write a story about this poisoned relationship. The story is important because PSNH is standing in the way of Berlin moving ahead with the Clean Power project. The CPD project is important to Berlin for several reasons. It's the right size project for Berlin, its steam will help the Cascade Mill survive, it will save and create jobs and, it will allow Berlin to establish a community central heating system, a concept that Mr. Liston supports. We the citizens of Berlin need to let our elected officials and the PUC know that we're watching how they deal with the Clean Power complaint against PSNH. Jon Edwards has explained in great detail on this blog how to contact the PUC and be put on the docket, the PUC needs to hear that we don't appreciate Berlin being held hostage by PSNH.

Labor Day & Lancaster Fair

As a native of Berlin, my thoughts always turn to the Lancaster Fair on this, Labor Day weekend.  As a kid I was always torn by the fact that I couldn't wait to go to the Fair, but it also meant that I was going back to school. Why is life such that, it always seems to be that there's a price to pay for the things we want in life. We often have to toil at jobs we don't like in order to afford things we need or want, drive for hours to see people we want close by and give up our youth in order to retire and enjoy(?) life. To be where we want to be in our own time seems to be a rare privilege.  .... In the back of my mind there seems to be a connection between my feelings about Labor Day and the Lancaster Fair and the struggle I feel in my gut about Berlin and the Laidlaw project. Laidlaw seems to be the price the community is being asked to pay for the promise of 40 jobs and a better economy. The 40 jobs are like the cotton candy and vinegar soaked french fries at the Fair, but then this was followed by days, weeks and months spent in school. Much like how I looked at life as a kid, I believe that many of the locals who support Laidlaw feel that the immediate gratification of those 40 jobs is worth the negative impact of the biomass plant  for years to come. My metaphor is breaking down as I write this post, because when I think about it, I had no choice about going back to school the day after the Lancaster Fair, but we have a choice about Laidlaw. The real question is summed up by the question about the price of those 40 jobs. Will the presence and operation of the Laidlaw plant cost Berlin and the valley a disproportional cost to the benefit of those 40 jobs? We already know that other developers and investors have turned their backs on Berlin because of the possibility of the Laidlaw plant becoming reality. How many jobs has Berlin already lost because of that boiler and stack?  It's next to impossible to quantify negative impacts. ....Well, I've tortured the metaphor and the issue long enough, I'll close this post by remembering all those workers who spent their entire lives working in our mills and who put Berlin on the map.

Of by and for the people

It appears that the Laidlaw target keeps moving. The promise for Laidlaw to file their EFSEC application by the end of August seems to be just one more of those statements that are either false or that can't be verified. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then the road to the Laidlaw project is not only paved, but it's a six lane highway with no speed limits! I'm still of the opinion that the company will at some point file the application, but that the EFSEC Committee will not grant the permit. I base that prediction on many technical aspects of this project and the long standing saga of Laidlaw Energy. History teaches us that Mr. Bartoszek doesn't give up that easy and there's several examples of that with the Berlin project as well as in Ellicottville NY. Keep in mind that there's money to be made promising that there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I had a conversation with a high level political figure last week about the Laidlaw issue and I told him that I felt confident that the Laidlaw project will never be approved "if" the EFSEC Committee and the NHPUC do their job objectively and professionally.I know that some of the followers of this blog have given up on the honesty and integrity of these government agencies, but I'm naive enough to believe that given the high profile of this project, these public agencies may just do their jobs as required by law. That's why it's so important that we continue to let our elected officials and various agencies know that many of us are watching this project very closely and that we expect them to represent the best interest of its citizens, not of special interest.

Next level ^

Over the past couple years and since I first posted byte&chew, I've noticed that there's specific topics that evoke numerous hits and comments. This week we've seen the greatest number of hits/readers since the  inception of this blog, averaging over 300 per day. (Why this week?) There's no question that the Laidlaw project brings folks out. When I've attempted to broaden the focus of issues,  the comments by readers brings us right back to Laidlaw. I'm also aware of the fact that many of the readers are folks that have a vested interest in Laidlaw. Quite often comments or issues posted on byte&chew end up being copied to other blogs and provoke comments by Laidlaw investors from all over the country. I'm of the belief that byte&chew has been the best source of information about Laidlaw and Mr. Bartoszek because of the quality of information the participants have contributed to this blog. I think that we need to recognize that this is what sociologist refer to as "social media" and, I believe it's a very powerful tool. I'm also aware that "we" of byte&chew are a small minority, but the issues and information we talk about are shared by the majority. Only recently and only because of the insight of a new reporter at The Berlin Reporter can residents access information beyond the boring conversations of public meetings. I bring these issues up at this time because I continue to believe that we need to have a larger audience if we're going to have a significant impact on issues and on the political leadership of Berlin and the North Country. For example, when I read about statements made by the County Commissioners about Laidlaw and biomass in general, I question where they're getting their information. From Laidlaw? Do our politicians receive information from sources other than those who lobby the issues? Who is lobbying for us, the average citizen? Over the next week or so, let's see if we can promote byte&chew to our neighbors and friends. Let's see if we can move this blog to the next level, a level where our collective conversation can't be ignored by our leadership.

A "Real" deal

                    Bill Gabler of Clean Power Development and Willis Blevins of Fraser Papers                          

Happy hour

I bet that all of us have experienced having a feeling that "something is about to happen". I must admit that most of the time that I've had "that" feeling, nothing happened. At the moment I have "that" feeling, that something is in the air, that something either good or bad is about to break. I feel that there's a lot of tension in the air, it's the economy, unemployment data, the health care debate, the Laidlaw boiler sitting there menacingly, all of these issues distracting us from enjoying summer. At times like this I want the world to >STOP< so I can get off! In less than 3 weeks it will be September, the kids will be back in school and we'll all be standing around asking, "where in hell did summer go?" I have my fingers crossed that whatever it is that's going to happen,.....I hope it's something positive. Maybe I need to stop reading the newspapers and forget about things like people falling off their bikes coming down Mt. Washington or crazy made-up stories about the Canadian Health System just to scare us to do nothing about our own rip-off health care system. Is it happy hour yet? Let's meet at the Yard.