The SEU: New Characters, Same Script
This morning I attended the SEU oversight board’s February meeting. A few days ago I got an email from the guy responsibe for notifying those of us on the SEU mailing list of impending meetings. The email included an agenda and the location/time of the meeting.
When I arrived, I asked for and received a copy of the previous months minutes. Apparently the legislative aide didn’t get the invite out in January. One of the thing sthat stood out for me was that there was an executive session in January to discuss the selection of a Contract Administrator. It turns out that this was the source of a great deal of chatter before the meeting, since the News Journal wrote a piece on the selection today. It turns out that the CA position has been filled by Harris McDowell’s buddy and henchman, Ralph Nigro. His company is Applied Energy. I wrote about them in December:
The technical consultant for the SEU is a guy named Ralph Nigro. How do I know that name? Oh yeah, he is a VP for Applied Energy, one of the SEU Contract Administrator bidders. He was also one of the guys involved in the Copeland/McDowell/Speck inquisition of Arnetta McRae over the whole Bluewater Wind deal.
So Ralph got what he wanted. The first order of business this morning was to select a Chair for the Oversight Board. It was suggested that the board may need co-chairs, so they voted on and approved that idea. Guess who was nominated to be the co-chairs? Yes, Harris McDowell and John Byrne. The motion passed unanimously (except that I raised my hand when they asked if anyone opposed the selection to no avail).
The agenda that I got via email was pretty straightforward, but when we arrived, it had been changed to include an executive session. So after McDowell and Byrne were named as chairs, they adjusted the agenda and went into executive session to discuss the negotiation strategy to deal with the vendor for the bond sales. People were not amused by this blackout of information. There was some dissention in the ranks of us in the hall (about a dozen of us).
About 20 minutes later we were allowed to return and the meeting progressed to the SEU Board Orientation. Overall, the presentation was pretty interesting if you are into using market forces to reduce CO2 emissions and encourage efficiency. I have no doubt that the SEU is a good idea. I just have huge issues with the secrecy and shenanigans pulled by McDowell and his merry men.
I will say this; there were people on the board that were asking the right questions about how savings were calculated and about avoiding conflicts of interest. There is 65% of the RGGI money on the line with the SEU, so we have to watch to make sure that the buddy-system doesn’t suck it all up.
Thanks Geek for keeping an eye on this matter. It looks like McDowell and friends have gone rogue on this and we’re going to have to raise a big public fuss before it is all over. There’s an awful lot of money here and the temptation must be almost overwhelming.
Ditto Rebecca. Thanks geek for keeping tabs and sharing with us.
These people just plod on shame-free.
I hope Gov. Markell gets around to probing all this.
If only… From the News Journal story:
Gov. Jack Markell said he didn’t want to weigh in on the issue, because “it was done by the prior administration.”
Holy Crap…. so what you are saying is that Nigro’s company AEG won the RFP bid, which was announced to the SEU in its Jan. 14 meeting, for which the public notification was conveniently dropped, and then the announcement turns up in the News Journal on Feb. 3?
What a bunch of fucking weasels.
Jack Markell, please reconsider your comment about staying out of this.
I think the deal is that the Delaware Energy Office made the decision. The board was informed about the progress at the Jan 14th meeting.
From the minutes:
A presentation to the board was made by Charlie Smisson, State Energy Coordinator, with expertise also provided by volunteers from the CA Selection Advisory Committee.
CA = Contract Administrator
with expertise also provided by volunteers from the CA Selection Advisory Committee.
Geek… do you know who these volunteers are?
Yes.
Charles Smisson – DOE
Brian Gallagher – Consultant to State Energy Coord.
Bert Scoglietti – OMB
Michael Sheehy – Public Advocate
Trenton Allen – CitiGroup
Phil Cherry – DNREC (ex-officio member)
Incidentally, Phil Cherry was the only non-SEU person allowed to stay for the executive session. I believe that they asked him to come back in.
If there was ever any doubt that the General Assembly needs FOIA here’s the prime example!
It is just so tiring keeping track of these crooks so kudos to you for the great blogging.
I loved this:
The motion passed unanimously (except that I raised my hand when they asked if anyone opposed the selection to no avail).
The SEU IS under FOIA, as I recall. Patty Blevins insisted on it. They should have publicly noticed the January meeting.
@ Jason, It did illicit a chuckle from a few people around me. Luckily McDowell didn’t see it or I’d have been killed in a freak accident on the way to the parking lot.
@ RGGI – it was on the website, but the people on the mailing list didn’t get an email. There were several people that normally make it to these things that never heard about the meeting.
Did they follow the FOIA procedures in moving to an executive session – a publicly held vote to do so? And did they provide a statutory provision in FOIA that allows for an executive session on the subject to be discussed?
Also, was Frank Murphy still the Board’s lawyer?
Thanks for the information.
John Flaherty made Frank Murphy declare which specific cause he was claiming for the executive session.
You can learn all about the SEU here
http://www.seu-de.org/documents.html
As far as I am concerned it is all part of the “Buddy system” Used to be these matters were handles by the Public Service Commission. The Commission consists of 29 people. Not to mention the non-Public Advocate Office. None of them have the time to cerncern themselves with the matters “grabbed” by the SEU?
Just asking
Oh, so much money, hard to let go. Everybody makes money…..
Recession be damned
Just for a good laugh, If you go to SEU’s mission statement
you’ll find:
Mission
The Sustainable Energy Taskforce will investigate the feasibility of establishing a Sustainable Energy Utility and a Solar Lifeline service in the State of Delaware and will draft legislative proposals for that purpose.
To accomplish this mission, the Task Force will:
Identify national best practices to promote customer-sited renewable energy and energy efficiency and conservation services……
LMAO was it not the SEU’s head Harris McDowell who fought us to hard on the Windpower issue. To the point where he brought in an “expert” with only “deregulation “experience which he pushed
(he was not cheap either) Money did not matter
Have some fun, look it up
http://www.seu-de.org/index.html
Citibank? What a bunch of transparent shysters!
Sorry Jack! Just like Obama can’t look forward without looking back on the torture, civil rights abuses, thievry of our treasury….you can’t continue to look forward without looking back at the corruption that goes on in Delaware politcs….why are these democrats protecting Harris McDowell….from the AG’s office to the Auditors office, and every office in between.
Its time to call for a federal investigation as to how federal monies are used here in this State. How federal dollars requiring a 50% match by the State are actually calculated?
How national accredidation groups who have the contract to review our prisons, hospitals, nursing homes, group homes etc, rarely seem to find any real negligence, or abuse or theft of funds. Why is that?
Biden, Carper, Castle: see no evil, hear no evil…there is no evil.