The SEU in 2008
It is useful to review where we have been with regard to the Sustainable Energy Utility. This is an organization that was created out of thin air by Harris McDowell in 2006. He the presided over an “interim” board that was to define the future of the SEU. Senator McDowell was reticent to declare the SEU a public body, subject to FOIA, but it seems as though that went through.
The interim board was out of compliance with the law that created it, since it continued to meet for months after its mandate had expired. Because they had not finished their tasks, their lawyer advised them that they could continue to operate.
The interim board built a set of bylaws and an RFP for a contract administrator. The bylaws were codified, giving Gov. Minner the power to appoint members to to the board. However, the RFP is already out and the bidding has begun in earnest with two bidding teams. Apparently, the new oversight board will have little say over the structure of that contract, since it pre-dates them.
So let’s sum up here, an interim board constructed an RFP to be overseen by a new oversight board that had no influence on the RFP and that oversight board was appointed by a lame-duck Governor. Got it?
I may be overblowing it a little… wait… I didn’t mention the RGGI money did I? The SEU will receive cash from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to the tune of $14M in 2018. This number could go higher, depending on what the RGGI auction brings in.
The good news is that the contract administrator is insulated from the board. It is a purely meritocratic process. Errr… wait a second… 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.
I gotta get out to one of their meetings and make sure that there is no hanky-panky going on. Hmmm. That’s strange. There don’t seem to be any meetings scheduled. In fact, nothing about meetings appears to have been updated on their website for 6 months. I suppose, in their rush to get all of the work done before anyone can say or do anything, they didn’t get to update the website.
Tags: Harris McDowell, SEU
I guess its time for a FOIA request for the meeting schedule, past and future.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected today to name former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris (not related to Dave) to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.
Thought you guys would like that.
I’ve been trying to follow this. I really, really have. There seems to be a lot of outrage over this issue that I just don’t get. The name McDowell seems to be a swear word around these parts.
So can someone please explain to me, in simple words, what the backstory is? Why is Harris McDowell such a bad guy? What is he getting out of this SEU deal? What the hell is the SEU supposed to do that the state energy office can’t? How can he create something “out of thin air”? Was it created by a state law? Is McDowell profiting personally from this thing?
Thanks muchly.
Here is the connect the dots post that got the ball rolling.
http://delawareliberal.net//2008/04/21/harris-mcdowell-is-using-public-office-for-personal-gain/
And yes, McDowell is a dirty word around here.
Examples: That little McDowell cut me off! That little kid kicked me right in the McDowell. I don’t go there any more, their pizza tastes like McDowell.
The idea of SEU’s go back to the 1970’s. Was the air that thin then?
Hey moron:
In June 2007, Delaware became the nation’s first state to create a Sustainable Energy Utility.
http://www.ncsl.org/magazine/articles/2008/08SLMar08_Fuel-online_extra.htm
Delaware is a follower in the concept.
http://www.nesea.org/about/description.html
The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) was formed in 1974 in the middle of an energy crisis when oil was in short supply and gas prices skyrocketed. A group of builders, architects, engineers, and homeowners decided to band together to design and construct solar buildings-ones that required little or no oil or other fossil fuels. They called themselves the New England Solar Energy Association. They held monthly luncheon meetings at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as workshops for builders and homeowners on such topics as solar water heaters. Even in its earliest years, NESEA organized major regional conferences and published a newsletter to serve as a networking medium for people interested in technological developments, market trends, and government policies related to energy consumption.
In 1985, the New England group joined with similar groups that had started in metropolitan New York and elsewhere in the Mid-Atlantic states. The new combined organized retained the NESEA acronym, but it now stood for the Northeast Solar Energy Association and embraced the entire region from Maine to Washington, DC.
http://www.nesea.org/about/description.html
The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association –
NESEA was formed in 1974
The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association was formed in 1974.
http://www.nesea.org/about/description.html
This is not the same concept. It has some of the same words, but it does not have the power or franchise of a “utility”
The SEU is a scheme to take money from greenhouse gas emissions auctions and a tax on utility bills and use it to offset the increased cost of energy efficiency for homes and businesses. It has the ability to float bonds. In concept, it is probably more good than evil, but McDowell has kept the goings-on secret and he has, at every turn, kept the power close to himself.
He could not answer the question of whether or not his board (created by legislation) was a public body, subject to FOIA. Now, if you look at the loose documentation that has been going on and the amount of money that is involved and the fact that it is the same people involved on all of these incarnations of the SEU there are questions that come up.
This is not just some board that likes solar houses.
Now, if you look at the loose documentation that has been going on and the amount of money that is involved
D’ya think at aome point it might attract Tom Wagner’s attention? or does he have better things to do…