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.