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.