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More PATH spying, bullying and intimidation

7/22/2010

17 Comments

 
After attending all three tri-state area EIS Scoping Meetings on three consecutive evenings, I am both amused and appalled at PATH's actions at these meetings. What I am not, however, is intimidated in the least.

The Scoping Meetings are designed to hear comments and gather input from the public -- this means affected citizens are to be drawn into the process.  The applicants have already provided their input in the form of a voluminous application, as well as over the past year with monthly update conferences with the EIS contractor.  They will receive plenty of opportunity in the future, as this process continues, to make their concerns known.  Despite this, PATH felt it necessary to turn these citizen-directed meetings into some sort of corporate staff meeting, press conference and opportunity to use paid talent to gather information about their opposition to be used in future advertising campaigns.  Shame on you!

There were at least 8 - 10 PATH executives from Allegheny Energy and AEP present at each meeting, where they stood in their little clusters and took up space, milled around from station to station reading the comment pads, and eavesdropped on what the citizens were saying to the staff and each other.  Despite the memo to dress casual and blend in, they stuck out like sore thumbs.  Was it their obsessive staring?  Or was it that the citizens have actually seen them before at various meetings and events?

They received a surprise on the first night when it was announced an hour into the meeting that public comment would be given at 7:00.  And here they were without their little tape recorders or any shills to stack the speakers' pool!  I notice they did manage to record or broadcast the audio with a blackberry-gadget, but that was highly noticeable.  The second night, they came prepared with their hidden recording devices and their shill from Virginians for Reliable Energy (notice Corporate Partners under the "Coalition" tab).  Unfortunately for them, nobody bought it and they ended up embarrassing themselves.

Allegheny's Randy Palmer confirmed via email that Matt Sutton, Director of Strategy and Research at Charles Ryan Associates, was contracted by PATH to attend all the meetings and "observe".  Randy says that this expense will be recovered from ratepayers under the FERC formula rate (it's being charged to you in your electric bill).  But, Sutton never left the lobby at the Purcellville meeting, so what was he observing?  The conversations of the opponents in the lobby?  They should have sent Matt the memo about attire, those neon polos didn't help him at bit.

The idiocy of Allegheny's Jeff Trout (Senior Attorney, State Regulatory, Maryland and Virginia) at the Frederick meeting took the prize.  He was observed stopping while walking through the parking lot and taking multiple pictures of the rear of the vehicle of one of the PATH opponents -- where the license plate is located.  When confronted, he claimed to be taking a picture of the protest sign taped to the back window.  When questioned as to who he was and what he was doing, he demanded to know who we were, but ended up admitting that he already knew who we were (although we had never met him before).  How did he know?  Has Allegheny been doing some spying on their citizen opponents?  Duh.  Some attorney... he immediately became intimidated and spilled his guts.  Jeff was accompanied across the parking lot by Gary Alexander, Maryland Office of People's Counsel, who tried to take the blame, saying he encouraged Jeff to do it because the sign was so "creative".  What was Jeff going to do with his picture?  Put it in his trophy case?  Take it back to Allegheny Energy in Greensburg so they could all have a good laugh at the expense of the citizens who are going to lose everything they worked for their entire lives and develop cancer from an unneeded transmission line? If he wanted a souvenir, there were plenty for sale in the lobby by the Maryland opposition groups, or maybe he could have asked Randy to borrow his StopPATH t-shirt? Gary seems to have the same problem as his friend in West Virginia, Byron Harris.  Welcome to the club, Maryland citizens!  Both of them then proceeded to argue with us about the new line PJM's TEAC shows coming from the proposed Kemptown substation heading to Salem, NJ (page 14, right where we said it was).  If they are truly this clueless, God bless them, and in the case of Gary, the citizens of Maryland.

Seriously -- what ever happened to the patient Buddhist mountain-top guru act?  PATH seems to be spinning out of control in desperation because they have lost any integrity or chance to influence public opinion.  I'm sure they "observed" how coordinated and knowledgeable the large opposition in all three states is, as well as how far PATH has sunk in the court of public opinion.  This is one fight they are going to lose.  Good luck, Matt.  You're going to need it.









17 Comments
Anon
7/22/2010 09:32:07 am

From the TEAC link:

BG&E proposal for a new 500 kV line from Kemptown to Peach Bottom with 500/230 kV substation at Emory Grove (near Northwest)
• Maryland OPC and DNR suggested that (C- PB-K) be reevaluated
• PSE&G suggested that (C-PB-K) be extended to Salem

Maryland OPC = Maryland Office of Peoples Council? Is that werhe Gary was from. Smells to me!@!!!!!!!!!

Reply
Da hillbilly
7/23/2010 05:40:19 am

Who ever is responsible for the content of this entry is GENIUS! It's kind of odd that they (PATH IDIOTS) have to hire alot of people and give them paychecks to spy on the activities designed FOR THE PEOPLE! By the way... they are paying for this (spying)with YOUR MONEY! It is "reflected", albiet kind of snuck in there, on your monthly electric bill. While the citzens have to do things like have yard sales and metal recycling to make the huge amount it takes to fight this stuff. Finally, the citizens are working hard to fight a fight they NEVER intended to be in ... and they're WINNING!

Reply
harry blackwell
7/23/2010 08:49:15 am

its true.............not all guys can wear pink

Reply
8
7/23/2010 10:00:05 am

Now I know why they used to have that old corporate security dude at all their hearings and meetings. It was not to keep us from doing things to them. It was to keep their employees from doing things to us.

Reply
CVN
7/23/2010 07:42:35 pm

Is that guy pickin his teeth????????

GROSS!!!

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anonymous
7/23/2010 11:46:48 pm

those alleghany guys taking pictures of people's cars look like the creeps you don't want to see hanging around your kid's playground

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annony-mouse
7/24/2010 06:43:34 am

Pathetic! I smell desperation, you got that right!

They ARE going to lose. How many lawsuits are the citizens going to file for harrassment? Say by-by to all that profit, Allegheny!

Reply
don't want to be spied on
7/24/2010 08:33:07 pm

This only proves the citizens point. It's not about what's best for the public, keeping their lights on and strengthening the grid, they only have our interests in mind, etc.

It's about money. It's about a huge profit. Only money could motivate corporations to stoop to this level. You'd think an attorney, for god's sake, would know better than to be caught taking pictures of a private citizen's vehicle. Unbelievable! If this is what they are openly doing, I wonder what kind of spying are they doing with private detectives and via the internet, telephones, etc. that they haven't been caught at yet. Notice I say YET. These citizens are much smarter than the power companies and have amazing resources within their groups which are drawn from the very cross-section of society the power companies chose with their project's location. They picked it, and now they are being served the fruit of their harvest.

They are so damned arrogant they keep digging their own grave. I hope they see this as the warning it is and check themselves before we get future reports of paid thugs showing up on citizen doorsteps for some kneecap breaking.

What won't these corporations do for money! The citizens are only trying to rightfully protect what is theirs, and this is one of our country's founding principles. I think you ought to press charges against them.

Reply
Keryn
7/25/2010 10:53:45 pm

UPDATE: Complaint has now officially been filed.

Reply
gamer
7/27/2010 01:37:45 am

Hahaha! It is funny to see how bad the opposition is scaring these stooges. They know they are going to lose and the only chance they have is to to attack people.
They hate that they cannot divide and conquer and that the opposition is strong and united. Issues like this bring out a certain kind of crusading personality and leaders will self-select. The ones most heavily involved are now aligned with others who have a lot of the same personality traits. People who otherwise may have never met each other are now not only co-workers but friends too.
That sucks for PATH and is one of the big reasons that they are losing.
We have been so successful at spreading the truth (our message) that they are completely shut out now. Nobody believes a word of their b.s. They can hire all the consultants they want but it will not help them a bit. It is just a waste of OUR money. The battle for the public's ear is long since over and PATH has lost.

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JustMePowerOfOne
7/27/2010 06:13:18 am

Here's another thought. Do they have to pay with a slush fund or get specific work orders approved? If its slush its legally dangerous. If its work orders, its slow as molasses. THIS is the beauty of the information age. Citizens nimbly maneuvering real time changes while the old dudes (that is in mentality - not birth age)are trying to change the course of the Titanic! The days of "too big to fail" are over. Also, thanks for the suggestion on bringing charges -- Maybe they already have company in their pathetic spy games. Gettin' hot in here!

Reply
IT
7/28/2010 10:37:47 pm

Knock, knock!
Who's there?
Cyveillance.
Cyveillance who?
Cyveillance, the internet spying company retained by PATH.
I'm sorry, but you can't come in. Randy Palmer swears you're not working on behalf of PATH, so you have no business here.

Go away.

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@home
7/29/2010 07:26:39 am

Are you calling Randy a liar?

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IT
7/29/2010 11:15:39 am

If the t-shirt fits, wear it, Randy!

What's worse than getting caught trying to intimidate citizens at a federal public meeting?

Sending your cyber spy contractor to the citizens website to index the photos of your employees trying to intimidate the citizens and racking up the billable hours because the citizens resist being spied on.

I promise we'll leave them here forever and ever and PATH can come and look at them any time they want, just quit wasting OUR money on this crap.

Some greedy corporations never learn....

Reply
Da Hillbilly
7/30/2010 07:50:10 am

If the shirt fits indeed. I attended three of the four scoping meetings put on by the National Park Service/Forest Service. I found the representing staff to be curious as well as cooperative. However, I also found it quite odd that there were many representatives of Allegheny Power, American Electric, Dan Ryan Associates (the P.R. firm representing PATH), etc. to be in attendance. Why would any of these people be attending a scoping meeting and most of all, WHY ARE WE AS RATEPAYERS PAYING FOR THEM TO BE THERE???? I can think of no reason whatsoever for someone from a P.R. firm to be at this type of meeting. I found these "goons" to be counterproductive to the purpose of the meetings. At one point Randy Palmer (lead council for Allegheny Energy) asked me point blank, "when are you all going to give up?" I responded to him with, "when you all decide to do the RIGHT thing." I think it's obvious that this kind of discussion was not the intent of the N.P.S. or the Forest Service when these scoping meetings were planned.

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Never
8/1/2010 11:04:06 pm

Give up? Allegheny thinks we're going to give up? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!

This is about people losing their homes. This is about people living in a hazardous EMF soup. For a transmission line that's not even needed and is only about corporate $$$$$.

Hell no. I think Randy Palmer needs to give up.

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Da Hillbilly
8/2/2010 07:44:32 pm

Randy will never give up as long as the huge corporate salary checks (THAT WE PAY FOR) keep coming in or he is defeated. People like him are in life for one thing ... MONEY! I venture to say that he would not have his family living in a situation like this that he is advocating. However, as long as he or his family doesn't have to live there and the money still comes, he cares nothing about the rest of humanity. As was stated by "Never", they are dealing with peoples lives, health, heritage, environment, and overall quality of life. We are in this fight, NOT BY CHOICE, but because we are passionate about doing things the right way. What is being proposed is fundamentally WRONG! In the end our passion for survival is much stronger than plain and simple GREED!

Reply



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    About the Author

    Keryn Newman blogs here at StopPATH WV about energy issues, transmission policy, misguided regulation, our greedy energy companies and their corporate spin.
    In 2008, AEP & Allegheny Energy's PATH joint venture used their transmission line routing etch-a-sketch to draw a 765kV line across the street from her house. Oooops! And the rest is history.

    About
    StopPATH Blog

    StopPATH Blog began as a forum for information and opinion about the PATH transmission project.  The PATH project was abandoned in 2012, however, this blog was not.

    StopPATH Blog continues to bring you energy policy news and opinion from a consumer's point of view.  If it's sometimes snarky and oftentimes irreverent, just remember that the truth isn't pretty.  People come here because they want the truth, instead of the usual dreadful lies this industry continues to tell itself.  If you keep reading, I'll keep writing.


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