I've lost count of how many times I've asked PATH to quit peeing on my leg and telling me it's raining. However, they continue to insult everyone's intelligence by doing really stupid stuff and hoping we're too dumb to catch on.
Behold the petition to intervene out-of-time of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. Really, fellas? You have gone so far past ridiculous that I think we're going to have to coin a new word to describe your actions this time. We'll call it ridicufarce.
Remember the ridicufarce congestion costs argument that someone pulled out of their behind last month?
That was thoroughly shredded by Robert Fagan of Synapse Energy Economics, the Sierra Club's real expert.
However, the ridicufarce congestion costs are "eyecatching, to say the least" (and I think the less this guy says, the better) to a couple of guys who are now counsel for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. Well, guess what? Your ridicufarce petition has now caught my eye (and sucked away a good portion of my weekend -- thanks a lot, you weasels). Since the pen is mightier than the sword, and my rapier is at the cleaners, I'll deal with you here... for now.
So, the Maryland Chamber of Commerce wants to intervene in the PATH case all of sudden, do they? Why now, when the ratepayers have been paying $15,745 per year for PATH's Platinum Corporate Sponsorship of and "membership" in the Chamber since 2009? (see page 19 of the Formal Challenge) It's almost like someone just rolled out of bed one morning, shouted, "eureka!", and spawned that ridicufarce idea.
Or maybe it's about PATH's inappropriate lobbying (page 37)? However, I'm sure it's just a coincidence that when the Maryland Chamber of Commerce was letting their fingers do the walking through the yellow pages to find an attorney to represent them in the PATH case (remember, "eureka!"), they just happened to land on Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger and Hollander, right? And it's an amazing fluke that Gordon Feinblatt appears on PATH's 2009 vendor detail for lobbying expenses, right? And it's simple serendipity that the two Gordon Feinblatt attorneys who signed the Chamber's petition to intervene, Michael Powell and Todd Chason, appear in the application of PATH-Allegheny paid lobbyists registered to lobby on matters pertaining to Certificate of Need in Maryland, right?
UPDATE: One of our friends has provided a link to the Maryland Public Service Commission's bidding and award process for the Evaluation of PATH. These documents indicate that the award for this consulting work to evaluate PATH's application (to include an evaluation of the economics of PATH) went to a company named Slater Consulting. Where was the MD-PSC's "expert" when Calvin Timmons was getting all excited about PJM's congestion cost evaluation? Why did the PSC even bother hiring an expert if the Assistant Executive Director of the PSC was going to misuse PJM data to come up with his own inexpert conclusions and ignore Slater? Could it be that Timmon's information came, not from the PSC's hired expert or PJM, but from those lobbyists who are being paid to lobby on matters pertaining to Certificate of Need in Maryland? Perhaps someone should look into contact between Timmons, Dean, Powell and Chason. There's something rotten in Baltimore and the smell could indicate that the Maryland PSC's impartiality has already been tainted beyond repair due to the interference of PATH's paid lobbyists in the process of this case.
Does PATH think that they're smarter than the people of Maryland and their Public Service Commission? Apparently so. Quit the ridicufarce, fellas, before someone ends up unemployed, disbarred or in jail. The Gravy Train you're all riding on is heading full-steam ahead for Three State Citizen Coalition Gorge... and the bridge is out!
Behold the petition to intervene out-of-time of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. Really, fellas? You have gone so far past ridiculous that I think we're going to have to coin a new word to describe your actions this time. We'll call it ridicufarce.
Remember the ridicufarce congestion costs argument that someone pulled out of their behind last month?
That was thoroughly shredded by Robert Fagan of Synapse Energy Economics, the Sierra Club's real expert.
However, the ridicufarce congestion costs are "eyecatching, to say the least" (and I think the less this guy says, the better) to a couple of guys who are now counsel for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. Well, guess what? Your ridicufarce petition has now caught my eye (and sucked away a good portion of my weekend -- thanks a lot, you weasels). Since the pen is mightier than the sword, and my rapier is at the cleaners, I'll deal with you here... for now.
So, the Maryland Chamber of Commerce wants to intervene in the PATH case all of sudden, do they? Why now, when the ratepayers have been paying $15,745 per year for PATH's Platinum Corporate Sponsorship of and "membership" in the Chamber since 2009? (see page 19 of the Formal Challenge) It's almost like someone just rolled out of bed one morning, shouted, "eureka!", and spawned that ridicufarce idea.
Or maybe it's about PATH's inappropriate lobbying (page 37)? However, I'm sure it's just a coincidence that when the Maryland Chamber of Commerce was letting their fingers do the walking through the yellow pages to find an attorney to represent them in the PATH case (remember, "eureka!"), they just happened to land on Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger and Hollander, right? And it's an amazing fluke that Gordon Feinblatt appears on PATH's 2009 vendor detail for lobbying expenses, right? And it's simple serendipity that the two Gordon Feinblatt attorneys who signed the Chamber's petition to intervene, Michael Powell and Todd Chason, appear in the application of PATH-Allegheny paid lobbyists registered to lobby on matters pertaining to Certificate of Need in Maryland, right?
UPDATE: One of our friends has provided a link to the Maryland Public Service Commission's bidding and award process for the Evaluation of PATH. These documents indicate that the award for this consulting work to evaluate PATH's application (to include an evaluation of the economics of PATH) went to a company named Slater Consulting. Where was the MD-PSC's "expert" when Calvin Timmons was getting all excited about PJM's congestion cost evaluation? Why did the PSC even bother hiring an expert if the Assistant Executive Director of the PSC was going to misuse PJM data to come up with his own inexpert conclusions and ignore Slater? Could it be that Timmon's information came, not from the PSC's hired expert or PJM, but from those lobbyists who are being paid to lobby on matters pertaining to Certificate of Need in Maryland? Perhaps someone should look into contact between Timmons, Dean, Powell and Chason. There's something rotten in Baltimore and the smell could indicate that the Maryland PSC's impartiality has already been tainted beyond repair due to the interference of PATH's paid lobbyists in the process of this case.
Does PATH think that they're smarter than the people of Maryland and their Public Service Commission? Apparently so. Quit the ridicufarce, fellas, before someone ends up unemployed, disbarred or in jail. The Gravy Train you're all riding on is heading full-steam ahead for Three State Citizen Coalition Gorge... and the bridge is out!
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