I keep hoping that Clean Line Energy Partners will invest in some media training for "director of development" Mark Lawlor. When this guy gets stressed out by reporters he says the dumbest things! When interviewed recently about the Illinois Supreme Court's opinion that Clean Line's RICL project is not a public utility, and how that might impact the Grain Belt Express project, Lawlor said:
“Anytime you have legal clouds pending, you’re not going to spend a lot of time with that uncertainty,” said Lawlor. “We’ll see how the decisions play out before we put a lot of people to work building the project.”
Legal clouds? A decision by the Illinois Supreme Court is just a "legal cloud" that could blow away any day now? Not hardly. But more interesting is Lawlor's admission that he's "not going to spend a lot of time with that uncertainty."
Wack-a-mole, Waldo? No matter how many moles you whack, more are going to pop up somewhere else, you know... sort of like I've been telling you for years. So why bother spending all that money on an appeal in Missouri (not to mention your very expensive political spokespuppet, Jay Nixon), when Illinois has determined your projects cannot be public utilities until sometime down the road after they're built?
Because this finally gets pretty close to the truth... it's not about simply purchasing some land. It's about Clean Line not being able to use eminent domain to condemn land for its projects in Illinois. Without eminent domain, Clean Line would have to negotiate with each and every landowner to purchase right of way. No sweat, Clean Line has been telling the public that it wasn't applying for eminent domain for years and that it planned to negotiate fairly with each and every landowner to secure right of way. So, what happens now when Clean Line has to actually do it? It's legal clouds, uncertainty, and doom and gloom for the project. That's because Clean Line wasn't being honest about eminent domain all along... what Clean Line meant was that it wanted to negotiate fairly with each and every landowners to secure right of way, but only when it was holding the sledgehammer of eminent domain behind its back. That's not fair negotiation. That's coercion. Now all of a sudden, when the sledgehammer isn't a tool, Clean Line can't negotiate at all. Clean Line only wanted to pretend to negotiate, but what it really wanted to do was threaten landowners with eminent domain condemnation if they didn't agree with Clean Line's terms and price. The Court called this one spot on!
So, let's look at the last stupid thing Lawlor said...“We’ll see how the decisions play out before we put a lot of people to work building the project.” What? You were ready to "put a lot of people to work building the project" before the Illinois Supreme Court ruled? How were people going to build the Grain Belt Express without state approvals from all affected states? How were people going to build the Grain Belt Express without rights of way across the route? Without contracts? Without financing? Without money? Without customers? Sounds like you were ready to put people to work in the same way you were willing to negotiate fairly with landowners. As in... not at all.
What a thoughtless and stupid thing to say!
Lawlor also whines about Illinois by saying the same stupid things he said about Missouri:
Wack-a-mole, Waldo? No matter how many moles you whack, more are going to pop up somewhere else, you know... sort of like I've been telling you for years. So why bother spending all that money on an appeal in Missouri (not to mention your very expensive political spokespuppet, Jay Nixon), when Illinois has determined your projects cannot be public utilities until sometime down the road after they're built?
Because this finally gets pretty close to the truth... it's not about simply purchasing some land. It's about Clean Line not being able to use eminent domain to condemn land for its projects in Illinois. Without eminent domain, Clean Line would have to negotiate with each and every landowner to purchase right of way. No sweat, Clean Line has been telling the public that it wasn't applying for eminent domain for years and that it planned to negotiate fairly with each and every landowner to secure right of way. So, what happens now when Clean Line has to actually do it? It's legal clouds, uncertainty, and doom and gloom for the project. That's because Clean Line wasn't being honest about eminent domain all along... what Clean Line meant was that it wanted to negotiate fairly with each and every landowners to secure right of way, but only when it was holding the sledgehammer of eminent domain behind its back. That's not fair negotiation. That's coercion. Now all of a sudden, when the sledgehammer isn't a tool, Clean Line can't negotiate at all. Clean Line only wanted to pretend to negotiate, but what it really wanted to do was threaten landowners with eminent domain condemnation if they didn't agree with Clean Line's terms and price. The Court called this one spot on!
So, let's look at the last stupid thing Lawlor said...“We’ll see how the decisions play out before we put a lot of people to work building the project.” What? You were ready to "put a lot of people to work building the project" before the Illinois Supreme Court ruled? How were people going to build the Grain Belt Express without state approvals from all affected states? How were people going to build the Grain Belt Express without rights of way across the route? Without contracts? Without financing? Without money? Without customers? Sounds like you were ready to put people to work in the same way you were willing to negotiate fairly with landowners. As in... not at all.
What a thoughtless and stupid thing to say!
Lawlor also whines about Illinois by saying the same stupid things he said about Missouri:
The ruling, Clean Line director of development Mark Lawlor said last week, would discourage renewable energy development in Illinois.
“It is clearly a setback, and a signal not only to our investors, but to other developers, on the tremendous amount of legal barriers in Illinois,” said Lawlor. “It goes beyond Rock Island. It goes beyond Grain Belt.”
Hey, guess what? Other developers aren't buying your cries of "wolf, wolf, wooooolffffff!" If no "clean lines" are ever built in Illinois, it will not affect the development of renewable energy in Illinois, because none of the Clean Line projects were ever proposed to move renewable energy produced in Illinois. No, they were just one way highways through the state for energy produced in other states, with no on or off ramps for local use. And people care even less about your investors and their signals. These filthy rich, silver spoon brats invested in your company with their eyes wide open, and besides, they'll hardly miss the millions they're going to be out when Clean Line folds. They'll probably just write it off their taxes and push the tax burden off onto working class taxpayers anyhow.
It's probably only a matter of time before the investors buy Mark his own wind farm, like they did for RICL's former development director, Hans Detweiler. Buh-bye!
Rock Island Clean Line is dead.
Grain Belt Express is dead.
It's probably only a matter of time before the investors buy Mark his own wind farm, like they did for RICL's former development director, Hans Detweiler. Buh-bye!
Rock Island Clean Line is dead.
Grain Belt Express is dead.
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