Legalectric

It’s time for another Horse’s Ass Award!

Last night was the Delaware Electric Cooperative Annual meeting.  It was well attended to say the least.  last year, according to their Annual Report, there were 900 some people who came, this  year, I’d have to guess it was a lot more!

We got there around 4:30 or so, with flyers to hand out … drat, we forgot the “Green Delaware” banner at home.  The issue of the day is the new coal plant, the BIG new coal plant, that Delaware Electric Cooperative has proposed it join in with Old Dominion Electric Cooperative to build.  EEEEEEEUW, bad idea!  Anyway, we spent some time at the door deciding what to do, Alan went in and said hello to Bill Andrew, President and CEO.

Alan made sure to give him a flyer.  After a bit of conversation about the coal plant, Andrew got huffy when Alan reminded him of the air emissions details from that coal plant’s permit application.  Alan’s good at raising those sort of details that project promoters would rather not acknowledge.  Specifics, from the Green Delaware Alert:

Emissions of climate-changing carbon dioxide would be 14.6 million tons per year.  Emissions of health damaging air pollutants are estimated in the permit applications to be about 42 million pounds per year = 114,000 pounds per day = 4700 pounds per hour.  Most of these would be belched from 615 foot smokestacks, enabling them to travel long distances.  The pollutants include 20 million pounds annually of carbon monoxide, 7.4 million pounds of sulfur dioxide, 5.4 million pounds of particulate matter–dust, 566,000 pounds of sulfuric acid, 920 pounds of  lead, 118 pounds of mercury, among others. All these are regulated because they are proven to cause illness, death, reduced intelligence in children, birth defects, and other major problems.

Anyway, we were at the door, pictured below, handing out flyers.  I would always identify myself, saying, “HI!  I’m Carol with Green Delaware, and here’s some information about the coal plant that the coop wants to build” or some such.  The green papered handout that I put together had a Green Delaware name and logo and contact info, the white handout was from Wise Energy for Virginia, based on David Schlissel’s testimony.

Green Delaware – Alert 666

Synapse Report – Fact Sheet – Hampton Road/Cypress Creek

Here’s the door we were at, handing out flyers, and we ran out all too soon.  A short guy was playing doorman, he had come out after Alan had gone in to see Bill Andrew and was in the DEC red shirt, with a name tag (hereinafter “Short Guy in Red”).  Alan had asked him earlier if he wanted a copy of the handouts and he said he did not.    After we’d been there a while, they’d sent out fully uniformed state police, one standing right at the center in front of the door at the top of the steps, there was a guy in a dark suit with a gold shield on his jacket talking with the cops and a “secret service” looking security guy with the earplug headset, moving around fast and looking very “important.”  I needed to find the bathroom, and as I went towards the door, Short Guy in Red shut it in my face, and I said I was looking for the bathroom and he opened it, not very willingly.  I asked where the bathroom was and then went directly there, getting one photo of the group,  above, and then met Alan in the main hallway.  As I had walked over to the middle of the hall, back towards the entrance, I heard a cop say, “Oh, there she is” right behind me as I passed.  Hmmmmmmm… We went toward the front, Alan went to the check in to ask for one of the handout bags with lit in it, and Short Guy in Red jumped in and reached out and slapped his hand on the stuff and said that Alan couldn’t have it.  We went round a little bit, and Alan apologized to the woman at the booth, saying that he hadn’t intended to put her in a difficult spot.  The Short Guy in Red told us to leave, that this was for members only, I noted we were not being disruptive, we weren’t infiltrating the hall and weren’t even in line for free dinner, so what was so objectionable, and what was so threatening about our being there, and we had a few more back and forths, I told him I was thinking about whether he had the right to eject us.  He said he didn’t want pictures taken (damn, I should have gotten a photo of him refusing to let Alan have the info).  I gave him my card, said he could read about it tomorrow (today) and pointed out my site.   And we left.

Drum roll please…

It’s time for another Horse’s Ass Award!

This one goes to:

Mr. Mark A. Nielson
V.P. Staff Services
Delaware Electric Cooperative
P.O. Box 600
Greenwood, DE 19950

302-349-3147
mnielson@decoop.com

If Delaware Electric Coop is so worried, it seems to me that they need MORE scrutiny.

If Delaware Electric Cooperative doesn’t want its members to know about the coal plant it’s planning to build, they need MORE scrutiny.