WEeenie Energies paid a shakedown fee of $100 Million so a bunch of assclowns called The Sierra Club and Clean Wisconsin. That means the ratepayers, ie you and me will fork over the shakedown so that the aforementioned assclowns can pick and choose who will spend the money.
With your money. Remember that: The settlement with the Sierra Club and Clean Wisconsin states that the utility will “request and diligently seek” to have regulators add the $100 million to power rates. It will not come from shareholders.
Where will it go? To fund unspecified good deeds related to Lake Michigan: to “address” the “impact of invasive species,” to “reduce” storm water runoff, to gussy up wildlife habitat. The projects “shall be of the type” outlined in a Department of Natural Resources’ wish list.
But the DNR won’t pick them. Some unspecified non-profit with environmental expertise will. It’ll be chosen by Clean Wisconsin, the Sierra Club, the utilities and the DNR — and not by you.
“There will be no consumer input on how that money gets spent,” notes Maureen Martin, a long-time environmental litigator now with the Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank.
Go read McIlheren’s column if you want to puke about the way we’re getting fleeced.
Dad29 chimes in with some thoughts as well.
By the way, Mike McGee, Jr. is awaiting sentencing for doing the exact same thing as the Sierra Club and Clean Wisconsin.
