Who Is Competitive Power Ventures?
They've been quietly sniffing around Walpole for over a year,
but many town residents were not familiar with this speculative venture capital firm
until autumn of 2007 when CPV began their major public relations blitz in town.
We wonder what kind of neighbor CPV Walpole LLC might be.
They have already incorporated a holding company, secured a binding option to purchase the land,
attempted to insert favorable language into our zoning bylaws,
and pressured our Board of Selectmen to negotiate a PILOT agreement,
even before they have revealed any significant details about the project.
We wonder how many other communities in Massachusetts are already unknowingly under a similar threat.
We are told that CPV is considering 30 communities in the Commonwealth to host the plants they hope to build.
Yet they would only name one of these, Dartmouth, when asked during Walpole's public forum.
Fortunately, their siting considerations offer a glimpse of which communities should be nervous.
What role did they play in stonewalling the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission about the operation of two power plants?
Have they been forthcoming with information pertinent to their
permitting applications in other states?
Have they applied inappropriate pressure on federal authorities to overlook the impact of their projects?
How can a small VC firm with virtually no track record,
minimal experience, and
limited financial resources claim to do what the established power companies cannot?
How have other communities fared after partnering with CPV?
Should we be concerned by their recent attempts to insert language into Walpole's new Zoning Regulations?
How have they obtained the support of public officials for their unpopular power plant projects?
Can we take their verbal promises at face value?
And most significantly, why does CPV repeatedly avoid public scrutiny of their development projects and ignore the legitimate concerns raised by members of the host communities?
We will continue to ask these and other questions. Please watch this page for more details as we uncover them.
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