This was on Byte & Chew:
Hey Flubster,
Your deity Rodier sounds like a resounding gong, basically rehashing the same redundant points he has already exhausted since the app process began. Many of his views could actually be potential valid points. The main words here, "could" & "potential". Speculative words. But this process is guided by rules and statues. I have addressed this in the past, but this project or any other would NEVER be denied based on speculation, or would could result in the future as a result of approving a project. If the basis for denial was speculation, it would be difficult to obtain approval on any project. It is too simple to speculate, especially if one is against a particular project. Even if some of that speculation turns out to be true.
"The Applicant must demonstrate that a proposed facility "[w]ill not unduly interfere with
the orderly development of the region with due consideration having been given to the views of
municipal and regional planning commissions and municipal governing bodies." RSA 162-
H:16(IV)(b). The representative of the City of Berlin testified that the project is consistent with
orderly regional development. Day 3-PM Session at 137:13-19. Likewise, the Coos County
Commissioners, as an intervenor, expressed a similar view. Laidlaw Exhibit 31. In addition,
Berlin Mayor Paul Grenier, Executive Councilor Raymond Burton and the Androscoggin Valley
Economic Development Corporation all offered comments consistent with those views. Taken
together with the Applicant's testimony, LBB submits it has met its burden on this issue and that
the record as a whole unequivocally supports a finding that this project is not only consistent
with order regional development, but it will significantly promote such development.
It has been suggested that the Committee, in assessing this issue, must somehow consider
the affect that the proposed facility will have on potential competitors in the marketplace. Those
espousing this argument have offered no legal authority for that position, nor have they pointed
to anything in RSA 162-H, or prior Committee decisions, to support such a view. In fact,
regulating competition in the free market is simply not within the Committee's purview under
the statute"
"In none of the decisions reviewed by LBB has the Committee injected itself into the overall market economy of a region and determined which projects should be permitted to exist based on speculative impacts on existing or other proposed competitors."
Posted by: Coos County Biomass Lover | September 17, 2010 at 12:19 AM
