Cate had no relationship with LLEG during the Ellicotteville era. Richard Cyr connected LLEG with Cate and Fibrowatt as I recall in either 2007 or early 2008. Cate had a great deal to lose having paid off the competitor, (Clean Power and perhaps even Fibrowatt), satisfied the lawsuit with Waldron, and paying various items pertinent to the process towards the end of the PUC hearings, not to mention formidable legal expenses and salaries to a large team that combined to fight the deal to a close without Laidlaw dragging them down. Cate needed to buy Laidlaw out of the deal in an effort to gain credibility. And they did.
Cate has apparently replaced Laidlaw with bringing Gestamp (highly credible in the biomass field) into the mix, which in combination with all the other protective covenants handed to the project through the process gave the project enough credibility to move forward. I think the FSEC, the SEC and the PUC all saw through Mr. Bartoszek as they were well aware of his past history in delinquent payment to vendors and a grant dismissal by the state of New York along the way as well as the issues of nonpayment to numerous vendors during the Berlin application which included engineers, attorneys, etc.
