FOIAs and FOAAs related to Penobscot Bay. 1990s to 2010s

Here are some of  the results of Freedom of Access Act and Freedom of information Act requests. From between 1995 to 2010.

2010 Federal  Ocean Windpower off Maine
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management 39 pages

2010 State Wind & Tidal Energy
*  BPL's Dan Pritchard re Monhegan   January 14, 2010 12 pages
Maine tidal energy August 2010 26 pages

2008-2009 Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee 
* MDOT Duane Scott Dec 10, 2008 10 pages
* Governor Baldacci November - December 2008  60 pages
* MDOT Commissioner Cole. June 1 - June 17, 2009  24 pages
* Governor Baldacci & staff. January, February-March, 2009 28 pages.
* Karin Tilberg November -December 2008  23 pages
* Duane Scott April 2009 22 pages
* Baldacci staff, April-June 2009 59 pages
* MDOT Cole staff May 8 - May 29, 2009 64 pages
* MDOTJune 18 - August 3, 2009. 63 pages
* Sears Island Mitigation Bank plan. 28 pages

2003-2004  Sears Island LNG Plan 
* Governor Baldacci December 03 to March 2004. 17 pages
* Jack Cashman DECD. January March 2004.  9 documents
* Governor Baldacci April to June 2004 29 documents\
* Governor Baldacci. June through September 2004.  14 documents

Sears Island Cargoport Proposal 
* 1990s  State and federal FOIA'd documents 45 documents

My visit to the Governor's office - a final Baldacci freedom of information moment

Drove through the sleety rain from the Penobscot Bay coast to Augusta, pleasantly surprised to discover my  mp3  was full of Yes and Jon Anderson's Olias of Sunhillow. The miles melted away as the Camden Hills rose and receded, and the lakes shimmered past, their frozen edges portending icefishing in times to come.
 
Suddenly it was Augusta and then flash forward and the patient receptionist at Governor Baldacci's office  has registered my appointment and bade me wait in the seating nook under the grand staircase of the echoey empty Hall of Flags, where lobbyists awaiting the Governor cool their heels.  

The capitol is absolutely throbbing with political life forms (except in still-barely-Governor Baldacci's office, where the dutiful staff  have boxes piled up around their cubicles, but continue to answer constituent calls otherwise do the gubernatorial thing to the bitter end, when the lights go out on the Baldacci Administration.)


But in a flash Karla Black was there, leading me to the empty governor's conference room, where about two reams of paper documents await my inspection.   Ever efficient Black has provided mini-postits to stick on "keeper pages" that I want copied.

Then the door shut and I was alone with my roughly thousand pages of documents, and 2 hours to peruse them and select which to keep which not.  (For I know I have a great multitude of them already through a federal FOIA request of BOEMRE (pronounced "Bummer"). Why pay a quarter a page for 100s of pages I've already got?)

So I took the stack and split the trump into months.  Then It was time for the Great Sift:  I started speed reading these government emails (all of which were addressed to Karin Tilberg, the Governor's special assistant for renewable energy, either directly or she was cc'd,).  Key names like Maureen Bornholdt, Habib Dagher,  Aditi Mirani, Stacy Fitts.....like my own name.  

Hah! How they howled, it turns out, as I lashed them - the feds and state officials -by blog and by tweet, by facebook  and e-lists, and in the mainstream and  fishery press!  A handful of aroused coasters came down on the governor and politicians and bade them threaten not their livelihoods, forcing officials state and federal to parley to come up with rebuttals or, worse, to come up with means of ignoring the concerns.


On through the pages I plowed, in their tens and hundreds. Some months held but a mere dozen or two emails, another month  half a ream's worth.....An hour and a half passed before I sat back and surveyed the documents divided into keepers and leavers. 

Then it was time, and I stacked them into two stacks, picked up my debris, and returned to the quietly busy governor's office. (No sign of His Nibs).The receptionist pressed a button and Karla Black came out from the inner sanctum. From governor country. Public stay out.

Karla was a little surprised at how many  pages I wanted  - about 250. The last time there I'd only kept  dozen out of of  around 300 pages.

She warned me that the cost would be 25 cents/page. (I'd hoped it was a dime, like MDEP sometimes charges per page). But then she cut me a deal on postage, so we parted amicably amd I sailed back down Route 17, homeward bound.

Sears Island - the rats revealed - via FOIA!

I went to Maine Governor Baldacci's office today and copied around 100 pages of FOA stuff - Most of the other 150 pages were replicated in the recent FOA of MDOT (FOA= Maine Freedom of Access Act)

Baldacci FOA January, February & March 2009

Baldacci FOA April, May and June 2009

A few choice excerpts:

February 10-11, 2009 "Bullets for Tea" Baldacci's team works up one liners for a quick get together with the sellouts. Example: "Joan Saxe and the Sierra Clubt underwent some of the most trying attacks by naysayers for their willingness to be flexible in an ultimate outcome for Sears Island."

March 3, 2009 A "Progress report: Sears Island Port Development."

April 16, 2009 Steve Miller of Islesboro Island writes to Cole and Baldacci - uneasy about MDOT's build-on-the-island PR spin. What about Mack Point? he asks. Even with his misgivings, however, he closes his email to Cole and Baldacci with: "Thank you for your service to Maine!"

On May 18th Jim Freeman of Maine Earth First! tips off Baldacci's Senior Policy Advisor that a demonstration is planned for outside the Governor's celebration. Freeman forwards the governor an action alert from the Maine Earth First list serve.

....only hours ahead of Becky Bartovics of PBA/Sierra Club doing the same.

On May 19th, note how NRCM - which has had no known involvement of any sort, gets itself invited to the Downeast mag Baldacci award ceremony.

Lots more fun & creepy things at those two links