The Sun Journal published an editorial based on our stories about the Maine Green Energy Alliance:
Energy group wasted money, got little done
Let’s imagine you are starting a business, ABC Consulting.
You need 13 employees, including a manager. So you advertise, compare resumes, interview and check references before hiring.
Then, on the first day of work you are having lunch with your new employees when one mentions he used to be a Democratic House member from Bangor.
Another employee says, “Hey, that’s interesting, because I’m a Democrat running for the House.”
Then, strangely, another pipes up and says she is also a candidate for the House.
Stranger yet, another employee says she is a Democratic House member and is running again.
You are pondering all these strange coincidences when another employee says she is also a Democratic stalwart and was a “traveling aide” for Libby Mitchell during her gubernatorial campaign.
Here’s the link to the rest of the editorial, which appeared in the February 9 newspaper and its online edition.
There’s more:
The Portland Press Herald, Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal also ran an editorial based in part on our work exposing the web of politics and influence evident in the awarding of a no-bid contract to the well-connected Alliance.
And in response to our stories, the Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology has requested that members of Efficiency Maine Trust and the Alliance appear before the committee, according to Sen. Mike Thibodeau, R-Bangor, co-chair of the committee. That hearing will take place on February 17 at 2 p.m.