Only days away from making a historic decision on the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar earlier this week was palling around with executives from another Boston wind firm at the center of a controversy over the hiring of one of its key managers.
Salazar, who is expected to make a decision this week on the Cape Wind project, was in Utah inspecting a separate wind farm built by Boston’s First Wind.
Executives at First Wind gave Salazar and other Interior officials a tour of the Milford Wind Corridor, according to a company press release.
The Bangor Daily News reported late last week that one of First Wind’s new executives had accepted an ownership stake while he was still the state of Maine’s chief utilities regulator. Kurt Adams, former head of the Maine Public Utilities Commission, was awarded about $1.2 million in shares of First Wind just prior to quitting his Maine job to join the firm in May 2008, according to the Daily News and SEC filings reviewed by the Herald.
“We take this issue extremely seriously and are reviewing matters to confirm our understanding that Kurt’s hiring was proper,” First Wind said in a statement.
Adams, who could not be reached for comment, and First Wind have said they had previously disclosed, to Maine’s governor, Adams’ intent to join the firm and that he had recursed himself from all regulatory duties associated with the firm. He said he was awarded the shares after his disclosures, the Daily News reported.
First Wind has built two wind farms in Maine and has two more in development.
A spokeswoman for Salazar declined comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment