The Great Gadfly

Looks Like the Wind is Picking Up

Rigging in the wind

By Peter Kenney

The smart money knew the fix was in two years ago when word started circulating that construction mogul Jay Cashman would move to erect a 120-unit wind farm in Buzzards Bay. Cashman’s proposal meant building entirely within state waters. And since, at that point, Cape Wind’s Jim Gordon had been jumping through million-dollar hoops for four years to avoid siting any of his 130 wind turbines where the Commonwealth would have the power to deny his application, the Cashman deal smacked of old fashioned Boston politics...rigged.

Jay Cashman: A man to make things right

Jay Cashman did not start from nothing and rise to massive wealth by being stupid or reckless. Has he taken risks in his career? Certainly. But by knowing what he is doing and by developing a formidable network of staff and political connections he has managed risk in his favor. Cashman’s company and its employees -- and even Cashman himself -- can honestly claim that their hundreds of millions of dollars in public construction contracts involving the Big Dig, the Third Harbor Tunnel and the Boston Harbor Outfall Pipe have never been anything but aboveboard. In fact, when major Big Dig contractor Modern Continental Construction went under leaving the Big Dig project with huge problems and deficiencies, the bonding company left holding the bag tapped Cashman to make things right. That is exactly what Cashman is still doing.

Sal DiMasi: A man to tuck things in

Apparently Cashman is making things right for his wind farm proposal, too. House Speaker Sal DiMasi has not just admitted but declared that he and Jay Cashman are close personal friends as are their wives. Unable to leave well enough alone, the speaker goes on to say that his personal relationship with Cashman has nothing to do with a nasty little piece of stealth legislation he tucked into an energy bill last week. This stealth amendment would allow construction of alternative energy facilities -- read  “wind farms” -- in state ocean sanctuaries where such construction has been strictly forbidden until now. Effectively, this means that, except for state waters protected as part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, all of Massachusetts' coastal waters are up for grabs. All this was done by including this toxic little amendment in a larger bundle of amendments attached to an energy bill and available for review by house members a mere twenty minutes before their evening vote on the entire package. There was no debate or even discussion of the amendment. One has to wonder if this is the Massachusetts version of the Ted Stevens method.

The game’s in the bag and the lid’s off the box

When Cashman first unveiled his plans there was common puzzlement about how he intended to overcome the perceived automatic prohibition against what he proposed within state ocean sanctuaries. Now we know, or can reasonably deduce, that the game was in the bag. The fact that Cashman does not care what anyone else thinks is to be expected; this is a tough and focused man. The fact the Speaker of the House feels similarly is an insult to all of us and to his office. When was the last time anyone referred to the speaker as an environmentalist? Jim Gordon may have opened the lock on Pandora’s coastal box but it is Jay Cashman who has ripped the lid off its hinges.

Speaker DiMasi has stated for the record that his personal relationship with Jay Cashman had no effect on his move to open state ocean sanctuaries to development. Is he so crude or stupid or arrogant that he thinks we believe him? A crew of various union tradesmen are said to be erecting a large new sign in front of the State House just in time for Christmas. In bold white letters against a blue field with a red border four words are clearly visible: