If you were able to attend the P&Z meeting on March 6, you may remember a gentleman who introduced himself as follows: “Rand Fisher, Clive, Iowa. I am speaking this evening in my role as the Iowa State Director of the Center for Infrastructure & Economic Development.” He handed each P&Z member what appeared to be a very professionally done booklet and proceeded to endorse the economic benefits of wind turbine fields.
Let me repeat his introductory statement: “Rand Fisher, Clive, Iowa. I am speaking this evening in my role as the Iowa State Director of the Center for Infrastructure & Economic Development.” If one were to take that introductory statement at face value, one would be inclined to believe that Mr. Fisher worked for the State of Iowa in the position of Director of the Center for Infrastructure & Economic Development. But because NextEra has a history of playing with words so people come to a desired understanding, we googled him. The Center for Infrastructure & Economic Development is not affiliated in any way with the State of Iowa. It is instead a private company funded by NextEra. As is Bright Future Iowa, chaired by Ms. Swati Dandekar. Mr. Fisher is, indeed, the director of the Iowa division of this particular NextEra funded company. There are other divisions in other states with directors who, no doubt, will claim the same misleading title when speaking to groups and decision making bodies in an attempt to sway them favorably toward the company that is paying their salaries.
We are not in any way insinuating that Mr. Fisher shouldn’t be allowed to work or consult for whomever he pleases. However, a little honesty upfront goes a long ways. So does a little dishonesty — intentional or not.
I discussed Mr. Fisher’s speech with several people that attended that meeting and they all were under the mistaken impression that Mr. Fisher worked for the State of Iowa. They said they did not appreciate being duped by these types of tactics.
In Mr. Fisher’s comments, he stated “At The Center we have been following your efforts to thoroughly review your wind energy conversion system regulations. We understand, even as you meet this evening, that your efforts remain a work in progress…..Our approach at The Center is to offer free of charge or obligation our review and commentary from the above mentioned perspectives……For our part, we will continue to follow your progress and offer our input on your final draft ordinance.” I and several other people are taking this as a veiled threat.
Add on to this tactic the other tactics being pulled by NextEra and its other paid lobbyist, Bright Future Iowa, and one gets the impression that they feel they can come into Buchanan County and steamroll over a bunch of backwoods country bumpkins in flyover country. That’s not going to happen.
We have a well educated, sincere, and hard working P&Z Committee that will not be intimidated by such behavior.