Rapid Senate Campaign Heats Up Airwaves, Web

So many letters indeed

I have not yet made my mind on who would be the best candidate but I know for sure who is the worst one. Ms. Coakley and her office do not care about little people, and I know it from a more than a year experience of trying to get a little help from the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General. My property company faked a copy of my check and cashed it up. Police said to me it does not investigate companies, but when I tried to get help from madam Coakley, basically I was told to shut up. Massachusetts does not need a senator who cares only about her own political agenda but does not do the work which she supposed to do, which is defending people’s rights.

Ms. Coakley is running on plumbing, not a recrd. As a prosecuter she over-charged a young foreigner leading to an unnecessary trial with all it’s attendant publicity. The judge finally told her that regardless of the verdict he would enter a finding of manslaughter.It caused unnecessary expense, additional heartache for the family and made the perpetrator out as the victim-pretty much the opposite of the OJ fiasco. Oh and it got Ms. Coakley elected as the AG.Since then please point to one thing the Ms. Coakley has accomplished. The wind turbine settlement? Her candidacy is a joke supported only by unthinking extremists and those easilly led astray. Sen. Brown can only hope Ms. coakley is the finalist

October 09, 2008 – For immediate release:
Attorney General Martha Coakley Reaches Settlement with Defective Wind Turbine Company
FALL RIVER – Today, Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office obtained a consent judgment against Mark Howland, of East Freetown and his company WindTech-Co, resolving allegations that he violated the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act by misleading consumers, many in Southeastern Massachusetts, by making false and misleading representations in promoting the sale of wind turbines, failing to install turbines paid for by consumers and providing unsafe wind turbine installations. Under today’s agreement, which was filed in Fall River Superior Court, Howland will have one year to repay $488,000 in restitution. If he fails to make that payment within one year Howland will be responsible for a payment of $638,000.
“Now more than ever, it is crucial that consumers seek out clean and sustainable alternative energy sources,” said Attorney General Coakley. “This settlement will help ensure that consumers need not fear for their safety or that they are being taken advantage of as a result of contributing to environmentally-sound solutions.”

In March 2007, the Attorney General’s Office filed a complaint and obtained an emergency court order in Bristol Superior Court to shut down Howland’s Freetown company and to place a freeze on his bank accounts. The Attorney General’s Office identified over 160 consumers affected by the faulty wind turbines.

The complaint alleged that Howland misrepresented the power generation capabilities of the turbine systems, and did not disclose to consumers that certain local permitting was necessary for the installation of the turbines. In many instances, local building inspectors notified consumers that construction of the turbines would need to be halted and that systems already installed violated zoning laws. The complaint further alleged that of the systems that Howland and WindTech-Co. installed, most if not all were installed in an unsafe and ineffective manner. Specifically, most installations did not meet the specifications of the turbines’ manufacturer, which posed a safety threat and also failed to generate the intended energy capacity.

Additionally, the complaint alleges that Howland made false representations to consumers in order to sell wind turbine systems. Specifically, Howland misrepresented to consumers that the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) would reimburse consumers for a large portion of the purchase of the turbine systems. The MTC is a quasi-state agency which runs a renewable energy grant program that encourages private homeowners to install wind or solar systems to power their homes or businesses. The program partially reimburses homeowners for the installation of these systems upon completion. Howland misrepresented that the reimbursement was automatic. The MTC sets a cap on the amount of pending projects by a single contractor that may seek reimbursement, and WindTech-Co. surpassed that cap, leaving some consumers disqualified from the reimbursement program. MTC referred the matter to the Attorney General in January 2007 after receiving numerous complaints from Howland’s consumers.

Under today’s agreement, Howland is permanently prohibited from operating a business involved in the sale and installation of alternative energy systems, specifically, wind turbine and hybrid wind turbine/photo-voltaic systems.

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorneys General Margret Cooke and David Monahan of Attorney General Coakley’s Consumer Protection Division. Quinton Dale, Director of Attorney General Coakley’s Investigations Division and the staff of the Investigations Division also assisted in this case.
http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=cagopressrelease&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Cago&b=pressrelease&f=2008_10_09_windtecho_settlement&csid=Cago