So, Loudoun County needed an energy plan pronto and went to the Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC) to get it done instead of going through its own contracting process. This resulted in a sole source special contract to produce the County Energy Strategy (CES) going to Garforth International, LLC for approximately $250,000, which Loudoun County will pay the NVRC for. You would think that such a renowned expert worthy of receiving such a contract would have a robust web presence, well, check out the website yourself – not much there. But there’s plenty available on Garforth’s friends in the climate change business.
I was a bit perplexed when I saw Owens Corning (huh, the people who make crockpots, serving platters and such?) listed as part of the ”CES Team” (go to page 77 of the document here). Well, it turns out Garforth International is a “strategic partner” of Owings Corning, and that Peter Garforth once worked for Owens Corning. The other entity in that strategic partnership is MVV Energie, which of course is also another member of the “CES Team”. Here’s what Peter Garforth had to say about this partnership in an Owens Corning press release:
Peter Garforth, CEO of Garforth International, LLC., agreed. “We have created a team with world-class expertise, and we’re applying it on a local scale,” said Garforth “We are already making things happen, delivering major benefits at acceptable costs, and truly transforming communities.”
One of the more contentious items in the new energy plan is a future mandate recommendation for Integrated Energy Master Plans. Well, guess who provides such services? That strategic partnership, of course (see here)! Energy Star ratings are also mentioned in the county energy plan, and guess who was an advisor to that program? You guessed it, Peter Garforth.
Now all these things seem great, and as a conservation-minded conservative I agree with saving energy and money, but this whole thing is too full of cozy relationships for me and has not yet been fully vetted publicly. Loudoun citizens deserve more answers about McGimsey’s day job and the inter-relationships on the “CES Team” before moving forward with this.
UPDATE: Dug up some info on more Garforth buddies getting free advertising in an official Loudoun County report – below the fold.
John Palmisano and his company Etrios is also mentioned in the county report as part of the core team but didn’t get a place in the ring of honor. Guess who is on his advisory board? Yes indeedy – Peter Garforth. And who are some of the Etrios ”strategic partners”? None other than the Garforth strategic partnership, now dubbed “The Alliance” (from the Etrios website):
Owens Corning, Garforth International, MVV decon GmbH – (“The Alliance”)
““The Alliance” is a marketing and consulting service-provider forged between experts in energy planning, managing the building energy envelope, heating, cooling and power systems. Together with eTrios, “the Alliance” provides comprehensive multi-year, community-wide energy plans, predicated, in part, on the use of tradable environmental and energy instruments.”
I couldn’t find much on the other person mentioned by name, Diane Perkin, or her company, Terra Sol, but they are also in the Garforth web, having helped him with a similar plan in a California town. Check out page 3 of this report to see the familiar ring of honor, only this time including Terra Sol.
I have no problem with this guy assembling a team to do this project, but everything I can find only mentions Garforth International getting the contract. How these other “Friends of Garforth” deserve prominent mentions in an official Loudoun County plan is beyond me. Gee, I wonder who will get the first calls to do these future mandated energy audits???
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Dec 09th by Loudoun Insider
Big question – has anyone ever seen a public agency report with such references to private corporations? I have not. I have worked on many government projects as a consultant and they are always scrubbed of the consultants names, being presented at the end solely as works of the contracting agency. This guy acutally got himself and his strategic partners listed in the offical document with glowing descriptions! Just who was reviewing this thing at the county anyway???
LI
Very good work here, you are to be commended.
It seems you have begun the process of connecting the dots between the local global warming alarmists embedded in Loudoun County Government and the crony capitalist cottage industries being created to service their mutually beneficial manufactured needs. I suspect Andrea McGimsey was first in line to advocate for and then advance the cause. I recall seeing a Video of Supervisor McGimsey as a guest speaker at one of these energy/ global warming lectures asking the crowd if they wanted to make money on energy efficiency.
I suspect the deletion of emails and the shredding of documents will soon begin.
What is quite funny is this self proclaimed energy zar Called McGimsey is promoting these energy gobbling Data Centers and Industrial centers on prime by right visible property and they also gobble up enormous amounts of land. Yep that is real green thinking
Notttt. Then they say how leed certified they are. But what they don’t say is, only a couple of newer buildings may be leed certified, but almost non of the operations are. And again the operation gobbles enormous amounts of energy and land. And hardly any proffers if any, because most are by right. And ugly as hell. Just look whats at the future moorefield metro and the Shellhorn side totally ruined the look of it for the future. There is a time place and moment for these buildings but not in your face on prime property.
Where the hell is the WaPo, LTM, and L2Day on this? How does a blogger scoop the full time dedicated government watching journalist? Maybe the government is trying to enact the journalist mantra! I guess BOS public ethics only applies to those trying to reduce government taxes and spending.
Just imagine what I could do if I did this stuff full time! I told someone today they should just re-activate that Inspector General position and give it to me. I’ll clean that hell hole up in a hurry. I guarantee I would pay for my own hefty (hey it would have to be!) salary many times over!
LI, this is fascinating.
Is this the same guy?:
http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/__PR/P__Wash/2009/03/26__Energy__Workshop__rel,archiveCtx=1992698.html
That’s him, along with his MVV and NVRC buds. So glad we’re the “test lab” for this wonderful “alliance”!
MVV is based in Mannheim, Germany, which I guess explains all the Mannheim references in the energy plan.
We’re a “test lab” for a lot of things.
How nice that our county has friends who have friends!
There’s obviously a huge cap and trade theme here, and thank God we have Etrios to guide us through it! Will they get the next sole source contract to work up a trading scheme?
Hopefully, all this is able to be undone after the Loudoun house is cleaned in 2011.
In the meantime, we needed a staple issue to run into these clowns. With a full blown recession and the beginnings of inflation not seen since 1979 creeping into household finances, and a whole mess of issues that the populance ain’t happy about, this may well be the sword that they fall upon.
There’s proof in a picture of Loudoun Insider and Stone hugging somewhere….. I’ll dig it out.
Have you tried shopping the story to the Examiner or a station like WMAL?
BPM, what in the world is that second comment about?
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Ron, the MSM knows where to come to when they need the real scoop!
Garforth even got his “Alliance” partners Owens Corning and MVV nice little direct webpage links in the official Appendices on the Loudoun County website (go to the last page):
http://www.loudoun.gov/Portals/0/docs/Energy/LCES%20Appendices.pdf
Who reviewed this damn thing for the county???
Nice job, Peter! Lord knows what Loudoun County would do without Owens Corning and MVV Energie!
Did they really pay 250,000 dollars for that cut and paste report?
Very interesting information coming out here.
“What?” that was my exact reaction after I reviewed the report and then read this whole variety of Garforth stuff all over the Web. It looks to me like they repackaged a bunch of info they have been using in these various presentations and pitches, did some search and replace to insert “Loudoun County” in place of the previous prospective client, and sent us a bill for a quarter of a million dollars.
Agreed also that the local “official” media outlets are remiss for not looking into any of this. No wonder they are all going out of business.
[...] Now please go over and see what LI has found about the guy you and I just paid $250,000. Category: Economics, Technology/ScienceTags: McGimsey [...]
How depressing. The corruption that comes with power and access to pools of taxpayer money is too much for many to resist. People lose sight of what is really important on this planet when they see dollar signs or power.
Big government free for alls mean that those in power will be funneling whatever tax dollars they can of their neighbors and constituencies into their own pockets. We need good candidates who will stand on honor, ethics, principle. We need people with enough brains to understand the complexities of the County government and regulations/Ordinances–and the politics of staff bureaucracies… and people who are willing to do it with the heart of a servant.
We need to take our County and our Country back from these manipulators/liars/cheats.
I’d like to see some sort of accounting for the money that went to the Journey Through Hallowed Ground, too– I want to see evidence of how this money was spent, and how it benefited Loudoun, and not just certain good “friends” of Ms. McGimsey.
We have been duped big time and sold on a bunch of baloney one too many times.
Sally, recall that the head of LCVA also serves on JTHG.
The same LCVA head who was one of the staff contacts on the sponsorship grant and public safety expenditures for the Salahis polo “charity”.
While McGimsey is an egregious example of the insider nepotism, it is bigger than she is, and been going on longer than she’s been paid to facilitate it.
You have your corporations confused. Owens Corning is a international company in the Building Materials, Composites Industry. Corning Glass makes crock pots, etc. Owens Corning is very involved in sustainability.
I agree, Barbara. I just posted on Novatown Hall, that there are a lot of powerful people who have paid her, who have fought for her, and have helped her “hide” the deceptive tactics and lies that she has been executing in the plain sight of many–because they thought she could be bought and was bought on their side.
They thought she was a “player,” MIT grad, smart enough to keep the ball rolling, but turns out, she is an arrogant idiot who has barely tried to cover her tracks, no ethics, just $$$’s in sight… the video on Novatown Hall is just amazing, “Who wants to make money? Raise your hand high…”
She has gone too far here and in other instances that some were previously willing to overlook.
Puts the crazies at the operative word into some perspective too. And makes Eugene look brilliant. He was right about giving money to the polo match that everyone was duped into thinking the Queen would come to… tourism! we need tourism! just an excuse to line some well connected folks pockets…with our tax money….
Big money for polo matches, big salaries for climate consulting, and bicycle coordinators, and mega bucks for “hospitality training” (or did it go to one well connected friend’s salary to “coordinate” such important training?) but no money to enforce the Zoning Ordinance in eastern Loudoun, no money for the additional deputy sheriffs we need, and no money for a homeless shelter for men, etc etc. No money to improve public water and sewer, so direly needed in most of our western towns– real people are suffering, but no matter…
those who count are well paid….
The BoS needs to be cleaned out in 2011…I’m sure there is plenty of stuff like this going on with our so called elected representatives. This behaviour of public officials scamming taxpayers needs to end. Just take a look at that enviro group that implemented this current Board, those who were endorsed by them are part of the scam.
Michael, I think a lot of our POLICIES need to be cleaned out.
If it weren’t TECHNICALLY legal to do a lot of these things, or if the VISION adopted in a gauzy haze of McActivist lobbying didn’t ENCOURAGE it, it would be a lot harder for much of it to happen.
And now that a lot of it is enshrined in policy, ordinance and code, a lot of it happens.
So wow, maybe we should make some more POLICY, on energy, that offers a lot of possibilities to those who share the vision (and have their own side businesses they operate out of a PO box)! lolol
Review the draft policy at http://www.loudoun.gov/Portals/0/docs/Energy/Draft%20Proposed%20ES.pdf and comment at 7:30 on Monday december 14 in person at the board room, or by email to bos@loudoun.gov and THEN copy the newspapers.
With a link with suggested letter text to ten of your friends, if you want to do it the McActivist way—lol.
Horrifying, isn’t it?
We’ve been salahi’d by the likes of Ms. McGimsey and her friends’ audacious and arrogant lack of conscience or true moral compass, where all they see is their own financial interests expanding.
That space cadet McGimsey must be so sad her buddy The Operative is gone from the scene. I want to make money in this scam too, where do I sign up?
From Andrea McGimsey’s email Newsletter:
Public Input on Loudoun County Energy Strategy
The Board of Supervisors will hold a public input session on a proposed Loudoun County Energy Strategy next Monday, December 14 at 7:30pm. The session will take place in the Board Room of the Loudoun County Government Center, following the Board’s regularly scheduled public input session.
You can preregister to speak by calling 703-771-5072 or 703-777-0200. Advance sign-ups will be taken until 12 noon, Monday, December 14. You can also sign up to speak at the public input session. Directions to the Government Center are available online.
The proposed energy strategy is being developed as part of Loudoun County’s application for federal stimulus money through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program. The proposed strategy outlines goals for energy use, education, distribution, and supply for the county, with recommendations for both short- and medium-term projects.
A copy of the proposed energy strategy is available online at http://www.loudoun.gov/energy.
Why is the NVRC preparing the Loudoun County Plan??? Since when did Loudoun County sign up or relinquish its managerial authority to a Regional Commission. Next they will want taxing authority to apply CES to all. Does anyone remember something called the Northern Virgina Tranpotation Authority and what the Va Supreme Court had to say about their operation. All must raise Hell with all BOS members to stop this theft of self determination. Conservation YES Communism NO. This stuff is scarey and just getting started.
John, it probably should have been stopped back when the legitimate value and practice of conservation became merely another agenda driven means of social control (by some, who amazingly enough are now profiting from it!).
John,
I’ve raised that point. It is a great point to keep in mind, because we may well have to sue them to get them off the teat.
I do not know of this McGimsey, but do know that one who throws too many sticks will soon build a fence. I do not understand all of the outrage. She is with the Climate Prosperity Project and if she can create a Climate of Prosperity in these difficult economic times, why stop her? In my home country, the globe is definitely warming. The desert and the ocean are both heating up every day. Unless this McGimsey is stealing from you personally, then we should, how do you say, “leave it to beaver.”
Ravi, Then why does not your home country enact and participate such a plan? Because it is assinine and would destroy a lot of jobs. In addition this is all based on as yet UNPROVEN and UNRELIABLE data. It is bot about energy use/conservation, it is about making some wealthy with someone elses money.
Do not taunt the angry sheep or you might get fleeced. I am sorry Mr. John. My thoughts were not clear. I was trying to make a joke about climate and prosperity, and this McGimsey, but it did not come out the way you intended. Please forgive Ravi. I will work on sense of humor. I agree that the evidence on global warming is not concrete. I do not think that anyone should act rashly. I do think that conservation is good. I don’t think that Loudoun should spend so much money on an energy strategy. It seems wasteful at best. I feel that this should be addressed locally, if necessary, by existing staff or with the use of a fairly priced consultant. As for my home country – it is hard to say what they will enact, but they usually follow the lead of the USA on these matters, and all matters, as a matter of course and as a matter of fact.
Ravi is wacky!
.
The more I think about this plan the more incensed I become! This consultant got a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS that drums up more business for he and his “strategic partners”, including glowing ads for those pals at the end of the report. Is anyone else ticked off about that? If this was a developer or builder doing this the board proponents of this particular mess would have a fit!
Responding to an older comment – Donna Brown, you may be correct there, but don’t you have a problem with Owens Corning getting free advertising in an official Loudoun County plan? Or is it OK because they are “very involved in sustainability”?
LI,
How much did CH2MHill get for the Watershed Protection Study/Plan? I like Ravi’s proverbs…A real Aesop.
I have no clue, Eric. Did they put in free ads for their “strategic partners”?
Maybe Ravi is doing a visiting exchange program with Ben Dover.
LI, I’ve been incensed for a long time, but as a “global warming skeptic” (anybody see the interview featuring the “skeptic” and the “expert”, one of whom was a scientist, and one of whom was the head of an advocacy group under the umbrella of the UN? Care to guess which was which?) and “developer whore”, I’m used to being isolated and judged, so it doesn’t really matter to me WHEN people noticed the slide that produced this day.
I’m glad people are starting to notice!
Wonderful quote this, and perhaps a bit applicable:
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
What produced this crap began years ago, and was facilitated every time someone rationalized that it was OKAY to use people’s natural desire to be conservative, respectful and in general protective of natural and historic beauty to accomplish a marginally related end.
Think back to property rights battles–the “viewshed” “belonging” to “everyone!” was actually someone else’s land–sometimes modest parcels that the owner was NOT seeking to develop, but got them tagged as “greedy developers” anyway.
And that rhetoric was A-OK for those who were busy embedding the kind of squishiness that has resulted in a lot of grief ever since on a policy level, and perhaps never even noticed by some who firmly believed that things of such importance were at stake that the established rights of others were no longer material, especially since they were members of a bad and marginalized notably “evil” group.
And maybe some people signed on with the full knowledge that it was crap, but USEFUL crap that kept their personal world the way they liked, and anyway it was only “those people”.
Well, the machine is coming for everyone now, in a great big way.
Good. Glad everyone is starting to notice.
Yes, let’s get it stopped, because the mission creep will only get bigger, and provide cases to build ever more cases on, just like McGimsey makes herself more credentials out of themselves.
This article yesterday gave me a real turn:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/09/AR2009120904106.html
Particularly this quote:
Eric R. Glitzenstein, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the lawsuit makes the case for greater federal government oversight of the fast-growing industry that produces wind and solar power. Although coal and nuclear power are regulated, he said, new renewable sources of power are not subject to the same scrutiny.
“This sends an important message that renewable energy is not necessarily green energy,” Glitzenstein said. “We should not be creating new ecological crises by addressing existing ones. All energy sources have potential benefits, but they also have potential risks.”
Where will it be suitable to place renewables, if the same people talking out of one side of their mouths demand them through crippling taxes on every other form, and then turn and spit out the other side how bad renewables are for bats, fish, birds, bugs, you name it (not to mention viewshed of offshore wind turbines, and the detriment to sailing…see Cape Wind project and note how many Kennedys didn’t want it anywhere near where they might boat from the compound).
Of COURSE, the answer will be “greater federal government oversight” through regulation out the wazoo, and whole new government agencies devoted to it!
We’re seeing it right here and now on the local level with a disbanded ad hoc committee turning into a standing committee, with a quarter million dollar expenditure to get a two million dollar grant OF OUR OWN MONEY to outline spending millions more years into the future.
Who wants to make money being green?
Who doesn’t, particularly those who have brought us to this day, because they’ve already been doing it for some time.
And the taxes raised close the circle of the jobs “created” out of whole cloth, government getting bigger and bigger, while we get smaller and smaller paying for it to grow.
Okay, rant off.
Let’s hope the papers notice what you and Joe have been doing to educate about this, and let’s hope CITIZENS notice and chime in.
Did they put in free ads for their “strategic partners”?
Well it isn’t always so blatant but it is par for the course where consultants are concerned (speaking as one)…
Prior post? Classic Barb – noticed how you worked your east vs. west mantra into your rant – nice work. Keep beating the drum (or playing your flute?), lead the way to a Republican victory in 2011!!
Eric, where is the e v. w?
Some of the greatest brutality in the downzoning wars was perpetrated w v. w, against people who sometimes were reviled by those to whom they had SOLD the property on which they were now living and pontificating from.
McGimsey certainly isn’t an either pro or anti property rights landowner of any great significance, but the struggle sure provided her a big leg up, didn’t it?
Eric, I would hope that something so brazen as what occured in this plan would have been caught by the county employees reviewing it. Someone needs to answer some questions here. Are people just lining up future jobs and consulting contracts for themselves in this mess? More on that later.
Lori Waters fights back with an alternative that gets the grant money but does away with all the fluff (including hopefully the corpoprate advertisements):
http://www.loudountimes.com/news/2009/dec/11/supervisor-submits-alternative-energy-strategy/
LTE at Leesburg Today:
http://www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2009/12/11/opinion/letters/alet199waters121009.txt
I am getting some indirect threats about pursuing this. These people really must not know me as well as they think they do. Stupid move.
Why do we need any of this! Money down a rat hole. We are 169milion in the RED. To even consider even one new employee to administer or in fact a new program period is absolutly proof that the taxpayer’s welfare is of no concern to the majority of this board. I urge everyone to come out Monday and voice our concerns.
Seriously, we don’t no energy policies in the private sectors. Business today looks at all ways to save money in this economy. And the Design Architecture and Building business has been doing just fine thank you in being the for runners in green and leed, This BS McGimsey is looking for her 1 minute of fame and will be gone soon. Like Miller, seems they newly elected officials get on these power trips, which is their drug. and keep looking for ways to sustain their habit. And soon they will be gone and will have to go thru withdrawal.
i meant forerunners in green and leed and every other energy saving whatevers long before the government got involved.
And you wonder why we have a budget crisis here.
Simply put LOUDOUN Supervisors have a spending problem not a revenue problem
“We’ve created a doctorate thesis when a book report was necessary,” – I love this line.
It is a good analogy.
However, a real doctoral thesis is supposed to MEAN something, be based on extensive research, be worthy of conferring a noted title of respect on the author for their original advancement of thought in a discipline.
The report up for review (not Ms. Waters’) appears more to me like an IPCC homogenized report out of East Anglia.
I suspect that what we’re supposed to pas is a sweeping place-holder in the NVRC recommendation, in order for a few to add blips to their resumes and get some ink, thus committing us to years of rollouts of ever-more expensive boushwah.
If it were delayed past the dates of Copenhagen, I wonder if it would be so crucial, so immediate?
Be ready for noted experienced grant-getter McGimsey (says so right in her resume) to come out swinging in ridicule about “book reports” not rising to snuff.
McG and others keep saying this is only a guide. But isn’t that how the Comp Plan is referred to? Only a guide? Yet it holds a lot of sway in county decisions. This hack-job plan needs to be shelved.
[...] of Loudoun County government for their own self interests and that of their pals. I covered the insider dealing and commercialization of the Loudoun County Energy Strategy in this post, where the “strategic partners” of the principal consultant ended up with glowing [...]
[...] conflict issues were raised in regard to the Loudoun County Energy Strategy with primary consultant Peter Garforth and Supervisor Andrea McGimsey, and conflicts with Planning Commissioner Sandra Chaloux, and [...]
[...] a great avenue for corporate growth? MVV Energie of course, one of principal energy plan author Peter Garforth’s “strategic partners”. We’ll be watching the course of this and all other aspects of this incestuous process. [...]
[...] Looks like Arlington County is next to buy into the Garforth strategic partnership with Owens Corning, MVV Energie, and eTrios after they wowed Loudoun County with their quarter of a million dollar energy plan. All facilitated by the Northern Virginia Regional Commission in some kind of strange incestuous relationship. At least this time Garforth’s strategic partners are laid out more openly than they were with the Loudoun situati…. [...]
This plan is just garbage (like those other Green boondoggles, expensive waste to energy) by people with no background in the energy and power industries. Pages 12 to 13 lay out the real motives: the generation of another couple million dollars worth of bogus projects. The sole interest of the minds behind this Energy Plan is to reach out and grab $2 million more of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That’s why this energy plan work was not put out to bid in order to attract competent objective work. The County engaged these people in a dark of night, back room grab for “funds from the US Department of Energy’s “Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant” (EECBG) program” because they wanted the plan to recite every possible point of Green babble in order to secure the next $2 million in projects. The CES is a transparent sop to every Green fabrication. As a reward or a Greenwash well done, Garforth, TerraSol, Owens Corning and eTrios would lead the way to the ARRA trough. The Energy Plan makes unsupportable assumptions, fantasy projections and science fiction projections.
Youth Shelter Expansion
Implement renewable energy solutions through solar and geothermal solutions.
$500,000 -$600,000
Scott Memorial Park Solar Lights & Charging Stations
Implement renewable energy solutions for parking facilities by using 210 kW of solar powered lighting.
$300,000
Education and Outreach to Business Community
Implementation of Energy Audits Recommendations
Implement the second phase of an existing County building energy audit program.
$1,100,000 -$1,250,000
Educate and promote efficient building standards and practices to the business sector.
$250,000 -$300,000
Education and Outreach to Residents
Provide outreach and education to homeowners to promote home efficiency measures.
Energy Solution for Moorefield Station Scale Project and Digital Realty Trust data center cluster
Develop Integrated Energy Master Plan for Mixed-use Transit Neighborhood combined with a major Data Center cluster
$300,000 -$500,000
Building standards and Energy Performance Labeling (EPL)
Educate and promote efficiency to key stakeholders in residential and commercial buildings.
$200,000 -$250,000
None of these figures or plans can be justified. The proposed Green technologies are not a realistic option now and may never be. This is self-serving garbage.