KWI’s co-manager giving marching orders to Pine duBois, Mark Beaton

KINGSTON - Many have suspected it for months, but now a June 14th email-sent out by Kingston Wind Independence (KWI) Turbine-co manager Kially Ruiz-confirms that KWI's opinionated co-manager has been giving marching orders to a fraction of Kingston's political elite who still vehemently defend Kingston's controversial wind turbines.

In the email, Ruiz responds to a Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (CEC) flicker study which found that some residences in Kingston receive over 80 hours of shadow flicker annually.

"Mark [Beaton] and Pine [duBois] please spread the word [the CEC's flicker study] is largely nonsense," Ruiz writes in the scathing email.

Complaining Kingston residents were originally told by both Ruiz and Green Energy Committee Chairman Mark Beaton that the KWI Turbine produced no more than 30 hours of flicker per year.

"CEC should be ashamed to put this kind of work of fiction in front of serious folks like the Board of Health," Ruiz writes in the email. "Garbage in = Garbage out."

Ruiz asserts that the CEC's flicker study, which was released last week, had a compromised methodology that "is not realistic at all."

According to Ruiz's email, "[the study] assumes the wind turbines operate 8600 hours per year when in reality...the wind turbine operates only 5900 hours per year."

"So off the bat you have to take all the numbers reported and cut them down by 32%," Ruiz writes.

Ruiz also details concerns with the CEC flicker study's assumptions regarding exaggerated wind speeds and sunshine estimates.

"There are many more such silly assumptions in this report," the co-manager's email reads, "and if the consulting company would summarize their assumptions right up front, I am sure we will find many more that do not square with reality or common sense."

Along with Beaton and duBois, Ruiz's June 14th email was sent directly to the CEC's Peter McPhee and CC'd notable names like Mary O'Donnell, Town Planner Tom Bott, Health Agent Henny Walters and Town Counsel Jay Talerman.

Mark Beaton and Pine duBois, who are the only two names mentioned specifically by Ruiz, formerly served together on Kingston's Green Energy Committee until duBois' sudden resignation from town government this spring. Several months prior, duBois was busted for a massive ethics violation by state agencies and forced to pay a $2,500 fine.

Beaton remains the Chairman of the Green Energy Committee.

The Board of Selectmen will be discussing the Green Energy Committee as part of their agenda during tomorrow night's selectmen meeting at 7 pm in the Kingston Town House.