NY NatGas-Fired Electric Plant an Inside Job for Corrupt Cuomo Aide

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bribery.jpgU.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is about to claim another high-level scalp in corruption that seems to pervade New York State. Bharara has already brought cases that convicted both the Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver (a Democrat) and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (a Republican) for corruption and bribes. With each case Bharara gets closer to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Last week he got REALLY close. A former close Cuomo aide was indicted on bribery charges. The unfortunate aspect of this story is that he was bribed in connection with a project MDN has lent moral support to–a $900 million natural gas-fired electric generating plant in Orange County, NY (see Orange County, NY Marcellus-Fired Electric Plant OK’d by Judge). The power plant is being opposed by local anti-drilling ninny nannies, including Hollywood star James Cromwell. Yeah, that plant. According to charges filed by Bharara, Joseph Percoco, a 47-year-old former executive deputy secretary to Cuomo sought and got $280,000 in bribes from Competitive Power Ventures, the company building the power plant, and Percoco’s wife got a $90,000/year job from CPV to do nothing, all connected to getting the project approved and built. Crony capitalism is always disgusting–whether it’s for a good cause or not. The CPV plant planned for Orange County will be fed by Marcellus Shale gas, piped to it via the Millennium Pipeline. Is that project now in doubt?…

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