IS IT TRUE that GAGE President Debbie Dewey has been getting some serious questions regarding GAGE’s recommendation that the City of Evansville make a $5 Million loan to Earthcare Energy?…that there have been questions regarding whether or not a working model exists, whether or not there is a license agreement with any substance behind it, who owns the patent Electratherm, Langson Energy, or Richard Langson, and what is Vectren’s role in this deal?…that Ms Dewey responded to such questioning with the following email?
“I am preparing a binder for each of you and hope to have it ready early next week. It will include answers that I have to questions you have been posing and provide copies of the back-up documents that I have. I am also working on scheduling a trip to personally see and touch the prototype unit in operation. Does anyone what to join me on a trip to Reno next week for this purpose?
The PPA with Vectren and the License Agreement with Langson are proprietary documents which the parties will not make public. Understandably, the terms might influence other potential customers and dealers with whom they are currently negotiating. This is a reasonable business position given the investor-owned entities involved. Vectren did confirm by letter that they are entering into a 20 year PPA; and we have requested a letter from Langson addressed to the Mayor which confirms the relationship with Earthcare. I have also asked if they could provide a copy of the agreement with Langson which has confidential portions hidden.
Please keep emailing questions as they arise and I will do everything possible to get the answers.
Debbie
Deborah D. Dewey, President
Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville”
IS IT TRUE that one good question to this response is just what on earth does touching a prototype have to do with verification of any legal issue that may exist or with verifying that a unit is installed and working anywhere?…that if the City of Evansville is dealing with a “Wizard of OZ” that the Wizard will put on a better show in OZ than his representative put on in Evansville last Monday night?…that what needs to be done is to find a prototype that is installed on a pipeline and producing electricity as it is claimed that it will?…that we are sure that somewhere within driving distance of Reno, NV that there is some competent engineering company that has the test equipment and knowledge that would be need to conduct this test?…that if there is indeed a prototype that is worth touching that is available to be tested then that is what should be done?…that we are certain that testing the output of a generator will cost considerably less that VETTING a hotel proposal as every elementary school windmill contest like KIDWIND in the country has to do such a test?
IS IT TRUE that the real question is just how on earth did a recommedation to the Evansville City Council from GAGE happen without the benefit of “touching” an actual prototype, witnessing and reviewing a testing of the device, and validating the legality of the technology that is supposedly licensed?…that any and all members of the GAGE Board of Directors who were party to such a recommendation should hang their heads over this now that a “touchy feely” trip is being planned?…that the elected officials on the board who are party to this (if they were indeed party to it) should join some members of the Evansville City Council in demanding some answers before going forward with funding a start-up business with little to show?
Editor, … You simply have to believe! To receive what you want, (Magical, free electricity generator,) you must believe that you will get it, that you are deserving of it, and that it exists … Without belief, you can ask all you want, but you won’t get it. It isn’t because the universe doesn’t like you. … You are simply blocking. … (sarc)
Or: Use tried and proven principles of business and investment. …
(as you detailed above)
isn’t Joe Wallace out there somewhere? maybe he could meet Ms Dewey and peek behind the curtain,
According to mapquest I am 636 miles from Reno.
Hey, Yosemite is on the way. Maybe take a vacation day. Either way, these assholes will just find some other pie in the sky to bet the tax dollars on. With polticians, it’s always on a question of “how much” and “to whom”. Any show of “small government” is just that…a big show designed to keep us looking at the GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ instead of behind the curtain.
IMHO public funds in the millions of dollars should never go to such a closely held, private, for profit, business.
The people being asked to provide the funds should also be able to profit from the business, or lose money as the case may be, by purchasing a share of stock in the company.
If taxpayers are going to fund a business, then those same taxpayers should be able to profit from that business’ success.
There is ABSOLUTELY no doubt, in my mind, that VECTREN could easily fund EarthCare’s venture, but why use your own capital when you know you have the clout with city government to secure the use of taxpayers money instead?
__
absolutley correct Press, Vectren wastes that much every week
Completely bogus re: the “proprietary” ruse. If you want public money, you have to be as transparent as the sponsoring public entity. If you have trade secrets, redact them, but you still have to put the documents out there. BTW, why would Vectren care about their deal (PPA) ? I was excited when this deal was announced, I should have known that there would be “strings attached”, all the way to Reno. This will end badly, and major props to Editor for noting, correctly, that it is shameful that GAGE Board would back a deal like this with no vetting ! Is the 2012 GAGE Board a reincarnation of the 2011 ERC ? Is there a short guy with ponytail who answers to Bobio on GAGE Board ?
Touchy feely is going to net what it sees. GAGE need to hire a team not invite a team. The generator will do what it is doing. One has to take the generator portion out of the equation and look at the screw motor. A generator can be ran by any gas, diesel,steam,or gerbil engine.
It is the screw motor that Langson claims is revolutionary technology, but it’s not. Never the less, will it perform in power, versatility, and longevity as he claims? The generator does offer a convenient way to test those claims. You can load the generator and let the motor lug at it to see how it performs.
Yet one also needs to vet why gas let down generation has not caught on. As the CCO discovered, it has already been done since the 80’s with turbine driven generators.
In the end however, pressanykey has it right. If Vectren likes it,let Vectren pay for it. The taxpayer is taking the risk without the reward. There are to many tics sitting around GAGE’s table looking for a warm body and taxpayer blood.
Puppets are only as good as their masters. The real question here is who is pulling Dewey’s strings. Is it Winnecke, Vectren, her board, or even old Weinzapfel? Who gets something from this deal?
From their description, I would guess their technology simply reverses the process of a rotary screw compressor where you apply mechanical energy to one side of the rotor and compressed air comes out of the other side … so compressed gas is fed into one side and mechanical energy is available at the other side …. I am also guessing that the core compression/ decompression screw could be purchased off the shelf from a company like Sullair …. sounds like another Vectren venture similar in risk to their failed aireated concrete project in Newburgh that lost $3 million for their shareholders after they shut it down when they discovered there was no market for the end product …. only this time it will be tax payers money at risk rather than shareholders…. great work if you can get it….
GAGE and Winnecke are making Weinzapfel’s follies at the McCurdy and the downtown hotel look like good business. How blasted stupid can a town be?
There have to be certain towns like ours.
We are necessary for the pulp fiction writers.
Where would Travis McGee be without stuff like this?
Isn’t this the same GAGE that ran the “Freedom Festival” off Dress Plaza into the Ohio River?
Well, well, well. Now Ms. Dewey wants to go and touch the prototype.
In early emails to her I begged her to assemble a team and even volunteered my time as a controls engineer to be part of the team.
She responded that she is a mechanical engineer and has ran multiple companies and as such needs no outside assistance in determining the units validity.
I told her that if she had not seen a unit in the field in operation then it does not exist. She responded to that statement by emailing me the link to the warehouse demo unit.
So now that the pressure is on she is going to “personally see and touch the prototype unit in operation”.
My questions are:
1. Is GAGE authorized to “validate technology”?
2. How can we remove/fire Ms. Dewey from GAGE and let her go back to being the great business leader she claims to be?
Your question #1 is truly a valid question, and the obvious answer is “no, an independent, qualified mechanical engineering consultant should validate the technology both by design and under application.”
The comment above was intended to be attached to Jock Stucki’s 8:18 a.m. comment of 03/20/12.
Why is it that everything that GAGE has to “touch” does not work or fails — namely the Christmas parade could not be rescheduled because of lack of planning, running the Freedom Fest out of town with the boats. I have an idea, why don’t we get rid of GAGE and get some people that know what their doing.
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