WAWAYANDA – Following reports
that Peter Galbraith Kelly, a former executive of CPV, will plead guilty
to criminal charges, Riverkeeper and area elected officials have once
again asked the state Department of Environmental Conservation to consider
suspending or revoking permits required to operate the electric generating
plant in Wawayanda.
In a second letter to DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos, “As discussed in our April 6 request, the evidence at trial plainly showed that the highest levels of CPV facilitated payments to a top government official’s wife, in what a jury has found to be bribery,” Riverkeeper wrote in a May 3 letter co-signed by Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus and State Assembly Members James Skoufis and Aileen Gunther.
“Based on the testimony of Sean Finnerty, CPV knowingly allowed Kelly, who is apparently about to plead guilty, to handle those payments,” they wrote. “The guilty plea will only validate that where there is payee of a bribe, there is a payor. It would also further confirm the credibility of Mr. Finnerty’s testimony. Therefore, if Kelly pleads guilty to a bribery-related charge, the suitability of the operator cannot be seriously defended.”
They wrote that “A guilty plea from the permittee’s External Affairs VP adds to the need for DEC to act to defend the integrity of its permitting processes and deter other permittees from embarking on a similar course.”
The officials said the DEC “should send a powerful message to all who seek governmental permits that illegal activity associated with obtaining approvals for projects cannot be tolerated.”
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