Alexander and Associates Inc.

On Dec. 9, I went to a public hearing in support of the oil equipment shipments. Many people were there to show their support and I had hoped to testify. Unfortunately, this particular hearing was more formal, with attorneys on either side calling witnesses to speak before the Idaho Transportation Department board. I prepared some comments and I will seek another opportunity to enter them into the record. In the meantime, I have pasted them below.

Good morning. My name is Martin Johncox, (address). I have lived in Idaho 20 years. I am currently a public relations consultant and I have always been a strong supporter of business.

According to news reports, the Chinese are ready to spend $511 billion to build up to 245 nuclear reactors and are moving forward with renewable energy as well. The Chinese are now testing a bullet train to go more than 300 mph. China already has the world’s longest high-speed rail network with 7,500 miles and is ambitiously expanding it.

In America, anyone who would propose a power plant, wind farm, refinery or high-speed train will find the process long, expensive and discouraging. Maybe that’s why we have zero miles of high speed train and not enough juice to power one if we did. We’ve become a nation of consumers and borrowers, no longer a nation of builders and producers.

We are different from China in one important way, however: We have freedom and democracy, while they have oppression. And we may use our freedom to promote development and prosperity, or deny it.

The opponents of the megaloads have many valid points. The weight will stress our roads. Road closures will reduce business in the area. There are serious safety and environmental concerns. I believe Conoco Phillips and the state must address all these concerns. That means adequately recompensing people along the road and the state for any repairs it must make. We can and must hold Conoco Phillips to this standard: They must leave the road and communities along it in better condition than they found them. The good news is, this is fully doable if we choose to do it. The concerns of the residents and businesses along the route should be a template for safe and fair use of the road – not a means to kill this project.

The irony isn’t lost on me that many people at this hearing drove here in cars powered by fuel from these very same sand fields. Using gas doesn’t mean we necessarily approve any proposal, but it does obligate us to think about our shared responsibility in delivering these resources, and how important these resources are to us in this very room.

I hope these meetings conclude with a commitment to accomplishment, recompense and action, and that the shipments commence as soon as possible. Our ability to remain a prosperous, advancing nation depends on the outcomes of meetings like these.

Just a few minutes ago, I came across this: “SEC Brings Fraud Charges Against Self-Described Idaho Nuclear Power Company.” I company I have been a consultant with for nearly four years has been charged with fraud.

I had absolute faith in AEHI’s efforts to build a nuclear power plant. I worked with hundreds of people in small towns to get them to support our efforts. I worked with local news media, using our relationships built on trust. I testified at public hearings in support of this company. I’ve risked my own reputation. Now this.

The SEC complaint lays out a case that AEHI CEO Don Gillispie and Jennifer Ransom lied about selling stock and schemed to manipulate the stock price. My stock in this company, about 40,000 shares, is now worthless, as is the stock of many other people. But that’s the least of my concerns. My faith and the faith of many other people has been broken. Maybe I’ll have more to say later but right now, I’m in a state of shock.

Needless to say, my work for this company ceases immediately.

On Dec. 2, I provided testimony to the Payette County Planning and Zoning Commission regarding the application by Alternate Energy Holdings Inc. to develop a nuclear reactor. As many of you know, I have been with AEHI since March 2007 doing public relations, news media consulting, social media and community organizing. Thanks to the efforts of Alexander and Associates and others involved in AEHI, written and verbal testimony was 2-to-1 in favor of the nuclear plant last week.

Below is the transcript of my comments to the Planning and Zoning Commission.

“Good evening everybody. How do you do? Thanks for giving me this opportunity. My name is Martin Johncox, 4948 Kootenai Street in Boise. You may recall, right about this time a year ago, I was sitting in front of you telling you about my experiences doing community organizing for AEHI here, talking to people and their concerns. I can tell you I’ve been doing that again for the past few weeks and the economic conditions out there are just as bad.

“Something I would like to talk to you about this time that’s happened in the past year. There’s a practice called shorting stocks and there are a number of investors that are doing this with our stock. Basically involves betting that the price of a company’s stock will go down and these people are actively trying to drive our stock price down. Now, our stock price is not really your concern but I think you need to keep that in mind as you look at some of the testimony you’ve received. In particular, I’ve had some interactions with a fellow named Joe Lucid and I think that is not his real name. I believe he has submitted testimony to you. I suggest you consider whether or not he is using his real name and how that might affect things.

“I’ve been with this company almost four years. That’s longer than anyone in the room except the CEO. I’ve been in Elmore County, Owyhee County, Payette County. I’ve talked to thousands of people. Probably walked at least a hundred miles. Been to more meetings than I can count. Dealt with the news media, done a gazillion other things. The CEO has put a lot of his own fortune into this company trying to get it going. I got to tell you, if people say that we’re trying to pull some sort of a ruse or that we’re trying to scam people I really think there ought to be a way to do it that’s easier and faster and costs less money and is a lot less stressful, if you’re going to do this kind of thing. I think our persistence over the past four years has shown that we mean what we say.

“There’s a saying by a fellow called Confucius, the man who says something cannot be done should not block the path of the man trying to do it. And that’s kind of what I see here this evening in some of these people. If we don’t get the water, we won’t build it. If we don’t get the power lines, we won’t build it. If we don’t get the financing, we won’t build it. If we don’t get 1,001 other things that we need to do this, then we won’t build it. And these people are hoping and praying that we fail on as many of those things as possible. We are here to ask you for a fair chance and a fair shot at this and we’ll have to fight our battles as they come.

“But, I think, that’s the only thing that I want to leave you with, that we’re just looking for a fair shot and a fair chance at this and that’s all I have to say.”

Question from a planning and zoning commissioner: “I’ve got a question for you. In the testimony tonight, people were upset that you won’t name the vendor of the reactor generator. It seems pretty obvious to me, if you said we’re going to buy a General Electric generator and it was all planned for, they’d know they got the only ones and the price would be real high on it. Is my thinking correct or why don’t you say who the vendor is for it?”

Me: “Well, that’s something you probably have to ask the CEO. There are a number of different reactor designs out there and this is an area of technology that is evolving and changing. I do have a feeling, however, that if we did announce the reactor type, our opponents would say “Oh, they’re being way too premature about this. Look, they’ve already picked out the reactor type and they think they’re going to stroll into Payette County and plop one of these down. And they haven’t done enough groundwork in order to pick their reactor type.” Well, we’re trying to do that groundwork right now. It’s kind of a — my feeling is that we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t. We’re going to get criticized either way. Just up to you to evaluate us on what you see, and hear and know.”

I’m told Payette County has rejected Joe Lucid’s testimony because he’s not using his real name. That is very gratifying, as Lucid is a particularly toxic individual who has persistently spread lies about AEHI, even harassing individual investors whose emails he harvested from public testimony. Lucid wants people to view him as a crusader, but it is clear to me his only motive is to enrich himself through stock shorting, a controversial practice to profit from a falling stock price. Worst of all, Lucid doesn’t use his real name on message boards or blogs, instead relying on his pseudonym or promising he will “soon submit a bio.” Apparently on or about Nov. 26, Yahoo! banned Lucid’s original profile of joe.lucid, so he has reconstituted as lucidlucid@ymail.com (this one). It wouldn’t surprise me if he had more.

False names are fine if you’re lurking on the Internet. In the public policy arena, however, providing testimony under a false name isn’t just cowardly. It’s also perjury.