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| Ron Lauder |
Billionaire Ron Lauder and trend-spotter Faith Popcorn have signed on to fight the burial of a power line 30 feet under Wainscott Beach in Long Island’s Hamptons.
The power line is to transmit electricity from the Deepwater wind farm 35 miles off Montauk Point to power the homes of 70K Long Islanders.
Construction of the $2B project will commence next year and finish in 2023.
The Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott contends the power cable will “forever alter our sole, undivided community beach.”
They are upset with the eyesore of “at least 20 ocean shipping container-sized vaults throughout the community along its route.”
The Citizens, which has hired Mercury Public Affairs, are pushing for alternative sites (e.g., Amagansett) that “would have less impact on an iconic beach—one of the most popular, heavily used and photographed public beaches in the Hamptons.”
The group wants to secede from the Town of East Hampton, saying an incorporated Wainscott would have a better say about its future.
Michael McKeon, Mercury partner, handles the Citizens’ push to incorporate.
The former communications director for NY Gov. George Pataki and executive director of Republicans for Governor Andrew Cuomo handles crisis, media relations and PA campaigns at Mercury.
Citizens have shelled out $307K for Mercury’s services, according to its tax filing.
Omnicom owns Mercury.
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PR firms need to be mindful of ways their work product may be protected by the attorney-client privilege whenever working with a client’s internal legal team or its external legal counsel.
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