CakePHP using Email component from Shell cronjob

I'm trying to send an email from a CakePHP shell just as you would from the Controller.

Most of the code below was adapted from this dated article on the Bakery and it's comments. The email is sending, however the line $controller->set('result', $results[$i]); throws the following notices:

Notice: Undefined property: View::$webroot in /home/jmccreary/www/intranet.sazerac.com/cakephp/cake/libs/view/view.php on line 813

PHP Notice: Undefined variable: result in /home/jmccreary/www/intranet.sazerac.com/cakephp/app/views/elements/email/text/nea/task_reminder_it.ctp on line 2

So I'm not getting any of the variables passed to my email view.

How can I do this, ideally following the Cake conventions?

class NotificationShell extends Shell {
    var $uses = array('Employee', 'Task');

    function main() {
        // run if no action is passed
    }

    function nea_task_reminder() {
        // build Task to Employee relationship
        $this->Task->bindModel(array('belongsTo' => array('Employee' => array('className' => 'Employee', 'foreignKey' => 'object_id'))));
        $results = $this->Task->find('all', array('conditions' => array('application_id' => 1, 'completed_by_id' => 0), 'contain' => array('Employee' => array('Contact', 'Position'))));

        $count = count($results);
        if ($count) {
            App::import('Core', 'Controller');
            App::import('Component', 'Email');
            $controller =& new Controller();
            $email =& new EmailComponent();
            $email->startup($controller);

            // send email
            $email->from = Configure::read('Email.from');
            $email->to = 'jmccreary@whatever.com';
            $email->replyTo