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Prevailing Winds from Mass. Capitol Shift in Cape Wind's Favor
"America's First Offshore Wind Farm" – the tag line of the proposed Cape Wind Project – has been more wishful thinking than fact for eight years. That may be changing.
This week, a majority of the members of the Massachusetts Legislature – 107 out of 200 – signed a letter urging U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to approve the wind farm "as soon as possible."
What's significant about this letter is not the content per se; it's that far more legislators have signed it since it was first delivered just a month ago – almost 30 more since April 6.
It's just the latest evidence that the tides are quickly turning on the 130-turbine wind farm proposal for Nantucket Sound, a project that has faced relentless "Not In My Back Yard," or NIMBY, opposition. Here are some other signs of progress:
- On January 16, 2009, the Minerals Management Service released its final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the project, concluding that the project poses no significant environmental threat.
- On March 12, 2009, the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board voted unanimously to issue Cape Wind a tentative "super permit," knocking off nine state and local approvals it needs to build the turbines. A final approval, which is likely, is expected soon.
- On April 10, 2009, the 17-member board of the highly respected Cape Cod environmental organization, the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, came out unanimously in favor of Cape Wind for the first time.
- On April 22, 2009, Earth Day, President Obama announced that the U.S. Department of the Interior has finalized a long-awaited framework for renewable energy production on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) that could clear the regulatory thicket on offshore wind development.
- On May 4, 2009, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Vice President Joe Biden visited the University of Delaware where they both underscored the importance of developing America's offshore wind potential on the OCS.
Interior Secretary Salazar, for his part, has been heavily touting the nation's untapped offshore wind resource during the last few months. He frequently quotes a study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which found more than 1,000 gigawatts of wind potential off the Atlantic coast. The entire electricity-generation capacity of the U.S. is just over that number.
None of this new-found support means that Cape Wind is a done deal. A well-heeled and expert cadre of NIMBY activists, led by Sen. Edward Kennedy and The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, remains hell-bent on stopping what it sees as a coming eyesore by any means necessary. To say they are impassioned territorial protectionists is no stretch.
As one nearby resident bluntly puts it in this May 6 letter-to-the-editor:
The visual image of Cape Wind's 130, 440-foot proposed wind turbines over 24 square miles of Nantucket Sound offends me. And my right to Nantucket Sound aesthetic value is assured under the National Environmental Policy Act.
There should be no room for such localized NIMBYism in well-conceived renewable energy development. Keep in mind, the Cape Wind plan has statewide polling support of 86 percent.
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© InsideClimate News |
Your Website attributes a comment that I have not made to me.
Your Website link falsely attributes a comment to me regarding the late Senator Kennedy that I respectfully ask you to correct.
I have not criticized Senator Kennedy as his objections to Cape Wind are informed and valid.
This is your Website link that attributes another's comment to me as it now appears:
Prevailing Winds from Mass. Capitol Shift in Cape Wind's Favor ...8 May 2009 ... On May 11th, 2009 Barbara Durkin (not verified) said: ... Shame on Sen Kennedy and associates for blocking the Cape Wind project. ...
solveclimate.com/.../prevailing-winds-mass-capitol-shift-cape-winds-favor - Cached - Similar
Senator Kennedy, in his own words, on Cape Wind:
'Newsvine - Kennedy Floor Statement on the Cape Wind Project'
http://bjdurk.newsvine.com/_news/2009/08/27/3197897-kennedy-floor-statem...
Thank You,
Barbara Durkin
Nimby Schmimby
Ha! We see you're still using that old corporado NIMBY chestnut. O well, get in bed with the corporados, act like the corporados, we guess. There's plenty of folks out here in western Mass who are opposed to the proposed site for the Cape Wind industrial facility, but that doesn't fit into the Cape Wind boosters' public relations hype, just as failing to mention that it's one of the smelliest PRIVATIZATION schemes is the Commonwealth!
So, what sorts of interesting things are you guys telling the state reps these days to get them to sign on? Campaign contributions for everyone??
Wind Project is Offensive
Dear Editor:
'Prevailing Winds from Mass. Capitol Shift in Cape Wind's Favor', by
author Stacy Feldman [May 8, 2009] states:
"As one nearby resident bluntly puts it in this May 6
letter-to-the-editor:
The visual image of Cape Wind's 130, 440-foot proposed wind turbines over
24 square miles of Nantucket Sound offends me. And my right to Nantucket
Sound aesthetic value is assured under the National Environmental Policy
Act."
As the author of this letter, I did disclose that I live approximately 1
1/2 hours drive time away from Cape Cod in my letter. That's a distance of
about 90 miles away from where I live. Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and
Nantucket Island are internationally recognized tourist destination spots.
Even if Cape Wind would not create an air traffic, and navigational safety
hazard, shut fishermen out of their fishing ground, constitute a taking of
marine mammals by harassment, and cause up to 6,600 avian mortalities per
year where the roseate tern is at the brink of extinction; and even if Cape
Wind had a source for their wind turbines, (GE 3.6 MW wind turbine
"discontinued"), a Power Purchase Agreement, (earned by their demonstration
that electric ratepayers are willing to sign a green contract for Cape Wind
at twice their current price, net, net, net,), and financing for their
project. And even if, “United South and Eastern Tribes, USET an
intertribal organization comprised of twenty-five (25) federally recognized
Tribes:” did not oppose Cape Wind proposed for part of the Wampanoag
People “Ancient Homeland” as it would, “forever change the physical
integrity of the Sacred Site: and will ruin the eastern vista viewshed,
essential to maintaining the Tribal identity of the Wampanoag people and
their spiritual wellbeing…”
I would not support the siting of Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound as a Cape
and islands' tourist.
Familiarize yourself with the facts as represented by stakeholders, state
and federal agencies, and sovereign nations that have reviewed this
project, and you might be offended by it, too.
Thank You,
Barbara Durkin
http://bjdurk.newsvine.com/_news/2009/05/01/2762454-cape-wind-faa-notice...
http://bjdurk.newsvine.mobi/_news/2009/03/11/2534556-dear-secretary-sala...
http://bjdurk.newsvine.com/_news/2009/02/05/2400385-even-rich-nimbys-can...
Cape Wind and NIMBY
Shame on Sen Kennedy and associates for blocking the Cape Wind project. The last thing we need is for supposedly environmentalist people like Kennedy to set a precedent for NIMBY opposition to wind and solar.
Sen Feinstein is doing something similar by opposing solar projects in California's deserts, although for different reasons.
In that case, the reason is understandable concern for desert ecosystems. But this seems shortsighted, given the threat from global warming that could wreck havoc on the desert ecosystems, which would be far worse than any impact from the solar plants.
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