Unfair meddling in Cape Wind (Boston Globe)

[jpak]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/10/16/unfair_meddling_in_cape_wind/

TWO YEARS ago, the state's Energy Facilities Siting Board completed an exhaustive, 39-month review of the undersea cable linking the proposed Nantucket Sound wind power turbines with transmission facilities on the Cape. The board approved the cable, even though then-governor Mitt Romney was an outspoken opponent of the Cape Wind project. Now a subcommittee of the Cape Cod Commission is recommending that the commission deny approval of the cable because of "insufficient information." The commission should reject this transparent, obstructionist recommendation and approve Cape Wind's cable.

Cape Wind is the most advanced of the big offshore wind projects proposed for US waters. The 420 megawatts its 130 turbines would produce could cover 75 percent of the electricity needs of the Cape and islands. Without Cape Wind, it is unlikely that the state will be able to meet its goal of producing 4 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2009. But the project will have a hard time taking its overdue place in the state's power grid if agencies like the Cape Cod Commission continue to fabricate hurdles to put in its way.
The cable has been the focus of so much attention by state and Cape Cod regulators because it is the one part of the project under their purview - the turbines themselves would be in federal waters and under jurisdiction of federal watchdogs. An agency of the Interior Department is expected to complete its review of the project in late November. Before 2005, Cape Wind was in the bailiwick of the Army Corps of Engineers, which gave it a green light with some conditions that year.

There is evidence that the Cape Cod Commission is finding fault with the cable proposal because some commission members or residents of the towns they represent do not want the turbines, which at their closest point would be about five miles from the Cape, in their viewscape. At the same time the commission was dealing with the cable proposal from Cape Wind, it approved without benefit of any review at all a new electric cable linking Nantucket with the Cape. At 26 miles, that cable has already been built, and it is double the length of Cape Wind's.

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[sailor65]

1. I've read

that Ted Kennedy is one of those "Residents" trying to block it, but have never seen a clear and compelling reason other than his own aesthetics. Anybody know anything about this?

[Warpy]

2. He's approaching it by asserting it will hamper shipping and yachting

in the region, but yes, he's on the wrong side of this one.

From what I've seen, the turbines will be set into shoals, a very dangerous area for both shipping and yachting, so it's obvious that the well heeeled residents of the south shore of the Cape have sicced Kennedy against the project.

Their website has a view of the turbines from Craigsville Beach, an area very close to the Kennedy compound. I have no sympathy with their complaints, the project really won't screw up their scenery that much.

It's not like they're proposing a gas works or sewage treatment plant on the adjacent lot like the rich do to us.

[sailor65]

3. I think I've heard about the shipping thing,

and having looked at the charts for that area, I agree with you wholeheartedy on the fact that windmills set there will have no impact on shipping.

I've always thought that it was personal for Kennedy and his neighbors, but thought maybe someone could prove me wrong. I've never been any fan of his, but I figured I'd give it a shot. He had a chance to be a leader on this one. Too bad he's blown it.

[phantom power]

4. In this case, it appears that TK has succumbed to rank nimbyism

Sad, but true.

[Kolesar]

5. Martha's Vinyard is regarded as "the best" winds for yacht racing

Or so I recall from my days of yacht racing and reading about yacht racing. I have never sailed there. For me, it was the mean chop of Lake Erie.