Congressional showdown looms this week on Cape wind farm

[midnight armadillo]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/26/congressional_showdown_looms_this_week_on_cape_wind_farm?mode=PF

Congressional showdown looms this week on Cape wind farm

By Andrew Miga, Associated Press Writer | February 26, 2006

WASHINGTON --After a long, loud and costly public fight, the fate of the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm could be decided soon at a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill.

Backers of the Cape Wind Associates project say an amendment quietly slipped into the $8.7 billion Coast Guard reauthorization bill could shatter their hopes -- possibly as soon as this week when Congress returns from a holiday recess.

"If this passes, we'd be facing some tough options," said Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers.

The legislative intrigue in Congress involving the wind farm has been cloaked in secrecy.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, inserted language in the Coast Guard bill that would create a 1.5-mile buffer zone between wind turbines and shipping and ferry lanes.

The measure would effectively kill Cape Wind's wind farm by forcing the removal of so many of the proposed 130 turbines that the project would not be economically viable, according to project officials.

More at link...
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Fuck Don Young and the horse he rode in on! I wonder if this is payback for not getting his bridge to nowhere. Naw, he just got bought off. We should just put our congressmen up for auction on ebay.

[DaveinMD]

1. likely

a favor for Ted Kennedy who opposes this project.

[rfkrfk]

2. how much would the wind-project pay, for the 'seabed'.

if the project goes forward, how much would the project pay for
land the things sit on...oops seabed

[OneBlueSky]

3. a lot of good Martha's Vineyard liberals are against this . . .

kind of a seafaring NIMBY movement . . . RFK Jr. is among the most vocal opponents . . .

[NNadir]

4. This completely sucks.

There are lots of wind farms at sea. Where is one that has effected shipping?

[midnight armadillo]

5. The wind farm is going on a SHOAL

That means that ships can't sail there anyway!!

Personally, I'd prefer to see Cape Wind pay a reasonable lease or something for its use of federal waters, but considering the amount of subsidies we shell out for coal (for example) or the $1-2 trillion for the Iraq disaster, a little wind subsidy is a-o-k by me.

It's starting to dawn on me that energy production, like many other things, is probably worth some amount of public subsidy.

[NNadir]

6. Indeed it is.

Energy that ameliorates global climate change should be subsidized, almost to the maximum extent we can afford, because the crisis is that serious.

I am appalled that the Cape Wind project isn't already under construction. This is a good project, a safe project, and an important project.

The whole affair thus far disgusts me.