My letter to my Representative regarding the Cape Wind Farm project

[Savannah Progressive]

Congressman,

I am writing a fax, as a fellow Georgian, to urge your immediate action in working to remove the provisions from the Coast Guard Bill sponsored by Senator Kennedy to prohibit the Cape Wind Farm Project. I can’t imagine anyone who would be opposed to the project, there is no reasonable argument in opposition to the project, other than it would interfere with the Kennedy Families favorite Yachting area.

I urge you to work with anyone, in a fully engaged manner, to remove the amendment that would kill this project. The commercial wind development would be a logical first step in developing alternative energy. Politically speaking, there is no downside to killing the “save the Kennedy Yachting area” amendment. The hard part would be in telling America that clean renewable energy not dependant on foreign oil and not subject to the whim of Big Oil regarding supply and cost.

I don’t see how the Democratic Party can back a move to benefit the very few, specifically the Kennedy Clan, and ignore the majority in favor of dirty Coal energy. It’s time to move forward Congressman, it’s time to move forward to the era of renewable energy, and this development would provide well over half the energy that area needs to heat, light, and enjoy their homes. The Kennedy Yacht can go anywhere, I am sure you can well imagine where I think the Kennedy Yacht can go.
Sincerely,

ON Edit, the link for todays news story on this move by Kennedy that is opposed by Greenpeace. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/04/27/kennedy_faces_fight_on_cape_wind/

[Ian David]

1. I called Sen. Kennedy's office on this. n/t

[begley]

8. Im disappointed in Kennedy's opposing this

Gotta put NIMBYism aside here

[begley]

10. I just saw the windmills in WV and MD on Backbone Mountain

They are mammoth, but the three blades move slowly. I timed it. One revolution in seven seconds. It's not like it's some vortex that swallows up birds. I can't see that it would be any more hazardous to birds than a tower. As for the complaints Ive heard that these things are noisy. Not so. The blades moved in a whisper, with an occasional creak. Maybe the ones proposed for Nantucket Sound are different, but these fifty or so windmills in the mountains of Western Md and Eastern WV to me weren't offensive at all. And my kids loved them, BTW.

[seaglass]

11. So then why is Romney and Healey also opposing it, they

don't vacation down the Cape or on Nantucket/Martha's Vineyard?

"Maybe it is also about whether a private, for-profit developer ought to be handed 24 square miles of publicly owned federal land without having to submit to a competitive bidding process. Maybe it is about whether Congress ought to devise clear rules for development of the ocean floor before, not after, entrepreneurs start erecting fields of wind turbines offshore."

By Eileen McNamara, Globe Columnist | April 26, 2006

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/26/wind_plan_needs_airing/

[Chemical Bill]

17. I agree with that. n/t

[Savannah Progressive]

9. Thought you would like this link

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/kennedy-misses-the-boat-when-i

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/cape-wind-s-future-in-jeopardy

[tabatha]

2. environmental issues

Massachusetts Wind Farm Threatens More than 100,000 Birds
Wind farm opponents launch bipartisan effort to preserve Nantucket Sound
Written By: James M. Taylor
Published In: Environment News
Publication Date: January 1, 2005
Publisher: The Heartland Institute

An Army Corps of Engineers report on the impact of a proposed offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound reports that radar detected 127,697 birds and bats flying through the project zone during a recent two-month period. The new data have rejuvenated opposition in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to the project.

The proposed wind farm, covering 24 square miles and situated less than five miles from shore at places, would be the first such project on the U.S. East Coast. Within the wind farm, 130 turbines are proposed, each one reaching 328 feet, or nearly 33 stories, high. The Statue of Liberty is 305 feet high.

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=16204

There should be a happy medium somewhere, somehow. Maybe shut down during migration?

[Jacobin]

3. "100,000" birds threatened versus 100,000 plus Iraqis killed for energy

I'm afraid the birds will have to learn to fly around the windmills, because killing Iraqis to get energy for America is a far far worse idea.

[Chemical Bill]

18. Actually, not much oil goes to produce electricity. n/t

[skids]

4. My that's a rather old chestnut. n/t

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[yorgatron]

5. has anyone ever done an official count of dead birds at a wind farm?

i'd like to see some actual facts and figures.
besides which,wind farms look a lot nicer than oil rigs.

[skids]

13. Yes, many studies have been conducted.

...and since the original problems at Altamont Pass wind power producers have adapted the technology to deal with the problems.

http://www.currykerlinger.com/studies.htm

[vireo]

14. American Bird Conservancy report

Recent U.S. studies indicate that bird mortality at wind turbine projects varies from less than one bird/turbine/year to as high as 7.5 birds/per turbine/year. The latter fatality rate was at Buffalo Mountain, TN, where three wind turbines are in use, each with a 154' diameter, 3-blade rotor mounted on a 213' tall tubular steel tower. A meteorological (met) tower constructed for the Buffalo Mountain wind plant had a mortality rate of 8.1 birds/year.

More here: http://www.abcbirds.org/policy/windpolicy.htm

[seaglass]

6. I have really mixed feelings on this project but don't understand

what the rush is - the environmental review has not been completed.

[Savannah Progressive]

7. Here is an idea, let's build another Coal fired power plant.

Since the area claims it needs additional electrical generation, this year, to meet future needs.

http://www.capewind.org/news375.htm

At least Coal is domestically produced, granted we can't manage to suck a lungful of air downwind, but hey, the birds will be safe from the big bad windmills right?

http://www.capewind.org/index.php

Take a look, read the reports, read the European history of projects like this, and see what you think. Is it better to have windmills creating energy or coal fired plants so Senator Kennedy can yacht in peace? I love Senator Kennedy, but in this, I disagree with him and his aims.

[seaglass]

12. So you are FOR no-bid contracts? You are FOR entrepreneurs

developing the ocean floor before regulations have been developed?

You are AGAINST the fishermen who are concerned about their livelihood? You are AGAINST airport controllers concerned the turbines will interfere with radar?

There are costs and benefits to this project more complicated than Kennedy's "yachting", no need to be so vicious about it.

[skids]

15. No-bid contracts are fine in the private sector...

...that's entirely the business of the developer, and that's what this is.

An environmental impact study has already been done, the one that people are "waiting on" is the extra studies that are being done to appease some of the latest concerns and some of the more far-fetched concerns.

As for fishermen, they are divided:

http://www.capewind.org/news1.htm
http://www.saveoursound.org/node/295

When it comes to fish the situation is complex. You can say it will be a threat to fish or deny fishermen access, but it isn't all negatives. For example, we have an overfishing problem anyway, which is itself an environmental hazard especially when they trawl. The wind farm actually will provide habitat, and boats with shallow enough draft to get under the turbines will be small enough to do so without hazard. With all the environmental destruction caused by coal plants, who knows how long fish from the sound will be edible, or even survive?

The radar thing was just ridiculous eleventh hour bullcrap from the Alaska jerks and Delahunt. The FAA and USAF have already determined it will be no problem.

[seaglass]

16. That's why I said it was complicated and that there was no

need to smear Kennedy.

I don't really know about contracting out public land to anyone who asks - I wonder why Domenici needed to grandfather Cape Winds into the Energy bill if this was legit.

So are you saying that if ANWR is opened up, they can just say Mobil - you can have it? They don't need to put the rights of use out to anyone else? This may be the way it is, it just doesn't seem right.