Much has already been said about Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb’s new book Cape Wind – Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, And The Battle For Our Energy Future On Nantucket Sound (forgive me if I never ever type out that long subtitle again), but I thought I would add my own two cents.

First a little background about myself, I have lived on Cape Cod for almost 4 years now. It is a strange and wonderful place full of interesting characters, ridiculously wealthy people, and a good number of very poor ones as well. Reader be warned, do not think of me as a “Cape Cod’a”, this lofty title should only be applied to people who’s ancestors came off the mayflower (the first thing many people will tell you on Cape Cod is how long they have lived there). I have however been “lucky” enough to have been a part of most of the events outlined in the book. I was at most of the public hearings, saw most of the press conferences, even attended some of the rallies. I say all this because this obviously makes me an biased reviewer. I fully support the Cape Wind project. Taking that into consideration I will attempt to give as fair a review as possible.

The book opens with a recap of the Martha’s Vineyard public hearings in 2004. Showing David McCullough in a less than flattering light as he spouts wild assertions about the very “outrageous” nature of the proposed Cape Wind project. You might know David from his work in narrating public television programs. In fact even if you are not from Cape Cod you may know a lot of the people mentioned in this book. There are, to put it mildly, some very rich and very famous people that live on Cape Cod (at least in the summer). Many of these very rich and very influential people are very much against Cape Wind. Why you might ask? Williams and Whitcomb put forth a pretty convincing argument that it all boils down to one thing, the view.

In a pattern that will be repeated throughout the book, the authors ruthlessly roast the rich and powerful for their hypocritical, and outlandish attempts to stop the project. In fact the book could be said to be more about class and the power of money in politics than about renewable energy. The events in this book could have been written about any rich neighborhood trying to move project x (coal plant, nuclear plant, water treatment plant etc) out of their backyard and into the backyard of some less well off community. The only difference is these NIMBY’s (not in my back yard) have more money in the safe in the second guest house that you or I will ever make in our entire lives.

Time and time again we are treated to the same story. The rich think up some scheme to kill the project, spend millions of dollars to put it into place, only to be thwarted by a dedicated group of everyday citizens. If nothing else the book details the power of a large group of motivated individuals to overcome a small group of very well connected ones. Some of the best reading is in the second half of the book, where the rich take their fight to congress. They wrangle in senators from as far away as Alaska to insert secret provisions into bills during midnight sessions. High political drama ensues. It brought back memories of the time I spent on letter writing and email campaigns to alert elected officials that the fox was guarding the hen house.

The book has a point of view for sure. Some readers may see it as a one sided argument. My point of view is that the book is not about Cape Wind at all, and as such should not be seen as an argument for or against the wind farm. It is instead a book about corruption in politics, and the lengths the powerful will go to in order to get their way. Seen in that light the book is a wonderful muck racking expose of just how influential money can be in our society.

The book reads like a David and Goliath battle. With Jim Gordon the developer playing the part of the upright, and stubborn hero (albeit tragically naive and ignorant at parts), and a whole cast of evil doers trying to stop him. Some of the biggest villains turn out to be some of renewable energies biggest public supporters. People like Ted and Robert Kennedy. Teddy helped stop the drilling in ANWR, and Robert is a well known advocate of clean renewable energy. Both of them are on record stating that they LOVE renewable energy. What they didn’t tell everyone is that they only love it when it is someplace they can’t see from their yachts. Then there is the people you would expect to be against a wind farm. The usual gaggle of hyper rich oil and coal tycoons, giants of industry in bed with the various carbon heavy companies.

What makes the book fun is when you get to hear insider information about these socialites. Like When Bunny Mellon told a lawyer that supported the wind farm that he was a “traitor to his class”, or when Ted Kennedy explained that the view of wind farms would affect him because “don’t you realize, that’s where I sail.” It’s the kind of thing that makes a mid western boy like myself crack up.

If you want to read a book about the pro’s and con’s of the proposed Cape Wind wind farm this book is not for you. If you want a detailed scientific explanation of how wind power works, where the project will be sighted, the deeper environmental impacts of global warming read this blog. If however you want to read about a riveting tale of political corruption and the outright criminal behavior (in my opinion) of some of the richest and best connected people in America, well this is the book for you. Cape Wind the book is the fascinating tale of how just a couple of very wealthy individuals can stop an environmentally important project from going forward over something as trivial as the view from their seaside mansions, I highly recommend that you pick it up and give it a read.