While Massachusetts (liberal land of forward thinking) led by Ted Kennedy (liberal leader of forward thinking) has done everything in its power to stop Cape Wind (forward thinking provider of clean renewable energy) Texas (land of cowboys and oil tycoons) is actually the biggest supplier of wind energy in the country and is placing large tracts of its coast up for bid for offshore wind production. As the kids would say “what the fuck?!”
Seriously what is wrong with this picture. Ted Kennedy doesn’t want offshore wind because he might get drunk and run his yacht into it, or god forbid him and bobby might have to look at them from their giant sea side mansion. Meanwhile the land of the oil derrick is busy putting up wind turbines as fast as they can.
Jerry Patterson, Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office, is seeking bidders for the nation’s first-ever competitive lease sale for the rights to develop offshore wind power in the Gulf of Mexico. “The future of our nation’s offshore wind industry is off the Texas Gulf Coast,†Patterson said. “There’s international interest in these tracts and this will be the first time the market will be able to place a value on what I think is a very valuable asset.†Four offshore tracts will be leased for the development of wind energy as part of the regular oil and gas lease sale to be held on October 2.
The offshore wind energy tracts up for bid are near Jefferson, Calhoun, Brazoria and Cameron counties. The four tracts total 73,098 acres in size. Detailed bidding instructions, a wind power lease bid application form and detailed maps of the offshore tracts of land can be found here.
Hello Massachusetts (Teddy and Bill Delahunt you especially should be listening) , are you missing anything here? You could be making mad bank and providing your citizens with clean renewable energy all while creating a vibrant and job producing industry in your state. I hate to say it but you should be following Texas’ lead on this one.
A little bit of eco-irony…
You are spot on about the utter irony in the fact that Texan oil magnates like T. Boone Pickens and others are absolutely shaming wind energy development in so-called environmentally progressive liberal enclaves like Massachusetts. Please correct me if I’m wrong but, (without the time for any substantive investigation at this point), I believe the Cape Wind project on Horseshoe Shoals is actually in Federal waters, whereas, the areas in that cool wind resource map above are actually under the jurisdiction of the state of Texas, which gives them much more control over the politics of siting issues.
Tim: You are not wrong at all. Cape Wind will be in federal waters. However Kennedy (a senator) has done everything in his power to stop this project. The people of Mass support the project, but a couple of rich and powerful people (many with ties to coal,oil,gas) have tried to stop it so they wont have to look at it.
Yes, it seems clear that MA residents overwhelmingly support wind, but one of Kennedy’s arguments is that the Cape Wind proposal seems to be a sort of federal ‘land grab’ with no auctioning process. Then again, it hardly seems surprising that there was no public auction because no one had ever really proposed something like this in the U.S. before! Then again, the land rights issue may just be a rhetorical strategy being shouted from the rocky shores of the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, but it is a formidable strategy nonetheless. Further, it seems that Texas is doing what Kennedy wants to be able to do, but can’t. I believe he did try a few years back to get Nantucket Sound some sort of federal designation, but I don’t think it went so well! I think the cards are stacked against the Kennedys on this one!
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