It seems that while the NIMBY’s (not in my back yard) are doing everything they can to slow down the process of Cape Wind, the progressive people of Texas are taking the lead over the short sighted Cape Codders (edit: while some Cape Codders are against this project, the majority of the people funding the opposition are rich tourists, people with ties to big oil and the mega rich that want to keep Nantucket sound as their personal yacht club, sorry for the error) (never thought I would write something like that).
A Louisiana company plans to install the first of 50 wind turbine platforms 10 miles off Galveston Island this week, moving the project closer to its goal of becoming the first U.S. offshore wind farm.
Galveston Offshore Wind, a division of Wind Energy Systems Technologies, plans to install a former oil production platform in about 50 feet of water in the coming days. At first weather-data-gathering instruments will sit on top of a tower some 300 feet above sea level, but by September the company hopes to have its first wind turbine in place.
By 2010 the $240 million development plans to have as many as 50 wind turbines installed, generating 150 megawatts of peak output, or about enough power for 45,000 homes, said Herman Schellstede, CEO of the companies.
…
The U.S. has the third-largest installed base of wind capacity, behind Germany and Spain, with 11.6 gigawatts. But the U.S. had the largest amount of new capacity added last year, with 2.5 gigawatts of equipment worth about $4 billion installed. Texas accounted for about one-third of all new wind generation installed in 2006 and overtook California as the top wind-energy-producing state, with 2,768 megawatts of capacity.
(via)
The Naib-
There is nothing short sighted about asking for due process when it comes to permitting offshore renewable energy, especially when the project is proposed in federal waters. Last I heard, the project you talk about here is in state waters, and has an entirely different permitting process. You are comparing apples and oranges.
Alas, Nantucket Sound has twice been nominated as a National Marine Ocean Sanctuary, and was formerly Cape and Islands State Ocean Sanctuary.
Don’t be so quick to judge environmentalists who care about the preservation of place. The way you present your argument here, I wouldnt be shocked if you would support turbines in Yellowstone.
NIMBY is such a funny word. I mean just who is the NIMBY when it comes to the Cape Wind project? Jim Gordon, President of Energy Management Inc. aka Cape Wind is not a Cape resident nor is Cape Wind a Cape company and yet, he is/they are, attempting to force this project down the throat of the citizens and a location that is NOT is His (Jim Gordon’s) or Their (Cape Wind’s) Back Yard.
But it doesn’t stop there… Jim Gordon aka energy Management Inc/ aka Cape Wind is also attempting to force a fossil fuel burning plant down the throats of the poor community of Chelsea, MA… who are, by the way, also not hi HIS Back Yard.
Dona you make a great point, Jim Gordon is the NIMBY. As for the Naib, I will never apologize for seeking to preserve a national treasure. It is not impossible to care about specific places and address other environmental concerns such as climate change. It is not a choice of one or the other, both can be done.
Klaus:
I’m not a NIMBY, while I do think that Cape Wind is Pandora’s Box as proposed for Nantucket Sound. As Christo Mihos said, “If you like the Big Dig, you’ll love Cape Wind. The Ocean Public Trust’s Cindy Lowry used the same description, “Pandora’s Box,” and she echoes your points, Klaus.
Cape Wind has filed their FEIR prematurely. There are avain issues that the federal regulatory reviewing agency, USFWS, has been asking Cape Wind to address since 2002. We don’t have any idea what the environmental, wildlife, economic damage regarding the 40,000 gallons of oil, that would be introduced in Nantucket Sound by Cape Wind would be. Cape Wind hasn’t even provided information about the decommissioning of the turbines in the FEIR.
Cape Wind’s plan produces far more questions than answers. When you consider the scale of this project, these answers are very critical to decision making.
That the opposition to this project after 5 years is still so vocally opposed, should indicate that this project gravely concerns people as proposed by a developer for this area under current conflicting use-Nantucket Sound.
Responsible environmentalists look before leaping, and recognize that at times the cure can be worse than the disease.
Cindy Lowry, director of The Oceans Public Trust Initiative:
“Why can’t we achieve both goals – develop alternative energy and protect our oceans – through proper procedures. Those procedures are nowhere in evidence for the review of the Cape Wind project,” said Ms. Lowry. “The oceans off the coast of the United States are the public heritage of all citizens, and the federal government violates the most basic principles of environmental law when it threatens to give them away to a single developer for personal gain without authorization from Congress to do so.” Lowry said she is concerned that what’s happening on Nantucket Sound is just the first step in an effort to open up the oceans to development. “Make no mistake about it; this permit application for wind energy is the proverbial Pandora’s box,” she said. “It threatens to open the door to a massive give-away of federal lands with no compensation to the taxpayer or adequate environmental review.” “The surrounding waters under the control of the state of Massachusetts are designated as sanctuary and would prohibit such a project, but the developers are seeking to avoid those protections by placing the project in federal waters,” Lowry said.
Frankly I am disappointed in all of you. Barbara, Dona, assembled others, you must be slipping. It took you almost 5 hours to find this post, and fill it with mountains of the same worn out echo chamber lies.
I have read your endless ranting on many other sites, and frankly you all sound like broken records. Its almost as if you have text files of this stuff just waiting to be posted at the slightest mention of cape wind.
Its a pretty good strategy I must admit. Drown out every opposing voice under a mountain of comments. Hell, no one even said anything and somehow you managed to have a little “down with cape wind party all by your self”. To the uniformed reader it must look like everyone in the world is against this project, “Just look how many comments are against it!”
You should go back and look at all the many many websites you have filled with your endless worn out merit-less arguments. If you do you will find one thing in common. There is a broad and diverse group of people that are pro Cape wind, and your small group seems to be the only ones against it. You literally have to be on every site, fill every comment queue to the brim, fight every battle, because no one else is on your side.
That is why your strategy is going to fail. You are wrong. Your arguments are wrong, and even if cape wind doesn’t get built you will still be wrong. Clearly you are all very much against the project, and have no problem with crafting a false reality that adheres to your views. The one fatal flaw in your plan, is that reality doesn’t care what you think.
You may now continue to fill this thread with your crackpot ramblings, because I certainly will not continue to bang my head against the brick wall that is your lack of good sense.
Good luck with your fight, you will need it.
You go NAIB!
Ahh, the empty rhetoric of NAIB continues. Funny how you write six paragraphs, but don’t defend a project that needs all the help it can get…it was first proposed in 2001 and we will likely wait until 2008 until the final verdict is passed down.
What is great about flodding your thread with the facts of the Cape Wind project is that it creates a balance to your biased journalism.
I really hope that those “progressive people of Texas are TAKE the lead over the short sighted Cape Codders” and build their 50 turbines. That might put some “good sense” into the people of Massachusetts. We don’t need to be first, we just need to do it right.
Niab:
We all want to restore health to our environment. We differ in our views as to where and how this might best be achieved. What is most troubling is that this project has been proposed by a developer for this site under conflicting use. Inept policy threatens to release the stallion out of the barn, world’s largest, in this site selected by the developer. His priority is not our priority as his concern is his cost basis. The true costs of this project would far outweigh the benefits perceived.
You underestimate the number of Cape Wind detractors. For every one of Cape Wind’s most vocal opponents, there are a thousand cheering in the wings.
I would much rather see this project fail, than to have you come back, if it’s constructed, and say that opponents could have done more to prevent the Boondoggle.
If you want to challenge the facts that I present, please be more specific. If you’re not able to identify errors, I’ll have to assume that there are none.
A crafty move by Naib to change his original article to cheap shot the opposition. Wonderful journalism!
As for your *new* claim about the mega rich…remember that Jim Gordon is an energy tycoon himself, and has devised a project to fill his own pockets. Meanwhile, concerned citizens have emptied their pockets to ensure that the Cape Wind permitting process is thorough and accounts for the negative impacts of the project. Cheers.
Hiding behind a false name with personal attacks on people rather than their ideas is a typical Cape Wind tactic.
Naib, what do you have to hide? Why not stand up like a real person and speak to what you believe rather than stoop to such a low level?
In the words of My Cousin Vinny, “I’m done with this guy.”
Yea, Naib! Well said.
As I do not live near the Cape I cannot say what people there are like. I can, however, say that those who use the “not in my backyard” argument in this case are on shaky ground IMHO.
Are they arguing against clean energy because they are deathly afraid that someday, if they squint really hard or pick up a pair of binoculars, they might catch a glimpse of a wind turbine on the horizon?
And here we are with our petty concerns about Xcel Energy storing spent fuel rods in emergency cooling pools and other equally questionable spaces. Here we are with our petty concerns that coal burning plants bypass federal and state safety and environmental standards every day because they know that if they are caught, the fine they pay will be minuscule compared to what they are raking in.
Wow. We really need to get our priorities straight. As long as the multimillion dollar homes on the coast do not overlook an ocean with wind turbines, everything else is insignificant.
The Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) commissioned a Visual Impact Assessment in 2004. The report states that the proposed 130-turbine wind plant planned for Nantucket Sound would have “adverse effects†on 16 historical sites and lighthouses on the Cape and Islands.
The National Historic Landmark, The Kennedy Compound, an iconic and historic place we refer to as “Camelot,†would be adversely affected by the Cape Wind facility according to the Massachusetts Scenic Historic Preservation officer, Brona Simon, and the USACE.
How poignant is this quote attributed to John Fitzgerald Kennedy, whose family home, a National Historic Landmark, would be adversely affected by Cape Wind? How poignant is it that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was dedicating the building constructed to house this nation’s custodians of wildlife that Cape Wind poses grave threats to?
“It is our task in our time and in our generation to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours.â€
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, at the dedication of the National Wildlife Federation Building [March 3, 1961]
No one is arguing against clean energy. The argument is against one ill sited project. To couch it in terms of being against clean energy is disingenuous at best.
Steve T, as you say you do not live near Cape Cod so I think I will classify you as the NIMBY since you want this industrial power plant in someone else’s backyard which is not yours!