The Cape Cod Commission, the board in charge of regulating large scale development on the cape looks to be in the process of denying a permit for Cape Wind. Several weeks ago a subcommittee recommended that the CCC deny the permit due to “insufficient information” which is crazy considering that this is the most studied wind proposal of all time. For 6 years (!) this project has been looked at from every angle and always was found environmentally sound.
“We believe we have been as cooperative and responsive as we should be expected to be,” said Cape Wind’s attorney, David Rosenzweig. “And it didn’t appear to us that there was additional information we could supply or that the benefit of additional time would have led to a different result.”
The strange irony of it all is that the Commission doesn’t even have jurisdiction for the bulk of the Cape Wind project and is instead forced to regulate the power cable that would supply clean renewable wind energy to the Cape (75% of its power needs on average). Which is strange considering just two years ago they approved similar cables to run power out to Nantucket. Seems when the rich want more oil or coal power its full steam ahead with the cable laying, but if some wind turbines ruin your view, well we can’t have that.
The state has already approved the project, and the federal government is set to rule on it this November (although political wrangling seems to keep pushing it further and further back). Cape Wind can challenge the CCC’s ruling, but that means yet another year tangled up in courts. Costing more money, and causing even more CO2 to be pumped out of the oil burning canal power plant. Frankly I am amazed that this project hasn’t gone forward yet. The people who oppose it will go down in history as the worst kind of snobby NIMBY’s. The ultimate irony here is that because The Cape is nothing more than a giant sand spit in the Atlantic, rising sea levels due to global warming threaten it’s beaches and the massive houses built upon them. Could be that these people are fighting to save a view that won’t even be there in another 50 years.
A similar thing happened with the London Array (1000 turbines). Local groups, backed by the usual nuclear lobbyists, opposed the substation on land, which caused a public inquiry to be launched. Eventually the substation was approved (see Reduce3.com) and the project is going ahead with all guns blazing.
Local support is vital at this point.
Keith
There is a lot of local support, but they tend to be in the “poor” end of the spectrum, whereas the very few (and very vocal) rich people seem to be able to pull the most strings politically and financially. The vast majority of the people of the state, and an ever growing portion of the cape itself are for the project. It is the same story you hear over and over.