As Battle Nears End, Cape Wind Still Divides

Ms. Kruse of Mass Audubon offers Mass Audubon’s support for Cape Wind. Yet, Mass Audubon is participating in the collection of data, analysis of the same, and commenting on the Cape Wind project as an MMS Key Partner in the NEPA review process of Cape Wind. NEPA analysis should avoid taking on a project advocacy position as that’s the definition of bias in a NEPA review.

The condition of Mass Audubon’s “support” for Cape Wind is acceptance of Adaptive Management that the federal regulator, USFWS, under the ESA Section 7 review process, states is doomed to failure. Adaptive Management monitoring and mitigation is handled by contract, worth about $8 million dollars over the term prescribed by Mass Audubon in their “Challenge” press release.

With friends like Mass Audubon, birds don’t need cats.

As for Cape Wind, with a “no bid” deal for Nantucket Sound, they’ve never been vetted in a competitive bidding process.

Who are these guys? Cape Wind, EMI, UPC, Wind Management, LLC, Wind Partners, LLC?

http://bjdurk.newsvine.com/_news/2010/02/23/3941508-who-are-these-guys-cape-wind-emi-upc-first-wind-ivpc

Ship of fools.

I have just finished reading the new Minerals Management report, the section on the birds which focuses on two species only (because they are endangered or threatened). What is said throughout this report is that there is not enough information, more studies are needed. Some conclusions are reached by extrapolation and guesswork. These two species could have problems, but we really don’t know their flight paths or flight heights or their avoidance behaviors (p. 5-34). The Roseate terns may have more troubles than the piping plovers because they go through arial displays during courtship. Migrating birds, other than these two, have not been studied. Nantucket Sound is in a migratory pathway. It is illegal to kill migrating birds. I am not against a wind farm. I wish we could be more carefull about doing something like this. Mass Audobon approves so many think that is good, but they have done minimal research and don’t object to this location even though the government has said that migratory pathways should not be obstructed. Why can’t thinking people plan for the best location with the least problems for putting in a wind farm?

Where can I listen to the debate of the windfarm that aired on Friday at 1pm?

We’ve all read history books in school and been shocked as to how such large groups of people could perpetuate obvious ignorance ( i.e- racism, sexism, etc). Clinging to notions just because they are convenient has had catastrophic effects all over the world and appears to most people today as stupid and inexcusable. Although many ordinary people have always disagreed with such ignorance, often only the famous leaders of movements that countered ignorance tend to be credited for working against it. In order to make a clear, concise history, the dynamic societies around these figures have been unfairly overshadowed by their embarrassing, ignorant sector. When children learn about 21st Century America, lets not be eternally remembered as an absurd people that shot down progress in clean energy because some were hung up on its physical appearance, implications that are almost nonexistent in comparison to those of global warming, and the lethargic attitude that a small step in the right direction is not worth taking.

So far there isn’t a perfect solution to energy generation, meaning one that doesn’t harm anything. Looking at the big picture, I wonder about the environmental and health damage caused by coal-fired electrical plants. Acid rain damaging the inland aquatic systems? Polluted air which everyone has to breathe? It seems to me that the far-reaching effects of coal pollution on our water supplies and breathing air are much more detrimental to more living things than the possible bird mortality count. Besides, the turbine blades can be designed to be noticeable to birds.

And also, I don’t live on the Cape or islands, but I would welcome a turbine in my back yard. Every day I would look at it and smile, knowing it represents a negative difference in the amount of air pollution from fossil-fuels. Maybe some enterprising Cape Cod residents can make a business giving boat tours of the wind farm. I would certainly go on one.

Technical studies have shown that the turbines will have little or no impact on the birds. But the naysayers have made up their minds and don’t want to be confused by inconvenient facts. Between the NIMBY’s, Indian sacred grounds, and other obstructionists, it is a wonder that we can anything built in this country.

Shouldn’t we make the decision on Cape Wind based on facts, not opinions and emotions, ie. soldiers dying for foreign oil vs. warblers struck by turbines. Shouldn’t we be fully informed of the economic pros and cons instead? Will the public see better long term electricity rates? Should a private developer profit from huge gov’t subsidies? Are there other locations that offer decent payback based on area winds, that don’t base their economy on tourism (natural beauty), or is the Nantucket sound site so good because of wind efficiency? Can Curt Nickish analyze these questions in detail rather than relay the opinions of two folks? This is a more complicated issue requiring more info and better analysis than the recent article by Mr. Nickish.

I am with Bill Eddy. We must begin somewhere and why not the Cape. My first hand knowledge of windfarms comes from many trips to Ireland,a place where, for generations, they had burned their land in the form of peat bricks.I have walked through a farm right on the sea’s edge. Gulls fly all around diving for food and not once have I seen a dead bird, of any type. The cows graze in the pasture beneath the turbines. As you travel inland, the turbines are part of the distant landscapes mixed with the trees planted against erosion. Sheep roam unbothered by the towers. We have reached a point where, we too, must adapt for the health of our planet and our beloved Cape Cod.

Bill Eddy hit the nail on the head. His inspiring words capture what I think project opponents often lose sight of: The Big Picture. To say “It’s not going to make any difference, this one wind farm” is the wrong attitude to have when our country is facing the problems Mr. Eddy points out such as mountain-top removal (I wonder if the people responsible for MTR think to themselves “Well it’s not going to make any difference, this one mountain…”). Cape Wind needs to move forward and so do hundreds of other renewable energy projects. This is just the beginning.