It’s bad enough that NIMBYism has had its claws in the Cape Wind energy project for more than six years. And with U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Republican presidential candidate and former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney leading the charge, you have a very odd couple, indeed.
Now, Rhode Island’s own Kennedy, U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, has taken up the dubious cause of thwarting construction of a wind energy farm in state waters.
In an interview with The Providence Journal, Kennedy said he believes that a large offshore windmill farm would disrupt the state’s environment, its fishing and its tourism industry. Never mind the 718-page draft Environmental Impact Statement released by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service stating that the much larger Cape Wind project – a proposal that includes 130 windmills with a potential of generating 468 megawatts – would have a negligible effect on Nantucket Sound and the Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard shorelines.
Providence Business News has strongly supported Gov. Donald L. Carcieri’s goal of generating 20 percent of the state’s electricity from renewable sources, and wind energy is a key component of that strategy. From national security to job creation to climate change, tapping clean, renewable resources for our power needs is a win-win-win. And those who stand in the way should pay a steep political price.
Mr. Kennedy’s opposition to a wind energy project in Rhode Island is an indication that – in this case, at least – he has something else at heart besides the best interests of the voters who elected him. •
Where was Rep. Kennedy when the first plasma arc waste to energy incinerator in the U.S. was being proposed in his backyard? For that matter, where are any of our U.S. Reps. or U.S. Senators on such a controversal project? Clean renewable energy sources are a bonus to all Rhode Islanders, but a hazardous waste incinerator in disguise goes against everything that the enviormental community has done for our state. Solar, wind, and hydro power are clean sources, but polluting our air with an electric powered trash incinerator is not.