WASHINGTON – A decision by the National Park Service to make Nantucket Sound eligible for the National Register of Historic Places will ensure that archeological, historical and cultural values are considered in the permit review for the proposed Cape Wind project, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said.
Cape Wind, the first offshore wind farm proposed in the U.S., would bring 130 turbines capable of generating 420 megawatts of electricity off Cape Cod. The $900 million project has drawn criticism from nearby residents, businesses and American Indian groups who fear potential negative impacts.
Salazar, whose department is slated to decide on the wind farm proposal, said the United States’ offshore wind resources “offer exciting potential for clean energy.” However, development of wind resources must be done “in the right way and in the right places.”
“It is now time to move the Cape Wind proposal to a final decision,” said Salazar.
He wants affected groups by March 1 to reach agreement on ways to “minimize and mitigate Cape Wind’s potential impacts on historic and cultural resources.” •
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As a colonial-rooted Cape Cod native who firmly believes in the sanctity of our maritime heritage, I am writing to ardently express my steadfast support for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. Based upon sensible logic, data and reasoning, I am also conversely opposed to the controversial Cape Wind Project which seeks to despoil and rob us of the pristine nautical legacy bestowed by our forefathers. As a result of the likely profound damaging regional financial, ecological and public safety consequences Cape Wind would wrought upon us all, it should not be allowed to proceed forward to fruition.
The project poses a cogent danger to essential air and sea navigation. Siting the project in Nantucket Sound is a breach of the public trust. Contrary to their sham claims, the cost of the electricity which the project will produce would not be cheap or competitive. It would be an
unbearable fiscal burden hoisted upon us without our sanction or consent. Furthermore, it will represent a deleterious local economic blow by it’s absconding of undeserved taxpayer-funded subsidies, forced real estate devaluations, and lost revenues from commercial and tourism activities. The proposed one hundred thirty wind turbines will perpetually cause unsightly visual contamination and distressing noise pollution. Finally, Cape Wind will unnecessarily endanger a critical marine and wildlife habitat.
Off-shore deep water wind has surfaced as a cost-effective and technologically feasible option in lieu of the Nantucket Sound situated Cape Wind Project. Cape Wind has chosen a location which possesses countless expenses as well as hazards to public safety, the marine environment, and the local economy. Deeper-water sites offer more powerful winds and the advantages of clean renewable energy without surrendering the irreplaceable natural beauty of Nantucket Sound.
More distantly sited off-shore locations guarantee the advantages of clean wind power without many of the harmful effects of close-shore siting. Furthermore, there would be little harmful impact upon air and marine navigational safety and local tourist-based economies.
In 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) estimated a total off-shore wind energy resource of over 1000 GW. The potential for deep water locations greater than 30 m (or 100 feet) is enormous. Approximately ninety percent of the off-shore wind potential in the United States resides in deep water.
With the aforesaid thoughtful rationales in mind, along with the inherently unfair and inequitable nature of the proposed Cape Wind Project itself, it must not become a reality which will forever doom our children and grandchildren to a ghastly socially inhumane legacy.
Ron Beaty
West Barnstable, MA
Well, this puts our Deepwater proposal for RI in a better position. Thank you, Massachusetts! I’m being sarcastic, of course, as I would love to see this go forth as well. Taping into our own energy sources as much as we can is good for our whole country. Wind, solar and natural gas should become the primary (if not the only) sources of energy for our personal domestic use. It just makes strategic sense.
However, with that said, in my own selfish way I’m a bit pleased with the fact that it helps Deepwater here in RI gets its groundwork laid and take the lead in offshore wind energy in the Northeast. This has the potential to be the best economic story for RI in generations. Goodness knows we need it!!!