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International Report

Ticked off in Nantucket


August 12, 2002 It’s August, and with any luck, the bluefish are running in Cape Cod.

And so are the bluebloods of Eco society, all in a flap because of a new common enemy.

As Collin Levey of the Boston Journal so colorfully puts it, "From Martha’s Vineyard to Hyannis Port, a who’s who of environmental groups have convened in a spirit of grave concern. The International Wildlife Coalition, the Humane Society and the Ocean Conservatory are all there. Ted Kennedy even dropped in."

"Judging by the list, you’d guess that the very future of East Coast summer was at stake, not to mention the spawning of the cod, the life cycle of the whale and the migration of the monarch butterfly. But this is not your usual Eco-crusade. The object of their outrage is a wind farm. The environmentalists are irate because a private company wants to provide renewable energy to much of Nantucket Sound.

For years, groups like Greenpeace and the Sierra Club have trumpeted wind power as a way to reduce the world’s reliance on fossil fuels. Greenpeace’s Matthew Spencer was recently quoted touting wind farms in North Wales as the solution that could `supply the majority of UK’s electricity in the near future’.

"Such talk is usually music to the ears of the media and political elites, who can be found summering in the more rarified precincts of Cape Code. But when the wind farm in question threatens to crop up on their beachfront horizon, the greenies suddenly start sounding like loggers on the subject of spotted owls.

"The casus belli is a plan by Cape Wind Associates, a partnership between Energy Management Inc. and Wind Management Inc., to employ large pinwheel contraptions to turn breezes into electrical power for Cusinarts, dishwashers and televisions on
Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The windmills would be located six miles out in the middle of Nantucket Sound.

"This modest proposal was greeted with gale-force indignation. Groups with names like Save Our Sound were soon standing by to offer quotes to the press and discredit any claims made by the wind farmers. Local fishermen were trotted out to lend a working-class air to the struggle.

"First, critics declared the spinning turbines a menace to avian culture since they might chop up migrating birds. They also saw a threat to the habitat of dolphin and seals, since the windmills would rattle the seabed.

"Air-traffic controllers were said to fear small airplanes would get tangled in the turbines. A group of yachters came forth to moan that a sprouting of offshore windmills would threaten the viability of the annual Hyannis-Nantucket Regatta. On its website, one anti-windmill group listed among the side effects of renewable power the potential for dreaded "turbine glint".

"The wind farm, in the words of one opponent, is a `disaster waiting to happen.’

"Wind will never be a solution to the nation’s energy needs, but it seems a harmless enough endeavour if it can be done profitably by private companies. The greater pleasure here is watching affluent environmentalists condemn one if their pet causes just because it happens to obstruct the view from their wraparound porch.

"Former Clinton Labour Minister Robert Reich (now a candidate for governor in Massachusetts) equivocated on the plan in an interview with NPR, but in a moment of candour alluded gently to the real issue. `One part of environmentalism that is not talked about often enough in my view,’ he said, `is scenic beauty.’"



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