Cape Wind makes the international news
Friday's Financial Times has an article about Cape Wind, the controversial offshore wind-power project that has my home community up in arms. Advocates of the project say that locals have a selfish not-in-my-backyard mentality, and are therefore objecting to a clean energy source because they like the view as it is. Opposition claims are that the windmills will not only be unsightly, but will pose environmental and navigational hazards.
In my opinion, neither side is portraying the issue clearly. For one thing, aesthetics are not just a passing fancy on Cape Cod; they are the basis of the economy. And most year-round residents are nowhere near rich; they depend on beautiful beaches to supply their businesses with vacationers and wealthy part-time residents.
Also, a little-cited issue is the fact that Horshoe Shoal, the proposed site of the wind farm, is a small triangle of federal waters, entirely surrounded by state-controlled waters. This creates a regulatory loophole, so that Cape Wind need not seek state approval for its project. These boundaries must have been established before 420-foot structures were a likely possibility, and so it seems reasonable that the project really should be required to seek state approval.
Overall, Cape Wind has done a poor job of stakeholder management. I think the project may have merit, but it was essential for the proponents to convince locals that their property values and tourist industry would not be harmed.
In my opinion, neither side is portraying the issue clearly. For one thing, aesthetics are not just a passing fancy on Cape Cod; they are the basis of the economy. And most year-round residents are nowhere near rich; they depend on beautiful beaches to supply their businesses with vacationers and wealthy part-time residents.
Also, a little-cited issue is the fact that Horshoe Shoal, the proposed site of the wind farm, is a small triangle of federal waters, entirely surrounded by state-controlled waters. This creates a regulatory loophole, so that Cape Wind need not seek state approval for its project. These boundaries must have been established before 420-foot structures were a likely possibility, and so it seems reasonable that the project really should be required to seek state approval.
Overall, Cape Wind has done a poor job of stakeholder management. I think the project may have merit, but it was essential for the proponents to convince locals that their property values and tourist industry would not be harmed.
posted by Melissa Paschall at 7/10/2006 11:30:00 AM
2 Comments:
Interesting blog.
I live on the Cape and lean toward support of Cape Wind. Just wondering, you say "neither side is portraying the issue clearly" but only write about Cape Wind, what's your take about what the other side says? In my opinion, Cape Wind opponents are the best reason to support Cape Wind.
Horseshoe Shoal is not entirely surrounded by state waters, it has a federal waters lifeline going due east.
I agree with you that Cape Wind had a poor rollout in 2001. Although in my opinion they've done well since 2002 but have been swimming massively upstream because almost immediately a well financed and powerful opposition group sprung up and has been waging a dogged battle since and spread a lot of misinformation.
Cape Wind actually needs a lot of State approvals, they got an important one last year from the MA Energy Facilities Siting Board but they still need approvals from the MA Office of Environmental Affairs and the State Office of Coastal Zone Management to name a few.
There's no evidence or good cause to fear about loss of tourism or real estate values, but you can't prove a negative, I think Cape Wind has tried including flying out a delegation from Denmark or people who used to oppose Danish offshore wind farms for these same fears and now support them.
I think as long as the Final EIS doesn't bring out any red flags the project should be approved - we need desperately to get going in this direction.
Thanks for the insightful commment, and the further clarification about Horseshoe Shoal.
I'm glad to hear you say that you "lean toward" support of Cape Wind. I've found that many people are so polarized on this issue that there is no middle ground.
A tie I should have made clear before: I grew up on Cape Cod, and had family there until a year ago. My mother is strongly against the project, and I am more or less for it, though I believe it's been handled badly and that there are some valid concerns.
As for how the "other side" (i.e. the opposition) is portraying the issue - I'm not so sure that people siting the ecological and navigational hazards are really worried about these issues, so much as using them as proxies that are more easily defensible than "not in my backyard." The original FT article does make this point.
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