"Yesterday the Minerals Management Service (MMS) released its final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the proposed Cape Wind offshore wind power development in Massachusetts, concluding that the project will have no significant negative environmental consequences. Release of the final EIS clears the way for the MMS to lease a portion of Nantucket Sound to Cape Wind, but it hardly makes the project a done deal. Cape Wind will still need to obtain additional permits and clear additional reviews from the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Coast Guard. Project opponents also promised litigation and other efforts to prevent the erection of wind turbines in the Sound. Senator Kennedy, for one, voiced his continued opposition and predicted any lease to Cape Wind would be overturned.The reason cape wind has made news at all is that all the rich folk over by the cape oppose it in what we true environmentalists call NIMBYism. (NIMBY - Not In My Back Yard) Amongst the elite opposing the project is the Kennedy family. Every member. All of 'em. Not just Ted Kennedy (anything in water tends not to mix with Ted for some reason). But Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also, who holds himself up as a world-leading environmentalist/activist. If you follow the link, you'll see RFK Jrs argument has mostly to do with the view out his window and other conveniences. But that's neither here nor there.
The Cape Wind experience illustrates how existing regulatory regimes are not particularly welcoming to alternative energy development. MMS offshore lease regulations, for instance, were designed for offshore oil and gas development, not windfarms. Cape Wind has had to face numerous regulatory reviews and overlapping requirements at various levels of government. If wind power and other alternative energy sources are to ever make a significant and cost-justified contribution to the nation's energy supply, the regulatory thicket will need to be cleared. The Bush Administration showed little interest in such an undertaking, despite its stated commitment to less onerous regulation and technological innovation. Perhaps the Obama Administration will recognize the need for innovation-enhancing regulatory
reforms."
For my part, I hope that the Cape Wind project ends up getting built. As I teach in my classes, offshore installation is perhaps the best possible source of 24/7/365 wind power. Even here in Michigan the best possible wind areas are offshore (all along the western edge of the state, and the Lake Superior area of the Upper Peninsula). With wind turbines continually getting bigger, more efficient and quieter, it is an excellent source of power (note I didn't call it 'clean power' or 'green power' as there are plenty of environmental consequences in constructing these behemoths, but perhaps it's best to save that for a post in itself). In addition, I never understood the NIMBYs opposition to wind turbines. If you ever get a chance to see one up close, do so. They are massive and quite impressive. Always remind me of Jodie Foster looking down from a walkway upon "the machine' in the movie Contact (hit the youtube link here and go to the 6:55 mark). Just awesome and impressive as all heck. If I could I'd get a small one in my back yard (the homeowners association and township would surely be against it... Sigh...).
