Selfish senators block energy-conserving windmill farm
Vivek Thuppil
Issue date: 6/9/06 Section: Ed-Op
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This is it: three-and-a-half years after my first contribution to The Triangle, you have before your eyes the final Left Turn. It's been a good run; I've received so much feedback - positive and negative - and I've enjoyed writing so much. Originally, I had planned a final commentary to be a snapshot of the more memorable commentaries. Unfortunately, I must answer a really pressing issue in true Left Turn style. The last people whom I will vituperate as a columnist are those that seek to do grave environmental harm so that their multi-million dollar interests may be better protected. Fear not, I do have a short summary of Left Turn over the years at the end of this column.
The attack on the environment isn't George Bush and the usual gang of thugs this time round. This time around, the offenders are Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), John Warner (R-Va.) and their congressional allies. Their victim is the Cape Wind Project, a project that would involve construction of 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound off Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The Cape Wind Project would have provided 420 Megawatts of clean, renewable energy. It's energy out of thin air; no smokestacks, no strip-mining of mountains, no acid rain. The Cape Wind project would have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by one million tons a year. It would have been the equivalent of taking 162,000 cars off the road and would have furthered the initial steps we are beginning to take to mitigate global warming and all the nasty effects it entails. Now bewildered citizens might be led to ask: Why are Senators Kennedy and Warner against the project?
Apparently, it spoils the view of the ocean from their multimillion-dollar vacation homes on the beach. (Don't even get me started on the energy they are wasting on those oversized mansions.) While Senator Kennedy has favored clean, renewable energy in other locations, he's against it when it spoils his view of the ocean. Kennedy claims that the wind farm would hurt the local tourism industry and that it would endanger migratory birds. Funny, I always thought it was up to scientists and environmental groups to keep a check on those matters. The Cape Wind Project is undergoing a comprehensive environmental review by 17 federal and state agencies under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act. Leading environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club have supported the project subject to completion of wildlife impact studies with a finding of no significant threat, appropriate compensation for the usage of public waters, adoption of a rigorous monitoring program and a plan to adopt additional environmental protection measures.
The attack on the environment isn't George Bush and the usual gang of thugs this time round. This time around, the offenders are Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), John Warner (R-Va.) and their congressional allies. Their victim is the Cape Wind Project, a project that would involve construction of 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound off Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The Cape Wind Project would have provided 420 Megawatts of clean, renewable energy. It's energy out of thin air; no smokestacks, no strip-mining of mountains, no acid rain. The Cape Wind project would have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by one million tons a year. It would have been the equivalent of taking 162,000 cars off the road and would have furthered the initial steps we are beginning to take to mitigate global warming and all the nasty effects it entails. Now bewildered citizens might be led to ask: Why are Senators Kennedy and Warner against the project?
Apparently, it spoils the view of the ocean from their multimillion-dollar vacation homes on the beach. (Don't even get me started on the energy they are wasting on those oversized mansions.) While Senator Kennedy has favored clean, renewable energy in other locations, he's against it when it spoils his view of the ocean. Kennedy claims that the wind farm would hurt the local tourism industry and that it would endanger migratory birds. Funny, I always thought it was up to scientists and environmental groups to keep a check on those matters. The Cape Wind Project is undergoing a comprehensive environmental review by 17 federal and state agencies under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act. Leading environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club have supported the project subject to completion of wildlife impact studies with a finding of no significant threat, appropriate compensation for the usage of public waters, adoption of a rigorous monitoring program and a plan to adopt additional environmental protection measures.
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