Cape & Islands News

Click to see the impact of flooding in Cape & Islands areas here.By Jack Coleman, capecodtoday.com reporter

An opinion survey released Thursday found that 61 percent of residents of the Cape and islands - slightly more than three in five - support the Cape Wind project. 

The survey, commissioned by the Newton-based Civil Society Institute and conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, also found bipartisan support for the Nantucket Sound offshore wind project, with 69 percent of those saying they are Democrats in favor, 54 percent of Republicans and 50 percent of unenrolled voters.  A total of 501 residents of the Cape and islands were interviewed by telephone Oct. 10 to 15.

Speaking on a media conference call Thursday, Opinion Research Corporation senior researcher Graham Hueber said "we tested six arguments used by Cape Wind opponents and none of them persuaded half or more of Cape and islands residents to join their ranks.

In some cases," Hueber said, "including concerns about the potential impact on tourism and the regional economy, the opponents' arguments actually boomerang against them and end up making most people more likely to support Cape Wind. This would appear to explain why only slightly over a third of Cape and island residents oppose Cape Wind today."

  Among the survey's other findings:

- 22 percent said Cape Wind should be delayed until "deep-water technology"  is available to build the project farther offshore. Fifty-one percent of respondents said "go ahead with Cape Wind now" using available technology.

- 55 percent said impacts to tourism and the economy "made them more likely to support Cape Wind while 35 percent said "concerns about the loss of tourism and other negative impacts made them less likely to support Cape Wind."

 - 36 percent said that the "disputed potential for more bird deaths" made them "less likely to support the project while 49 percent said the "bird issue" made them "more likely to support Cape Wind." 

 - 37 percent expressed concern over potential harm to commercial fishing while 56 percent said they were "more likely" to  support Cape Wind due to this issue.

 The survey was released one week after the Cape Cod Commission regional planning agency voted 12-0 to reject Cape Wind's application as a Development of Regional Impact, a decision likely to be appealed. The survey's release coincided with Clean Power Now's annual meeting in Hyannis last evening.

"An ever-growing number of Cape Cod and islands' citizens  understand that the Cape Wind project is an answer to record oil prices and the inescapable reality of climate change and global warming.  Cape Wind is not the only answer but we are, frankly, sick of delays and want Cape Wind built now." - Clean Power Now executive director Barbara Hill.

The permitting process for Cape Wind began in November 2001 with US Army Corps of Engineers as the lead federal permitting agency.  The energy act enacted by Congress two years ago transferred jurisdiction of federal regulatory oversight to Minerals Management Service in the Department of the Interior. MMS is due to release a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) in late November, followed by another round of public hearings. An MMS permitting decision on Cape Wind could come next year, with litigation virtually certain to follow any decision by the agency.  

Audra Parker of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound dismissed the CSI survey as "biased" and "inconsistent with other surveys and local referendums."

Residents in Mashpee and Nantucket responding to local ballot questions over the last two years voted against Cape Wind by 2-to-1 margins, Parker pointed out.  Three surveys between 2004 and 2006 cited by Parker showed shifting support and opposition to Cape Wind, such as 55 percent opposed to Cape Wind, according to a survey conducted via mail in early 2005 by the University of Delaware, the results of which were released last year.

"The CPN/CSI poll is biased by its very design and based on leading questions designed to influence the results," Parker said by email in describing the Alliance's response to the survey.  "The poll consistently positioned Cape Wind as a positive while downplaying concerns or ignoring them completely to support their results."

As an example, Parker cited a question claiming that Horseshoe Shoal, the proposed site for Cape Wind's 130 turbines, "is not in waters used any longer for significant commercial fishing."

"The Mass. Fishermen's Partnership and the commercial fishermen who earn much of their livelihood on Horseshoe Shoal know differently," Parker said.

A day before the new survey was released, the Alliance released a statement through PRNewswire challenging CSI's credibility in previous surveys about Cape Wind and renewable energy.

CSI describes itself as a "non-profit and nonpartisan" think tank based in Newton "that serves as a catalyst for change by creating problem-solving interactions among people and between communities, government and business that can help improve society."

The survey also found that support for the Cape Wind project around the Cape and islands has risen from 58 percent in August, based on a CSI survey commissioned last summer, to the current 61 percent support.

CSI President and founder Pam Solo said the most recent poll was commissioned in response to criticism that the sample size for Cape and islands' residents responding to questions about Cape Wind in the survey last summer was too small. Total cost of the new survey came to $18,100, Hueber said, a cost entirely covered by CSI. Hueber said he prepared questions for the survey after numerous discussions with Solo and Hill.

Accompanying the survey's release from CSI was an interactive website, www.capecodflooding.org, showing impacts to local coastlines from a potential one-meter rise in sea level due to climate change.

"Facts and reason should dictate the future of Cape Wind," Solo said during the media conference call. "Thousands of pages from various agencies have  examined the environmental impacts of Cape Wind and find no factual reason to stop the project. This survey offers further data.

"Citizens are following the debate and are rejecting a barrage of arguments against the project," Solo said. "Residents of the Cape and islands want Cape Wind. They have followed the debate and remain supportive of offshore wind energy which could supply up to 75 percent of the energy needs of the Cape and islands. Opponents are spending considerable capital - political and financial - to defeat Cape Wind and one would hope they will decide it is better spent solving problems than fighting against solutions.

Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers expressed gratitude for "the growing number of supporters of Cape Wind on Cape Cod and the islands."

"Most people feel a sense of urgency to take action on energy independence and global warming and they increasingly see Cape Wind as a significant step forward for this region," Rodgers said.

Windstop.org founder Cliff Carroll took a less charitable view of the poll, describing it as "propaganda cloaked as a survey."

"It is quite obvious that between the Cape Cod Commission bribery accusation" - a reference to Hill's criticism of the commission before its vote last week - "and today's bogus survey that Clean Power Now will obviously do anything they can to avoid the truth of this project reaching the public," Carroll said. "Barbara Hill stated that 'it would be impossible to predict future electric rates.' If this is the case, then why is her organization publicly claiming that Cape Wind will lower the cost of our electricity?"

Carroll suggested that CSI could "make it simple" with only one question for respondents - "Are you in favor of the construction of a 43-story, 24-square-mile, government-subsidized industrial park, with a 10-story, 40,000-gallon oil-filled transformer just off our beaches in the middle of our fishing grounds, even though there will be no direct benefit in electric rates, permanent local jobs or significant reduction in CO2?"

Of the survey's first question - "Can I speak to the youngest member of the household over the age of 18," Carroll suggested the survey was "targeted at teenagers" and "chances are very good that hardly any adults with understanding were part of the core sample."

Hueber said use of the question is a common strategy - "randomization" - by pollsters and survey companies to ensure a representative sample. A similar strategy, Hueber said, is to ask to speak to the person in the household who most recently celebrated a birthday. The practice, he said, began in the early days of polling to correct for men being more likely to answer the phone than women.

 Jack Coleman is an editor, reporter and blogger at capecodtoday.com and former media adviser to Clean Power Now.