Renewable Energy Revolution

An apple that hasn't fallen far

No wonder Congressman Patrick Kennedy says so little about Cape Wind. When he does, Kennedy doesn't say much but reveals a great deal.

Even the staunchest opponent of the Nantucket Sound wind farm (yes, that would be you, Cliff Carroll) must have winced as Kennedy stumbled his way through a Nov. 11 appearance on "10 News Conference," a Sunday talk show on WJAR out of Providence.

With oil nudging an ominous $100 a barrel, it was just a matter of time before host Jim Taricani asked Kennedy and fellow Rhode Island congressman Jim Langevin about high energy costs.

Langevin, who sounds like what you'd expect of a member of Congress - lucid and intelligent -  said "I think that gets to the issue of, why aren't we doing more to encourage and support  developing renewable alternative sources of energy?"

Kennedy, sensing which way the wind was blowing, rudely interrupted Langevin to demonstrate his keen mastery of the incoherent. What follows are Kennedy's remarks, transcribed by me from the segment archived at the channel's website, with my observations in italics. ( To see the segment for yourself, follow this link to the Channel 10 website.; the segment is the second from the top, "(Special Edition from Washington) Countdown to Decision 2008" and about 10 minutes from the end of an hour-long program).

Kennedy - "First of all, we need to have energy efficiency and we need to support energy efficiency, we need to support conservation and we need to support renewable fuels (... and we need to say we support all of these things, and say that often, and support saying that ...). So we need, we need a multi-pronged approach, we need an energy, we need an overall energy policy and, and, and frankly, that's (sic) means we need to take a multi-pronged approach (... did I mention that all-important multi-pronged approach ...?) and, and frankly, you know, part of it comes from having, ah, fuels, mixed fuels, ah, part of it means having, ah, ah, ah, kinds of vehicles that don't use, ah, part of it means having, incentivizing solar, wind, ah ..."

WJAR political reporter Bill Rappleye asked, "how about a wind farm on Nantucket Shoals?," presumably a reference to Cape Wind, though he got the location wrong.

Kennedy - "Ah, well, I mean, I think that, ah, certainly, I'm against the Cape Wind project if you're trying to get to that."

Rappleye - "Why?"

Kennedy - "Why? Because I don't want to see a big, huge (spreading arms wide) Nantucket wind turbines in the middle of Horseshoe Shoal." (emphasis added, and throughout).

Taracani - "Isn't that the hypocrisy of the whole thing? You say you're pushing alternative energy, there it is, but all of a sudden, the rich folk out there on the Cape, 'oh, we don't want to see something in the way of our sunset.' "

Kennedy - "Listen, that's going to destroy, the number one industry in Rhode Island is hospitality industry.  You want to see, you don't think our industry isn't tied to the, to southeastern New England? You don't think the people that don't go to Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and Newport and that area, do not, ah, go to that area because of the summer activities? You don't think that having an enormous wind farm isn't going to drive down ... "

Rappleye - "No, I don't think that, I mean ..."

Kennedy - "I beg to differ ..." 

 Rappleye - "... In Norway and Finland where they have these, these wind farms ..."

Kennedy - " ... You're buying that cockamamie propaganda that they're selling, please. You want to see, you go, have you ever sailed across Horseshoe Shoal? (... well, have  ya, huh? Huh?! ...) It's a small little shoal between Menemsha and Cotuit. Have you ever sailed by that? You're talking ..."

Taracani - "Most of us don't have sailboats."

Kennedy (pause, followed by a feeble ...) - "OK. Well, have you ever taken the ferry across there? Have you ever gone across ( .. by swimming, windsurfing or escorted by the Coast Guard after running aground ...?), I'm sorry, but you know, for anybody who wants to preserve the aesthetic value of what I think is part of our nature's wonderful areas of the world and doesn't want to just exploit it for private gain for a developer, then I think we need to preserve that."

Back to Langevin and an end to the Kennedyspeak that Congressman Kennedy has learned so well from his father, an unrivaled master of the form - "I support wind power and I think that's probably where Patrick and I would respectfully disagree. But wind power is one component of an alternative energy policy - solar power, wind power, again, ethanol development," which Langevin mentioned earlier in the show. Government incentives for alternatives could come by reducing tax breaks and subsidies to fossil fuels, he suggested.

Looking back at Kennedy's remarks, you'll see in bold print the principal basis for his opposition to Cape Wind. As a friend of mine pointed out, Kennedy's remarks were almost refreshing in that they encapsulated the opposition's main bone of contention with none of the window-dressing - they don't like Cape Wind because they don't want to see it.

In fairness to Kennedy, he also criticized Cape Wind as a project where a developer would profit at the expense of  "our nature's wonderful areas of the world." But coming from a grandchild of Joseph P. Kennedy, whose predatory appreciation for the profit motive remains legendary, the criticism is laughable. The Kennedys would never have gotten near Capitol Hill or the White House were it not for their patriarch's keen instinct for the jugular on pre-Depression Wall Street and illicit bootlegging during the Depression. Asked why he appointed Kennedy as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a New Deal agency that oversaw financial markets, FDR is famously said to have responded, "It takes a thief to catch one."

"Money bought Joseph P. Kennedy enormous personal freedom," wrote Sy Hersh in "The Dark Side of Camelot," his devastating critique of the Kennedys, "and bought his son the presidency." 

As for Patrick Kennedy's claim that offshore wind farms would destroy the region's hospitality industry, he must have set a record not just for double but triple negatives - " ... you don't think our industry isn't tied to the, to southeastern New England? You don't think that the people who don't go to Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and Newport and that area, do not go to that area because of the summer activities? You don't think that having an enormous wind farm isn't going to drive down ... " Seven negatives in three sentences - oh the humanity!

Come to think of it, wouldn't driving tourists away from the Cape and islands presumably help a nearby and comparable vacation destination - such as Rhode Island, home to Kennedy's constituents?   

By the way, Congressman, your description of Horseshoe Shoal as situated between "Menemsha and Cotuit" is a bit of a stretch. You're confusing the shoal with Vineyard Sound - as anyone spending a great deal of time yachting off Cape Cod should know.

(photo credit, media.collegepublisher.com)