Cape & Islands News

A house and county divided

Coal miners, comedians and clean air citizens battle it out

By Walter Brooks 

Clouds of signs greeted Cape Codders attending the first MMS meeting last night.

The front rows held the heavy hitters, from left Senator Rob O'Leary, Falmouth Selectman Ahmed Mustafa, District Attorney Micheal O'Keefe and State Represntative Matt Patrick.

The seating held many strange combos. Alliance CEO Glenn Wattley sits in front of Clean  Power Now's Vice President Chuck Kleekamp and his wife with Solar Power expert Liz Argo smiling (?) behind them.

And yes, Virginia, there really is a Rodney Cluck shown here with the rest of the MMS panel last night Bob LeBelle and Maureen Bornholdt.  One MMS wag said they were amused when Cluck was put in charge of a project in which birds were an issue. The crowd seemed pleasant enough on the surface, but anyone could sense a strong undercurrent of anger and righteous indignation beneath that.

The surprise of the evening was the arrival of five activists from coal country who came north to ask Cape Codders to help them save their mountaintops.

The message from these five individuals who traveled from coal country in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky was that the Interior's Minerals Management Service on its draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) shows no major harms from Cape Wind.  To date, more than 500 U.S. mountaintops have been flattened and about 2,000 miles of headwater streams have been obliterated by coal companies using destructive MTR techniques to extract coal for electricity generation.

A nasty scene at 4pm

The MMS informed anyone who wished to comment last night to arrive at 5pm and sign up to speak since the number of speakers would be limited.

In their fairly typical disdain for fair play, the Allinance had about 100 protesters brandishing placards and shouting at 4pm, and many supporters who arrived to sign in at 5 gave up the effort and went inside to wait the 6pm start. 

This resulted in the antis dominating the first three hours of the hearing. But as the evening wore on, the proponents voices were finally heard. 

The auditorium of the Mattacheese School in Yarmouth had about a thousand attendees at one point.  Observers said there were about the same number last night as had attended the first go-round of Cape Wind hearings three years ago when the United States Army Corps. of Engineers published its DEIS in 2005 which was every bit as favorable as the second one by the MMS this year.

Stealth moves fade to cut 

Readers may recall that the USACE Draft Environmental Impact Study so shocked the opponents, that they were successful in getting Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy to get the USACE "taken off the case", so to speak.

Thus last evening's examination was more of the same for Cape Codders. 

Persons of organizations wishing to make statements or file reports to the MMS on this process have had over three years to do so, and most insiders point out that the public hearings are more of a chance for both sides to let out steam and impress their supporters, and on one expects the US Department of the Interior to rewrite their DEIS. 

"The timing of the Blue H announcement just days before the hearings begin has prompted skepticism from Cape Wind advocates that the new proposal is being offered as an 'out of sight' alternative to Cape Wind." - GlobeYesterday's press conference by a Netherlands consulting company promoted by The Alliance was viewed by most as an obvious attempt to throw another "stealth" monkey wrench into the process, but it paled in comparison with previous "stealth" moves.  Even the Boston Globe reacted very unfavorably to the ply in an Editorial today saying in part, "The timing of the Blue H announcement just days before the hearings begin has prompted skepticism from Cape Wind advocates that the new proposal is being offered as an "out of sight" alternative to Cape Wind."

Quotes of note:

Jim Gordon, President of Cape Wind- "It was great to see people come out on all sides of the issue last night.  The Cape Wind review has had more public input than any energy project in the history of Massachusetts.  I thought many of the concerns I heard last night are not new have already been dealt with in a substantiative way in the MMS DEIS."

Amed Mustafa, Falmouth Selectman - "All I've heard are because people are afraid and fear the unknown, does anyone worry about a meteor hitting us tonight, what we have to do is right thing for everyone - ever been caught in a blackout - in despair, price of oil is going up, this is a chance to gain from wind power, make use of our natural elements, what I say is vote on you hearts minds and insight of moving forward."

"The future generations will view us as heroes or fools, we must not forgo this opportunity." - Barbara HillCarl Shute - 3rd generation coal miner from Kentucky and a member of his city council.  "Frankly I'd rather be in the county than here in  Massachusetts.  When you turn on your lights, 50% of that electricity comes from coal... which provides power by decapitating the mountain of Appalachia and burying head water streams in valleys below, in Kentucky 350 miles of streams have been destroyed, ruining resource, water.  Personal issue, have destroyed streams I played in as boy, my grandchildren being deprived of mountain way of life, with fewer and fewer places I can show my grandchildren...I could go on, you can hear the same story in most communities in our region, but there's a better way which is why I'm  here today... CW is an essential and historic part of the transition - please surport it  for my grandchildren and yours."

Marty Aikens,  IBEW Business Agent - "My 6,000 members and 11,000 retirees, depend on paychecks from putting in electricity... The US and MA need this and I'm positive Cape Wind will be built."

Jeff Nelson, West Virginia coal miner - "This area is beautiful, but I couldn't live here.  Mountaintop removal that's my home,  for 30 years I worked on coal mine industry which generates half  our  energy... You can't see the view from my back yard 'cause its been blown up.  That's more that one Hiroshima bomb a week."

Barbara Hill, Clean Power Now exectutive director speaking for her 10,000 members - " The future generations will view us as heroes or fools, we must not forgo this opportunity."