Cape & Islands News

Nantucket shows signs of split on Cape Wind

Public Hearing on Cape Wind Proposal Draws Split Views
Of the 47 islanders who spoke, 23 were for and 24 against
Gas prices reach the tipping point

The average price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline in the U.S. reached a record $3.23 yesterday, according to The Associated Press, on the heels of yet another increase in crude oil prices that are running perilously close to $110 a barrel.
   Prices like that, either at the pump or on the mercantile exchange, would have been unthinkable even a year ago. But a sinking dollar and skyrocketing demand overseas have conspired to push oil prices to heights no one would have dreamed possible then.  That's good news for oil producers, but bad news for the rest of us...
   The turnaround has already begun here in Massachusetts as support grows for alternative means of energy production like the Cape Wind project off Cape Cod...  Patriot Ledger Editorial today.
By Peter B. Brace,  Nantucket Independent

Citing a flawed DEIS riddled with missing information, environmental damage, navigational anxieties and visual blight, just over half of the 60 people speaking at Nantucket’s public hearing on Cape Wind’s proposed wind farm told the Minerals Management Service no to wind turbines in Nantucket Sound.

Of the 350 people — the high school auditorium holds 769 — that turned out late yesterday afternoon for the second of four Minerals Management Service (MMS) public hearings held to glean regional input on the wind farm, 82 signed up to speak, but only 60 walked up to the microphone. Of those, 24 made impassioned pleas to the MMS that it should issue its Final Environmental Impact statement in favor of 130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal and the other 36 voiced their opposition against it or had serious doubts.

The project lies 6 miles south of Cape Cod but further from the two islands.

At the first of these hearings held in West Yarmouth on Monday night, 1,016 people attended and of the 186 that signed up to speak, only 60 got the chance to with 74 percent of them arguing against the wind farm.

Prior to the hearing, which began at 5 p.m. and ran to almost 9 p.m., supporters from both camps lined up outside Nantucket High School greeting people as they approached the entrance to the school. Both the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound and Clean Power Now fired off last-minute emails to their constituents urging them to arrive well before the 4 p.m. signup time for people who wanted speak at the public hearing.

Much like Nantucket’s Town Meeting, attendees who had spoke their piece and or heard their issues addressed, dribbled out of the auditorium, and after the 15-minute break at 7 p.m., a large portion of the original crowd had gone home. Aside from around a dozen Alliance staffers and members from Cape Cod, there were only a handful of other residents from the mainland who made the trip to the island to speak.

All of the 36 in opposition that spoke supported the concept of renewable energy from wind turbines, but not in Nantucket Sound. Their comments covered old ground, jabbing at the permitting agency for not doing a thorough enough job in its DEIS by releasing it too soon before several crucial studies where completed, pointing out the navigational risks to sailors, ferries, fishermen, planes and search and rescue crews, suggesting site alternatives, mentioning the potential for environmental disaster and harm to marine life, and noting the unknown yet much higher costs of wind-generated electricity that ratepayers may be paying once the project is built.

Among the pro-wind speakers was a principal of Blue H USA who announced their proposal to put 120 floating wind turbines in deep water 23 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. And the rest 24 who liked the idea of wind turbines on Nantucket Sound, rather than confining their comments to the regional impacts of Cape Wind’s proposal, among their other supporting arguments, put a global spin on the need for clean, renewable energy and the importance of that happening in their own backyard.

The pro-wind people cited the cost of oil, now selling for nearly $110 a barrel, the visual beauty of the turbines, how they would boost tourism, the myriad positive comments in the DEIS, Mass Audubon’s cautious support of the project and the need to break free of energy supplied by the nation’s enemies.

And here is some of what commenters from each side had to say at last night’s hearing on Nantucket:

Whiting R. Willauer, Chairman, Board of Selectmen - "It doesn’t directly impact our Island.  No real positive benefit to Nantucket, some negative impact but not a great deal.  We are considering 10 sites on land (here ourselves).  We’re short of land, like the Germans.  I asked where would I like?  In water, not off Sconssett – best bass fishing.  Discovered shellfish there, and ducks eat out there, but would love to see site off Tuckernuck, not where we sail or fly and (somewhere with) high average wind velocities. 

"What turned tide for me was those folks from Denmark...  tourism had increased there"Michael Kopcko. Selectman -  I"It's been a long arduous process.  I've not taken official position.  I understand about opposition to the  project, and I vehemently opposed it when it was first proposed.  I understand those concerns.  Like everyone, I favor renewable energy generation.  I wanted to like the project but a lot of questions.  Over the course of a year and a half I began to find questions answered to my satisfaction, but what turned tide for me was those folks from Denmark, gentleman from power utility, other gentleman was gov’t official in charge of tourism, resort area, he had vehemently fought project.  Couple years after tourism had increased from people who wanted to see, environmmenmtal and navigation catastrophes had not manifested themselves... I see this project in a bigger context.  Social and envionrmental and economic and political issues with power generation in word such we need to develop renewable energy."

“This is a good thing and we need it.  We need it before Nantucket dissapears.”
- Don FreemanIan Golding, Nantucket resident - “We cannot go on this way for long. We cannot go one as usual. The time has come for change on a global scale.”

Don Freedman, Nantucket resident“The facts seem to be true that this not a problem, this is a good thing and we need it. We need it before Nantucket disappears, we need it so Nantucket [remains] a place our children and grandchildren can share.”

 Bobby DeCosta, Nantucket charter fishermen - “My concern for this project is that all that life, that baitfish that comes up through Nantucket Sound, the sand lance and the squid, it comes through this area and it is amazing how much bait comes through here. During the two or three years construction time, this life is going to be disrupted.”

“We are on the Titanic and there’s not enough life boats and this project is a great big life boat and I think it’s time we got on it.” Laura WassermanNancy Wheatley, Nantucket resident - “To put it somewhere else, that is the essence of not in my backyard. This project, the Cape Wind project, will not change the world, but in our front yard, it will make a difference.

Audra Parker, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound - “Cape wind is not a miracle project as portrayed in the DEIS or portrayed now by people here, it is a massive industrial project with serious problems.”

Doug Foregger - “Nantucket Sound should be a national park, not a wind farm.”

Chris Lohman, owner of the only two houses on Great Point - “Having seen wind turbines in other places around the world, we do not believe these turbines will have a significant impact on ours and other peoples’ views of Nantucket Sound.”

Robert Lang, Nantucket resident - “This is not a question of whether we need alternate energy sources; we do, however Nantucket Sound is an inappropriate location for this project.”

Laura Wasserman, Clean Power Now - “We are on the Titanic and there’s not enough life boats and this project is a great big life boat and I think it’s time we got on it.”
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Two more MMS meetings this week