Op-Ed

Glenn Wattley's anti-Cape Wind mission

Ex-coal honcho's anti-Cape Wind mission
Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound has a single purpose - Stop the wind farm

By Mark Rodger

It is ironic that Glenn Wattley, head of the opposition group to Cape Wind and former coal-industry insider, wrote a diatribe against Cape Wind that appeared here in the Providence Journal on Nov. 5 - the very same day that other news organizations were reporting that 87 percent of voters in 11 Massachusetts south shore towns voted to support Cape Wind in a non-binding referendum.

This overwhelming demonstration of public support is consistent with two independent public opinion surveys on Cape Wind conducted earlier this year, including one by CBS-4 Boston that found that 86 percent of Massachusetts residents support Cape Wind. The other public opinion poll, commissioned by the Civil Society Institute, also found 86 percent statewide support for Cape Wind and 74 percent support on Cape Cod and the Islands.

96% of Alliance funding from donations of $20,000 or more

Mr. Wattley represents the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, a single-purpose organization formed expressly to defeat Cape Wind and that according to internal fundraising documents examined by The Boston Globe gets 96 percent of its funding from donations of $20,000 or more, mostly from summer waterfront residents who would have a distant view of the wind turbines on clear days.

In seeking to pit one clean energy initiative against another, Mr. Wattley does not speak for most of the residents of Cape Cod and the Islands. He is completely out of touch with the overwhelming majority of residents in Massachusetts and Rhode Island who want to tap our clean wind-energy resources in Nantucket Sound and offshore Rhode Island for good jobs, cleaner air, greater energy independence and to take action on climate change.

Mark Rodgers of North Falmouth is the communications director for Cape Wind. This Op Ed appeared on Sunday in the Providence Journal.