Editorial

Fewer power plants mean higher electric rates

Editorial: Fewer power plants = higher rates
Cape Wind wind-farm project would save rate-payers "at least" $25 million a year

Way back in May 2005, the Massachusetts Electricity Facility Siting Board issued a finding that the 468-megawatt Cape Wind wind-farm project would save New England rate-payers "at least" $25 million a year. Now that oil prices are much, much higher, we wonder how much more it could save.

Cape Wind would add much-needed competition into the severely constrained New England electric grid.The board, in its finding, aimed to introduce much-needed competition into the severely constrained New England electric grid.

Electricity rates have soared since the EFSB finding. It now seems reasonable that those savings from Cape Wind would also increase.

At a recent Cape Wind public hearing, Massachusetts state Rep. Matt Patrick, of Falmouth, a long-time wind-energy supporter, told officials that New England's power-grid manager, called an "Independent System Operator," makes a monthly payment of $9 million to Mirant Corp., owner of the electricity-generating plant on the Cape Cod Canal.

The purpose is not to recompense for electricity produced. After all, the highly polluting, nearly 40-year-old oil-fired unit operates only about 17 percent of the time.

The purpose of the payment is to ensure grid stability. Because of power constraints in the region, the oil-fired unit, long past its prime, must be available to run in case of emergency.

Rep. Patrick believes that if Cape Wind were operating, the $108 million (for Canal Plant) might not be necessaryGrid managers have no choice about making this payment. Technically called an "out-of-merit" fee, the insurance payment is required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

This expense - $108 million yearly - is passed on to southeastern Massachusetts electricity rate-payers. It shows up in our monthly bills in the delivery-costs column.

Rep. Patrick believes that if Cape Wind were operating, the $108 million might not be necessary.

Would these savings get passed on to rate-payers? "Absolutely," says Mr. Patrick.

If he is correct, Cape Wind could save the people of southeastern Massachusetts yet another $108 million a year.

Congressman Delahunt is Sen. Edward Kennedy's valet in the House of RepresentativesSome experts over the past seven years have also said that Cape Wind, and other new power-generation projects, would save New England rate-payers a lot of money.

Those projects have not been implemented, however, in large part because some influential electricity consumers do not want electricity plants anywhere near their homes.

The equation is simple: Fewer power plants in New England = higher electricity rates.

Now comes Massachusetts Congressman William Delahunt, the representative of Cape Cod, the Islands and the South Shore suburbs of Boston, as co-sponsor of a disingenuous federal bill - H.R. 5547 - requiring more auditing of the operations of the Independent System Operator.

Another co-sponsor of that bill is Massachusetts Congressman James McGovern.

The reason provided for this additional regulatory burden?

The congressmen complain that power rates are too high.

They are correct.

Cape Wind would be "an important, non-polluting source of energy."
  - Barney Frank"But to point the finger of blame at the engineers and grid managers who keep New England's lights on is unforgivable. The blame lies with Mr. Delahunt and his ilk.

For more than six years now, Congressman Delahunt, who is Sen. Edward Kennedy's valet in the House, has threatened "endless litigation" if Cape Wind receives regulatory approval. He has been a staunch leader in the fight to keep the region from developing an offshore wind industry, especially near the Kennedys' summer houses.

And Mr. McGovern has not acted honorably either. By not speaking out, he is tacitly agreeing that Mr. Delahunt, Senator Kennedy and other Massachusetts politicians who oppose the project are behaving acceptably.

Mr. McGovern should not wash his hands of the issue. Instead, he should follow the lead of Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, who said in June 2006 that Cape Wind would be "an important, non-polluting source of energy."

The Editorial appeared Saturday, April 5, 2008, in the Providence Journal and is reprinted with their permission.

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It's America's Choice: Turbines or Turbans

The Alliance and the Sheiks at the Cape Wind MMS hearings say it all
Freedom from Arab oil means a choice between turbines and turbans

Click the YouTube screen above to see the choice dramatically started at the Alliance's Glenn Wattley chuckles as a "Sheik Against Wind" rails against the project, and notice the other YouTubes on the right when you click on the one above.

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Beacon Hill made a bad $100 million a year bet, and lost

A bad bet

By Melvin Miller

Members of the House have made a bet of more than $100 million per year that the Mashpee Wampanoag Indians will not get federal approval to build a casino.Massachusetts is facing a serious financial squeeze, and no one seems to know how to generate the needed revenue during an economic decline.

At the state level, the subsidized Commonwealth Care health insurance plan is under-funded. Costs have surged past the $869 million for premium subsidies and administrative costs proposed in the 2009 budget. The solution seems to be to make the health plans costlier for consumers. However, the objective of a mandated health plan is to keep the premium costs affordable.

Cities and towns have also been suffering. The Boston Public Schools have been struggling with a $30 million budget shortfall. Even upscale towns like Brookline are proposing school staff reductions, including teachers and guidance counselors, and a substantial increase in the fees parents must pay for their children to participate in sports.

Despite these financial problems, the state Legislature voted to defeat Gov. Deval Patrick's casino bill. According to a study by the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Massachusetts residents spent $1.1 billion at casinos in Connecticut and Rhode Island last year and generated $233 million in tax revenue for those states.

Citizens worried about the danger of gambling addiction should understand that those prone to addiction already have casinos in nearby states. And when they return to Massachusetts with their problem, state taxpayers still have to foot the bill for their cure without benefit of the revenues from gambling.

Members of the House have made a bet of more than $100 million per year that the Mashpee Wampanoag Indians will not get federal approval to build a casino in Marlborough. They base their bet on the mistaken belief that Marlborough is not part of their tribal land.

The Wampanoags of Barnstable and Plymouth Counties

The Wampanoags have lived continuously throughout Barnstable and Plymouth counties for more than 370 years, but their claims to land under the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act of 1790 have failed in the past. However, that was before they were federally recognized as an Indian tribe. There has to be a federal recognition of some land as a trust reserve or there will be a flood of lawsuits challenging titles at least in the Mashpee area. Anglos with holdings in New Seabury and Willow Bend will see to it that the trust reserve is established to protect the titles to their own property.

If the House loses its bet, then Massachusetts will be left out of the casino boom, just as happened in Florida when that state's legislature refused to cooperate.

Melvin B. Miller, Editor & Publisher, The Bay State Banner. Miller founded this multi-racial weekly 43 years ago, and the newspaper today has over 35,000 subscribers across the Commonwealth and across the ethnic, racial and political spectrum.
The Banner has often, as in this case, been ahead of the curve

 

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The Kennedy-Forest-Delahunt game plan

Watch Ted Kennedy seek your tax dollars to save his ocean view
Will our aging liberal lion look for federal research money for Blue H?

By Walter Brooks, editor, cc2day 

Blue H Bull
Far from being a "mature company with substantial global experience in offshore structures," best as anyone can tell, Blue H was formed in 2004 to "research" deep water technology. Blue H was "hired" to design a project off the coast of Italy, which in 2007 began "testing" their design concepts. That project has yet to produce any electricity.
   Blue H is not and does not intend to be a developer of deep water wind farms.
At best Blue H will "consult" with a developer that will "build" the wind farm in federal waters off the coast of MA or RI, someday, if their technology is proven in some other non-US location first. Exactly why should we be jumping for joy?
   Had Blue H approached any of the groups, like Conservation Law Foundation, Greenpeace, or Clean Power Now, that support off-shore wind energy projects, like Cape Wind, they would have been treated with well deserved skepticism. Instead they accepted an invitation to participate in a stage-managed press conference with the Alliance and Windstop, that are not on record for supporting any currently proposed off-shore wind project.Ted Kennedy is certainly aware that his constituents are suffering through what appears to be the worse recession since World War II, but you can bet he won't let a little thing like your economic hardship interfere with his ego, he never has.

Given his track record on stopping America's first renewable offshore energy project, it wouldn't surprise any Kennedy-watcher to see a news item soon about Blue H, a Netherlands' company, receiving federally money to "research" their phony deep-water proposal -- as if America only needed ONE wind farm to solve the explosive rise in oil and gas prices. 

Follow the money

It should be easy to spot. Just look at the details about the shareholders in any federally funded Blue H venture around here. The names of some of your wealthier summer neighbors in Osterville and Alliance members will likely show up buried in the small type.

Blue H is far from being a mature company with substantial global experience in offshore structures. As best as anyone can tell, Blue H was formed in 2004 to "research" deep water technology (see sidebar).

The power players make their first move 

The first step was probably the visit which the Alliance CEO Glenn Wattley paid to Beacon Hill politicians last week accompanied by a Blue H flunky.  The Alliance's $18 million raised so far could help a lot of Massachusetts politicians get reelected, or that money could build a renewable energy project if these fossil-fuel flim flammers were really serious about any of their propaganda.

If you've been around politics on Cape Cod for a while, you start to notice the sly hand of a Mark Forest- Ted Kennedy-Bill Delahunt ploy. They're really good at this stuff. You may recall last year's Delahunt proclamation to legislate a renewable energy zone between Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, or his earlier rantings about how he would create a maritime sanctuary -- all smoke and mirrors to protect his master's view from the Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport.

Energy delayed is energy denied 

After all, those three "public servants" have managed to delay America's leap into renewable offshore wind power for seven years while the cost of running your car and heating your house has doubled.

Someone please remind me, these guys are "liberal Democrats"? 

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Worst recession in decades, Chamber opposes a billion-dollar project

The world turned upside down
Our Chamber's performance is near criminal

 Let's see if I get this straight

1. Cape Wind, a private company, wants to build a project 6 miles offshore which will cost a billion dollars and employ scads of workers and develop a whole new tourist attraction in the process which will give new, high-paying jobs to countless more Cape Codders.
2. Cape Cod and the nation is already in what the everyone now concedes will be the worse recession in our lifetimes with jobless claims at record highs and no relief in sight.  That's today's New York Times front page on the right. Some economists are using the term "depression" as a distinct possibility for the first time since 1929.
3. There are more unsold homes on Cape Cod today than at any time in memory.
   
4. Most Cape shopping malls look ghost towns at night and every restaurant owner reports huge drops in business.  A Yarmouth House waitress told me last week that even last month's vacation week was a disaster with half as much business as normal.  That's the Cape Cod Mall last Sunday in late afternoon on the right.
   

How our chamber responds 

Compare these facts with the attitude of our Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, which BTW the dictionary defines as "an association, primarily of people in business, to promote the commercial interests of an area."

This week our chamber's Éminent Grise, John O'Brien, wrote a half page harangue which makes the informed reader question either his literacy of his honesty. The first part alone contains several bare-faced lies, half-truths and some downright gibberish;

"The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce has consistently opposed the construction of 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, viewing this mammoth project as the industrialization of a fundamental part of our economy and way of life.

"The chamber, as with all major public policy issues, thoroughly investigated all aspects of the proposal, and the results of this objective, extensive cost/benefit analysis led us to conclude that the benefits of the wind plant did not exceed the costs associated with this power plant construction. We continue to have our doubts about its effect on prices, air quality and energy independence; at least in the measures that the developer and his adherents expound.

Now the federal Draft Environmental Impact Statement, recently released by the Department of the Interior, confirms the negative economic effects of the proposal."

Curiouser and curiouser
We  underlined the grosser outright misstatements above. For beginners, John O'Brien was asked by Cape Wind's President Jim Gordon for permission to lay out his plans to the chamber's membership. He made his approach to O'Brien ahead of everyone else. But a week later, rather than responding to Cape Wind's request, Mr. Obrien ran a Chamber press release in the Cape Cod Times castigating the proposed project with accusations not based on fact but only speculation, and accusing the project of having a negative impact the on Cape Cod.

So much for John O'Brien's impartiality and concern for our economy or air quality. He was a paid lobbyist for the Alliance while dissing Cape Wind and workin for Cape Cod  Chamber of Commerce. Shortly afterwards Mr O'Brien left his post as Chamber executive director and
became a lobbyist for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound and also for Sithe Energies, a company, a firm which owns a number of fossil fuel companies in the Northeast and a firm where his son John O'Brien Jr. was a Vice President.

So much for O'Brien impartiality and concern for Cape Cod's economy or air quality. 

Better read than dead 

Since you, dear reader, unlike Mr. O'Brien, probably  actually read the Draft Environmental Report just issued, you already know that there is no environmental damage and in fact considerable economic benefit to Cape Wind.  This knowledge might save your life, or at least your lungs as Cape Cod continues to lie downwind of some of the worst polluting power plant and our air quality is worse than most cities because of that.

When is the last time anyone spent a billion dollars around here on new construction and during a deep recession to boot?

When is the last time anyone spent a billion dollars here on new construction and during a deep recession to boot?So fellow Cape Codders, as you huddle in your perhaps about-to-be foreclosed home paying $4 a gallon for gas and 50% more this year than last for  heating oil, or walking to the unemployment office (shucks, you can't afford to drive there), and welcoming your kids back to the family home as they get laid off too, think of John O'Brien in his condo in Naples Florida writing plagiarized Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound handouts for your local daily newspaper which itself is another major impediment to this magnificent renewable energy project, a project which could start America on the road to energy independence.

Give John a call at 508-362-3225 x525 or email him at john@capecodchamber.org. He's so important at the chamber he doesn't have to use his surname in his email address.

Walter Brooks, Editor 

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The 2008 Nader: Unsafe at any election

George W. Bush didn't cause 4,000 American troops to die, Ralph Nader did
How his ego caused the worse foreign adventure in U.S. history

By Walter Brooks 

If Ralph Nader had not decided his ego was more important than America's safety, Al Gore would have been elected President in 2000 and George W. Bush and his neo-con maniacs could not have invaded the Middle East and turned half the world against our country and put our nation in jeopardy for decades to come.

And the bastard wants to do it again.

John McCain at his most militant would never have invaded Iraq.  He has said so many times.

Hillary Clinton could not have abetted Bush & his fanatics if Al Gore was President instead.

Barack Obama voted against the illegal war at every chance he had, even when the war was "popular" and he was alone against the mob.

So the next time you hear someone  blame Bush for our current national shame, correct them.

Ralph Nader is America's Public Enemy #1, again. 

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Editorial: Foreigners we want to invite

H-2B visa issue needs a fix

Lost in the noisy controversy over illegal immigration is the fact that there are foreigners we want to come to this country; indeed, we invite them here.

Included in this category are the mostly young workers who come here for seasonal work in the hotels and restaurants of summer resorts — 5,000 to 6,000 on Cape Cod alone, as counselors in summer camps and, as The Associated Press reports, as ski instructors, an area of particular shortage. Some do considerably less glamorous work like seafood process and landscaping, work that otherwise might be done by illegals.

These are temporary workers, entering the United States under what are called H-2B visas. They make their money and go home, one hopes with good feelings about this country.

The number of visas is capped at 33,000 every six months, a total of 66,000 a year. However, the program was so popular with employers that Congress raised the cap, basically by exempting returning workers. Thus, the government was able to grant 71,000 H-2B visas for the first six months of fiscal 2007.

But in the fight over the broader immigration issue Congress never got around to extending the exemption for returning workers and the cap relapsed to the old level of 33,000 for six months.

Thus, ski resorts are short of instructors and seaside resorts are beginning to get nervous about next summer. And there is a tight time frame. Employers can't apply for the visas until 120 days before the seasonal employee is to start work.

Some advocacy groups want to use employer desperation over the visas as a lever to enact a broader immigration reform. But a consensus on reform is a long way off, and a peripheral issue like the H-2B visas isn't going to speed that consensus.

Lawmakers are loath to touch immigration in an election year, but they should be able to make this one small fix without incurring any fatal political damage.

Ventura County Star, Februray 19, 2008

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An answer in the wind

An answer in the wind

A NIMBY kerfuffle awits Cape Lookout National Seashore 

By Tim White, Fayetteville Observer

I drive through the tiny town of Bettie once or twice a year. It’s a don’t-blink, you’ll-miss-it kind of place.  On the road map, it’s a dot on U.S. 70, about halfway between Beaufort and Harker’s Island, headquarters of the Cape Lookout National Seashore.

It’s pretty country, if you like salt marshes and tidal inlets. I do. My favorite birding involves waterfowl, wading birds and shorebirds (great alibis for a day at the beach), and the pool-table-flat lowlands along our coast are prime spots.

The coastal building boom hasn’t wrecked the area around Bettie yet. I’m hoping it stays that way — there’s not much coastline left where you can find peace, quiet and good birding.

But there’s a big concern out there about three spectacular high-rises — although they won’t house a single human. The stink is about Nelson and Dianna Paul’s plan to build three 464-foot-tall wind turbines on their 33-acre tract in Bettie. It would be North Carolina’s largest commercial-scale “wind farm,” producing about 4.5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 900 homes.

Kennedy has fired up a NIMBY kerfuffle that has raged for the better part of a decade. Ted Kennedy & his allies have thrown every imaginable monkey wrench into the works, & wealthy shore dwellers have contributed millions to a stop-the-windmills campaign.As wind farms go, it’s small. European wind farms have dozens, even hundreds of turbines clustered offshore. The biggest wind farm planned for this country is in my old backyard, off Cape Cod, on Nantucket Sound. It would have 130 turbines spread across a shallow area called Horseshoe Shoal, producing up to 420 megawatts of power — enough to provide three-quarters of the electricity for Cape Cod and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. (Local translation: It would produce enough power to run Cumberland County.) That’s impressive. And attractive — power that needs no gas, oil, coal or nuclear fuel. Power that emits no pollutants, no greenhouse gas — nothing at all. What’s not to love?

There’s plenty not to love, if Cape Cod’s experience is what we can expect in North Carolina. The fact that those 130 towers will mess up people’s lovely view (that would include some people named Kennedy, who have a renowned compound on Nantucket Sound, in Hyannisport) has fired up a NIMBY kerfuffle that has raged for the better part of a decade. Ted Kennedy and his allies have thrown every imaginable monkey wrench into the works, and wealthy shore-dwellers have contributed millions to a stop-the-windmills campaign.

A small version of that is breaking out in Bettie. Neighbors aren’t happy about 45-story-tall towers sprouting in their backyards. At that height, the towers will be appearing in every backyard from Harker’s Island to Morehead City.

I can’t say I’d be happy to see them out of my kitchen window every morning. And every night, as their aircraft-warning lights blink and flash.

But we’re in a world of energy hurt right now, and we need viable alternatives. The news about bio-fuels isn’t good — a new, peer-reviewed study says bio-fuels produce twice as much greenhouse gas as petroleum. I hear the sound of a big, deflating balloon.

What’s the answer? It’s blowing in the wind. We’ll have to sacrifice some good views, I fear, in Bettie and elsewhere.
Tim White, who for many years was the Editor at the Cape Cod Times, is the Observer’s editorial page editor. He can be reached at (910) 486-3504 or email.  This appeared in his newspaper Sunday.

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Do you deserve Clean Power or Dirty Coal?

Editor's Note: with one of the worst coal-fired plant in America directly downwind of us, this editorial in the NY Times yesterday and the Standard-Times article beneath it are of special interest to Cape Codders.
Clean Power or Dirty Coal?

Opposition to new coal-fired power plants built without new technology — that is, without the capacity to capture greenhouse gas emissions — is rising on both Wall Street and Main Street. Citizen opposition has led companies to cancel some high-profile projects, including a proposed plant near the Florida Everglades. Pressure from environmental organizations has persuaded major banks to begin weighing the risks of global warming when deciding whether to finance new plants.

This is good news. Coal-fired power plants are big contributors to global warming. In the United States alone, they generate half the country’s electricity and nearly a third of its emissions. Meanwhile, scientists have left no doubt that the world has just a few years to make deep cuts in emissions or begin to suffer the worst consequences of rising temperatures. This means that scientists will have to figure out a way to capture carbon dioxide from coal plants, or coal will have to be replaced with cleaner fuels.

Given that task, the failure — by both the Bush administration and Congress — to encourage alternative sources of power is distressing. Bowing to veto threats from the White House, Congress stripped from an otherwise admirable energy bill two important provisions on alternative fuels.

One would have required states to generate an increasing share of their power from renewable sources like wind and solar energy. The other would have rolled back about $12 billion in wholly unnecessary tax breaks for the oil industry and used the proceeds to develop cleaner fuels and new energy technologies...  New York Times. 
_________

Court overturns mercury emissions plan

CLF senior attorney Seth Kaplan said it was too soon to tell what the decision means for Brayton Point power plant and Somerset Power plant. He said the state's coal-fired power plants are already subject to strict emissions, known as the "Filthy Five" regulations, which were adopted in 2001. If the federal government adopts air emissions standards that are tougher than the state regulations, local power plants would have to comply, he said.WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court struck down a Bush administration policy exempting power plants from certain environmental regulations. The court said the policy was unlawful.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit negated a rule known as cap-and-trade. That policy allows power plants that fail to meet emission targets to buy credits from plants that did, rather than having to install their own mercury emissions controls. The rule was to go into effect in 2010.

The court struck down the cap-and-trade policy and the Environmental Protection Administration's plan to exempt coal- and oil-fired power plants from regulations requiring strict emissions control technology to block emissions.

Massachusetts and many other states challenged the policy in federal court. The agency defended the rule, saying it represented the nation's first attempt to control such emissions and would reduce mercury emissions by 70 percent.  "The court has completely overturned these rules, and we are thrilled with this decision," said Melissa Hoffer, vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation, a New England environmental group that was a petitioner to the suit...  Standard-Times. 

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Kerry falls short on climate change

A few privileged politicians are not willing to support those solutions

By PAUL M. MORIARTY, Brighton

Living in a state that is often associated with progressivism, it is ridiculous that all of the commonwealth’s politicians are not openly supporting the Cape Wind Project as a solution to climate change.

Kerry understands the urgent need for solutions to global warming but is failing to take meaningful action.

The fight against Cape Wind does nothing more than solidify stereotypes of politics in the United States.

Most of the politicians in Massachusetts talk an incredible game with regard to global warming, and most are willing to walk that talk.

However, there are a few privileged politicians who are not willing to support those solutions that they regard as ‘‘inconvenient.’’

Our own Sen. John Kerry recently spoke at the Bali conference in Indonesia imploring the international community to move forward with expedient solutions to climate change, despite the Bush administration’s unwillingness to keep pace on the issue. Kerry said he believed the current president does not fairly represent the American people, and the next administration will be willing to do more to address global warming.

Kerry is correct. Recent polls show that over 70 percent of Americans believe immediate action on climate change is necessary. Kerry clearly understands the urgent need for solutions to global warming and the will of his constituency to address it, but is failing to take meaningful action.

The time for action is now. It is no longer enough to talk about solutions and urge others to take actionMore than 75 percent of Massachusetts supports the Cape Wind Project as a solution to climate change and a move toward clean renewable energy.

Kerry has no position on Cape Wind

Sen. Kerry, the time for action is now. It is no longer enough to talk about solutions and urge others to take action, while only supporting those solutions that are convenient. It is time to step up to the challenge, and support the Cape Wind Project as a viable solution to climate change.

The scientific community has spoken. The time for discussion and debate has passed.

We need politicians willing to lead and make difficult decisions in order to avoid the most serious consequences of climate change.

Paul Moriarty is a Regional Coordinator in Greenpeace USA's Frontline Program.  He oversees the Greenpeace  Boston office, which is responsible for face to face member recruitment and grassroots organizing.  This article also appeared in the Patriot Ledger on 1/30/08.

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