Wind Farmer's Almanac

Sen. Kennedy issues statement on Cape Wind compromise

"I commend my colleagues Ted Stevens, Jeff Bingaman, Pete Domenici, Dan Inouye, Don Young and Jim Oberstar for working with us to find a solution that will address our most fundamental safety concerns with the proposed Cape Wind project.

"The Cape Wind project has been moving forward irresponsibly before any safety rules for such large off-shore developments have been established.

"That's a principal Coast Guard responsibility, and Coast Guard oversight is essential.  This provision guarantees that the Coast Guard will evaluate the threats to safe navigation raised by this project, so that any needed modifications will be made.

"It's a significant victory in our effort to deal with the legitimate safety concerns of the project, and I'm grateful to my colleagues for working with us to achieve this result."

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Senate negotiators resolve dispute on Cape Wind; permitting process to continue

... from a statement just released by the Senate Energy Committee -

SENATE NEGOTIATORS REACH AGREEMENT ON CAPE WIND LANGUAGE IN COAST GUARD BILL: Deal preserves integrity of  Energy Policy Act siting process 

Washington, D.C. –-  Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Pete Domenici and Ranking Member Jeff Bingaman announced that they have reached an agreement with Senators Ted Kennedy and Ted Stevens on changes to a provision inserted at conference into H.R. 889, the Coast Guard appropriations bill, related to a controversial wind project in the Nantucket Sound.

The four senators have agreed to a concurrent resolution that will replace Section 414 of the conference report, which would have given the Coast Guard and the governor of Massachusetts final approval over the siting of the Nantucket Sound wind farm. The concurrent resolution drops any reference to the governor of Massachusetts and gives the commandant of the Coast Guard only the authority to spell out the terms and conditions for the wind project which are necessary for navigational safety. (emphasis added)

Chairman Domenici’s statement:

“I’m pleased that we’ve been able to address the concerns of my colleagues while preserving the integrity of the siting procedure we outlined in the Energy Policy Act. In this instance, the governor veto is gone and the Coast Guard is only allowed to address navigational safety concerns. For all future projects, we will use the siting model we created in the energy bill.

"That’s a sound model. It gives the Coast Guard and other federal agencies a voice; it gives local and state governments a voice; but it prevents local special interests from torpedoing a reasonable and much-needed energy project in federal waters.”

Senator Bingaman’s statement:

“The Energy Policy Act of 2005 gave the Secretary of the Interior the authority to issue permits for alternative energy projects on the Outer Continental Shelf. But it did not diminish the Coast Guard’s authority over navigational safety, and it expressly required the Interior Department to consult with the Coast Guard before granting leases for projects like Cape Wind.  The new language for Sec. 414 confirms the Coast Guard’s role for ensuring the navigational safety of the Cape Wind project. 

"This is an appropriate clarification to make and it ensures that Cape Wind’s proposal will receive a fair and unbiased consideration on the merits.”

(photo credit, ens-newswire.com)

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Global warming threatens coastline

OK, so it's not what happened in "Planet of the Apes," which has yet to be surpassed by any film for raising goosebumps with an unexpected ending.

The threat from global warming hasn't quite reached this level of intensity, but beaches from Florida to New England are gradually being swallowed by rising seas, according to this illuminating story by Cornelia Dean in yesterday's New York Times.

Accompanying the story are great graphics and a four-minute video presentation by Dean (which I can't link to from here without connecting to an alternating array of news videos).

(photo credit, http://bristol.indymedia.org)

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The threat to birds off the coast of Denmark -- it's not from wind turbines

Speaking at Clean Power Now's annual meeting, Mass Audubon's Jack Clarke, the organization's director of public policy and government relations, described visiting two offshore wind farms in Denmark last year.

His impression of the aesthetics of offshore wind power in Denmark --  "elegant, tranquil and serene" and not, he added, "the industrialization of Horns Rev," referring to the 80-turbine array in the North Sea off Blavand.

"Where we did see problems" in Denmark, Clarke said, was with drilling for natural gas from offshore rigs. "The birds are attracted to the flames, the burnoff from the methane, and the water was black with dead birds" (emphasis added for both).

The photo shows an oil rig under construction in the North Sea; photo credit, http://ukencarta.msn.com/media

 

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Clean Power Now members to hear from Aububon's Jack Clarke

... at CPN's annual meeting tonight at 7 at the Radisson in Hyannis, Route 28, about 200 yards east of the airport rotary.

Jack Clarke, Mass Audubon's director of policy and government relations, will describe Audubon's preliminary approval of the Nantucket Sound wind farm.

A spokesperson from Cape Wind will describe the company's efforts to comply with conditions set forth by Audubon, such as recently completed avian research on Horseshoe Shoal timed to coincide with the spring migration.

Cash bar, hors d'oeuvres and good company!

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Profiles in tax avoidance

Alternative headline: It's a Beau-ti-ful Day in the Neigh-bur-hood ...

(Better alternative headline: Another Beau-ti-ful Day ...)

Simply awesome story in the Boston Globe today about Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound co-chairman and gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos, under this eye-opener of a headline: "Mihos paid Mass. no tax on his yacht: Avoided sales, excise levies with R.I. address."

Isn't Mihos the candidate always harping on the need for more local aid to towns and cities through increased revenue from the state?

Yet according to the Globe, Mihos, "a multimillionaire businessman, avoided more that $23,000 in Massachusetts sales tax and $1,320 in local excise taxes on his luxury motor yacht by forming a corporation in Rhode Island to purchase and own the boat."

"Rhode Island exempts yachts from sales tax and excise taxes," reports the Globe's Frank Phillips. "Massachusetts requires a state resident who purchases a yacht in another state, but berths it here, to pay a 5 percent sales tax."

"However, Mihos appears to have taken advantage of a provision that says a boat owner may be exempt from the Massachusetts sales tax if the boat remains out of state for the first six months after the sale," Phillips writes. "Mihos said the boat remained in Rhode Island for more than six months after he purchased it in January 1999. He said he then brought it to his home in the gated community where he lives on Great Island, across Hyannis Harbor from the Kennedy compound."

This is where it could get sticky for Mihos and his erratic campaign, which may succeed in doing nothing more than keeping Kerry Healey from getting elected -- "A separate provision in tax law says that a boat kept in Massachusetts waters for more than two weeks in a summer is subject to the excise tax, which, like the auto excise tax, is collected by local communities," Phillips writes.

"Boat owners are required under state law to report under oath to local assessors where their boat is moored for the summer season," according to the Globe.  "The Ashley is not listed on the tax rolls for the town of Yarmouth, according to the assessor's office."

Just out of curiosity, how often does Mihos take his "luxury motor yacht" to Rhode Island? "Once in a while," he tells the Globe.

Yes, Mihos isn't about to spend more time in little Rhodie than necessary when he could be yachting on Nantucket Sound instead.

That toast you smell burning? It's not Cape Wind -- it's Mihos's candidacy.

(photo credit, Boston Globe)

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Press coverage of Frank's announcement

Roundup of coverage in the dailies about Congressman Barney Frank's change of heart on Cape Wind:

-- the story I enjoyed most ran in the Boston Globe, by virtue of this quintessential Frank observation -- "Frank said that 'heightened interest in the energy crisis' had led to his support for the project, adding that he was struck by the number of his constituents who considered the project 'of transcendent importance.' "

The Globe story also included a humorous opinion, albeit unintentionally funny, from the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound's Charles Vinick.  Vinick downplayed Frank's support for Cape Wind, "saying he did not think the opinion of  'one individual' would affect the project's fate."

Curious indeed, seeing how the Alliance was recently lobbying in Congress with considerable ardor to have "one individual" -- Mitt Romney -- affect the project's "ultimate fate."

The New Bedford Standard-Times, one of the largest papers in Frank's congressional district which includes the South Coast from Wareham to Westport, ran a lengthy Page 1 story with former New Bedford Mayor John K. Bullard praising Frank for something that "almost no one ever does: publicly changing his mind."

That the Cape Cod Times ran a brief story was not surprising, given that Frank's district and the paper's coverage area don't overlap.

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Barney Frank changes position on Cape Wind; announces his support for project

Big boost today in the form of Congressman Barney Frank describing his previous opposition to Cape Wind as mistaken.

While "the general principle of following the lead of my colleagues on matters that affect their particular districts physically is an important one," Frank wrote in an email to constituents, "it should not be allowed to override fundamental policy questions. " 

Here is Frank's statement in its entirety:

"I'm writing this response to the people who have been in touch with me about the issue of wind power, and most particularly, the proposal for the installation of wind turbines in Nantucket Sound.

"My initial response, as you know, was to support my Congressional colleague Bill Delahunt, in whose district this installation would be, and also Senator Kennedy, who has a strong interest in the Cape, in their effort to put a gubernatorial veto over this project into the Coast Guard bill.  I did it, as I have noted, not because of any opposition of my own, but because I was following the general principle of deferring to my colleagues on matters of  particular geographic interest to them -- particularly Congressman Delahunt in whose district this is -- in part because I have sought to maximize their help in matters critical to my own district, such as the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant in Fall River.

"I now believe that this was a mistake, because while the general principle of following the lead of my colleagues on matters that affect their particular districts physically is an important one, it should not be allowed to override fundamental policy questions.  This is one of those instances where a series of forceful and thoughtful arguments against my position from people in my own district and elsewhere did lead me to reconsider.  In addition, to their credit, Senator Kennedy and Congressman Delahunt took into account the arguments that were made, and while both of them are still convinced that there are sound reasons for opposing this project, they have agreed to dropping the proposal for a gubernatorial veto.  This means that no Congressional obstacle will be posed to this project.

"I know that there are some who are concerned because Senator Kennedy has said that he would like to see a specific Coast Guard role protected in the Coast Guard Authorization bill.  I believe based on my own experience with the Coast Guard regarding LNG that this is a debate about very little, in substantive terms.  That is, it has been my experience that in these matters the Coast Guard, whether it is given the particular responsibility or not, follows the administration position.  It is inconceivable to me that whatever the Coast Guard's formal legal position, it would veto any project in contradiction of the administration's policy and the way they have proceeded with regard to the LNG plant reaffirms that in my mind.

"In the absence of any pending Congressional action to block the Nantucket Sound wind proposal, I want to give my own position both on this proposal and on the subsequent one that was put forward for wind power in Buzzards Bay.  I am in favor in principle of wind power and I believe that putting facilities off the southern coast of Massachusetts makes a great deal of sense.  I now believe there is no significant basis for the argument that these entities will do undue damage to birds, nor do I think they will interfere with fishing, if done correctly.  There is of course also the aesthetic argument from some who find them unsightly, but I do
not think that this rises to the level of significance that should be allowed to interfere with a very important non-polluting source of energy, especially given all of the reasons for us to cutback on fossil fuel energy.

"This leaves only one concern in my mind -- navigation.  That appears to be less of a potential problem in Nantucket Sound because that is in much more open water.  In Buzzards Bay, we are dealing with a more congested and constricted area, and while I believe that wind power is desirable there, I do believe that care will have to be taken to make sure that the placement of the turbines does not interfere with navigation.

"My position, in summary, is that I am in favor of wind power off our southern coast, both in those waters adjacent to my own district and to others, and that I do not believe there are any environmental or aesthetic objections that should get in the way. But I do believe that care must be taken to make sure that there is not interference with navigation.  That is a matter for the experts in this area and I think we should now agree to leave the specific siting decisions to these navigational experts.

"I should note that with regard to the Buzzards Bay installations, the state has jurisdiction because these are state waters.  The Nantucket installation is in federal waters.  But the Coast Guard obviously has to play an important role in both places, and while, as I said, I do not believe that they would be allowed by this administration to veto anything that the administration was committed to ideologically, I will do everything I can to make sure that the integrity of their decision regarding navigation is protected."

BARNEY FRANK

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Sen. Chafee: Cape Wind to produce significant economic boost to region

... from a press release posted on the website of Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee, based on his visit to Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound earlier this month --

"With construction of significant portions of the (Cape Wind) project to be performed at the Quonset Business Park, 600 to 1,000 new jobs could be created, spurring new economic development opportunities for the region and the state," the release states.

"This is a win-win for Rhode Island," Chafee said. "After seeing first-hand the proposed site of the turbines, I am impressed with the project's potential. I urge my colleagues to discontinue their attempt to derail this project and allow the people of New England to benefit from economic growth, a cleaner environment and more affordable sources of energy."

"With unprecedented increases in conventional energy prices, wind energy generation is a promising option to provide much needed relief to New England," Chafee said. "It is clean and renewable, and projects such as this will help to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. In addition, termination of this project would have a negative impact on Rhode Island's economy and discourage future offshore projects."

(photo credit, http://chafee.senate.gov)

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Cartoon caption contest at Boston Globe

.... as done weekly by the Globe, with this week's submission at right. A description of the rules for the contest from Sunday's paper: "Wind turbines on Beacon Hill? Illustrator Peter Wallace thinks so. That leads to a number of printable possibilities for a cartoon caption, so please send us your succinct thoughts at www.boston.com/toons by noon Wednesday" (June 14).

"The winner, whose name will be published in next Sunday's regional edition, will receive a copy of Wallace and John Powers's,  'The Boston Dictionary.' "

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