Residents upset over Cape Cod wind-farm plan
Clean power source would be unsightly, opponents argue

Sunday, November 21, 2004

 

Barnstable, Mass. -- Lou Emrich is as sensitive as anyone when it comes to environmental concerns. A native Cape Codder, he knows firsthand the value of the pristine beaches of nearby Martha's Vineyard and the untamed vastness of Nantucket Sound, both situated in one of the nation's most coveted vacation spots.

But when it comes to building the world's largest offshore wind farm that would provide pollution-free energy for much of the Cape Cod area and beyond, Emrich is not so sure.

"We certainly need energy conservation, we need alternative sources of power, but we don't want it where they want to put it," said Emrich, 62, who works at a jewelry shop in the coastal town of Barnstable, whose waterfront district of Hyannis would be looking out on the installation. "Where should they put it? Somewhere out of sight. We just would hate to see these things out there."

Right now, Boston-based Cape Wind Associates wants to locate the wind farm -- America's first offshore wind-power installation -- on a shoal just off Cape Cod. The wind conditions are ideal, as is the depth of water, and the plant would be close enough to the shore to tap into the region's existing power grid.

Taller than Statue of Liberty

But the installation also means speckling the horizon with 130 white, three-bladed turbines, each of them taller than the Statue of Liberty, their 161-foot blades churning at 16 revolutions per minute.

Environmentalists say the $770 million wind farm -- enough to power 3 out of every 4 homes in New England's most coveted vacation region -- would be a crucial step toward clean, renewable power, without burning a single barrel of Middle Eastern oil, and at a time when scientists are issuing increasingly urgent warnings about the effects of global warming. A draft report on the project, released last week by the Army Corps of Engineers, praised it as a nonpolluting, safe alternative to fossil fuel power plants, which now dominate the Northeast.

But to many Cape Codders, concern for global warming does not justify spoiling a view -- one that also does wonders for the local tourist trade.

Massachusetts' Republican Gov. Mitt Romney and Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy, whose family compound in Hyannis would look out at the wind farm -- have warned that the unsightly turbines would depress property values and damage the local economy, which relies heavily on tourism. A Beacon Hill Institute study, commissioned by the opponents of the project, said 21 percent of the 98,000 jobs on Cape Cod were in tourism-related industries in 2000.

Romney has said the wind farm should not be built in "a national treasure. "

Kennedy said through his spokesman, David Smith, that he was opposed to "turning over public lands for private commercial use."

Kennedy's nephew, Robert Kennedy Jr., a prominent New York environmentalist, has also spoken against the wind farm.

"People go to the cape because they want to connect themselves with the history and the culture," he told Boston's NPR affiliate, WBUR, in 2002. "They want to see the same scenes the Pilgrims saw when they landed at Plymouth Rock. "

Sen. John Kerry -- whose windsurfing across the Nantucket Sound was immortalized in Republican campaign ads and who ran for the presidency on a strong alternative energy platform -- said he will wait for the final government report on the project, due at the end of 2005, before he takes a stand on the issue. Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, own a house on Nantucket.

'Elitist,' 'shortsighted'

Environmentalists who support the project say the criticisms are "elitist" and "shortsighted." The project is "a crucial wedge in fixing climate change," said Kert Davies, research director for Greenpeace.

"For someone to see this as ugly, they are just being close-minded about it and are not thinking of a bigger picture," Davies said.

Wind is the world's fastest-growing alternative energy resource. In the United States, wind turbines in 27 states create enough power for more than a million families. The Altamont Pass is home to the country's oldest wind farm, which is also the world's largest inland installation, with 7,000 turbines. But wind-power plants have been slow to take root in the Northeast, where open spaces are few and fossil fuels are still the electricity source of choice.

Assuming the Army Corps of Engineers gives the go-ahead, the Nantucket wind farm could start producing electricity by the end of 2007, said Mark Rodgers, a Cape Wind spokesman. On a day with average wind, the farm would produce 170 megawatts "from an inexhaustible, clean source that we don't have to import from the Middle East," he said. The electricity will go into the regional grid, which distributes power to New Englanders. The plant's maximum capacity will be 454 megawatts.

The draft report published Nov. 8, which includes assessments from 17 federal and Massachusetts state agencies, said property values in the Cape Cod area are unlikely to drop; in fact, it said, the wind farm will probably boost the economy by attracting tourists and creating jobs. Rodgers estimated the wind farm would generate up to 1,000 temporary jobs during the 27-month construction and about 150 permanent jobs when the turbines are installed in the 24-square-mile area on Horseshoe Shoal, 6 miles south of Hyannis.

The draft report said the damage to wildlife in the area would be minimal. Effects on local shellfish and fish populations would be felt only during construction, it said, while the turbines would kill an average of 364 birds per year -- less than one a day. Biologists and environmentalists estimate that the turbines in the Altamont Pass east of Livermore kill between 1,766 and 4,721 birds annually.

"The turbines don't produce pollutants, they don't make waste, they don't emit radiation, they aren't likely terrorist targets," Rogers said.

Report questioned

This did not satisfy Susan Nickerson, one of the leaders of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, an activist group opposed to the project. Nickerson said the report was biased toward the project because Cape Wind paid for the Army Corps of Engineers research, as required by the federal agency.

"It is difficult to fully appreciate the impact the project can have on local environment," said Nickerson, an environmentalist whose family has been living on Cape Cod since 1639.

Audra Parker, who also is against the wind farm, agreed.

"These are proposals to turn Nantucket Sound into a technological experiment," said Parker, who has been living on Cape Cod for five years.

But what it basically comes down to, Parker acknowledged, is a ruined seascape.

"I go to the public beach with my kids, and I don't want to look at that, " she said.

Some of the locals are rethinking their opposition, however.

"It's all 'not in my backyard,' " said Dick Hawkins, 60, who sells books and marine artifacts at his Columbia Trading Co. Nautical Books and Artifacts on Barnstable Road in Hyannis.

Hawkins said he changed his mind "thinking about what kind of lifestyle we want to have in this country, all the electricity we want to use."

"It has to be there -- too bad, but OK," Hawkins said. "I agree that it obstructs the view. But if you go along the coast and look at all the mansions people have built, they look just as ugly."

E-mail Anna Badkhen at .