Tailwind for Cape Wind
IN 2001, when Cape Wind first proposed its 130-turbine project for Nantucket Sound, oil cost $20 a barrel and natural gas cost $3 for a million cubic feet. Now oil is close to $100, and gas is $10. More important, scientists have estimated that global warming is happening at a quicker pace than they had believed seven years ago. All of this makes more timely than ever the green light that Cape Wind got yesterday from the US Interior Department's Minerals Management Service.
The draft environmental impact statement by the service points to effects the project would have on birds, marine wildlife, and recreation, but it says none of the impacts is major. Certainly none of them outweighs the benefit of a pollution-free source of electricity that could supply power equal to three-quarters of the Cape's demand. The project would create new jobs and bring Massachusetts closer to the role of clean-energy leader that Governor Patrick, a longtime supporter of Cape Wind, has advocated.
Fearful of possible adverse effects the project would have on the Cape, some Massachusetts politicians, including Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative William Delahunt, have opposed Cape Wind. Now that Washington has given the wind turbines such a seal of approval, Kennedy and Delahunt should both reconsider.
This is not the first time that an agency of the Bush administration - less than fervent elsewhere in its support of renewable energy - has approved Cape Wind's plans. Three years ago, the Army Corps of Engineers did a thorough impact statement and found no significant problems. Shortly after that, Congress passed an energy law in 2005 that required the new review released yesterday by Interior's minerals service.
The project also passed muster by the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board in 2005 during the administration of project opponent Mitt Romney. Last year, Ian Bowles, Patrick's secretary of environment and energy, praised Cape Wind for contributing "to the long-term preservation and enhancement of our environment."
The longer the project faces opposition from the likes of Kennedy and Delahunt, the more their criticism appears motivated by not-in-my-backyard concerns. All forms of renewable energy still need support from Washington, and Massachusetts would be in a much stronger position to become a Silicon Valley of clean energy if all of its congressional delegation would rally around Cape Wind.
The Natural Resources Defense Council has called it the biggest greenhouse gas emission reduction initiative in the country. Since the Cape is particularly imperiled by the rising sea levels of climate change, elected officials should work to minimize any impacts of Cape Wind, not block the project. 