Cape project scrutiny misses target

YOUR ARTICLE detailing confidential fund-raising activity to halt construction of the world's largest offshore wind plant in historic Nantucket Sound focuses its spotlight on the wrong target (''Cape project's foes tap big spenders," Page A1, April 1).

Cape Wind is a private for-profit developer seeking taxpayer funding and 24 square miles of publicly owned ocean without even a competitive bidding process.

At the same time, this self-interested developer refuses to disclose how much profit it and its unnamed investors stand to make.

The public is a partner in this business, with Nantucket Sound and our tax dollars as our investment.

We are entitled to the financial information needed to evaluate the project's long-term viability.

Why are we relying solely on the word of a developer in promoting its project at all costs?

How do we know this project will work in the long run or that it will be sufficiently insured to guarantee its eventual dismantlement?

How do we accept Cape Wind's objections that a sensible public safety amendment would kill the project's economics, particularly when other projects of far smaller scale are operating in Europe and have been proposed in this country?

The media are doing the public a disservice by giving Cape Wind a free ride while holding its opponents to a level of scrutiny usually reserved for developers with clear financial motives.

CHARLES VINICK
President and CEO
The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound
Hyannis