Dirty politics, clean power on the Cape

By Alex Beam, Globe Columnist  |  April 4, 2007

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of a new literary genre; call it Cape Cod Exploitational. Prime examples are the late Leo Damore's ode to serial killer Antone Costa, "In His Garden: The Anatomy of a Murderer"; Maria Flook's sex-omatic "biography" of murder victim Christa Worthington, "Invisible Eden: A Story of Love and Murder on Cape Cod"; and Peter Manso's delightful anti-gay manifesto, "Ptown: Art, Sex and Money on the Outer Cape."

All of these books are irresistible page-turners, they sell well, and they make Cape Cod out to be a much more interesting place than it really is.

So welcome to this club , "Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for America's Energy Future on Nantucket Sound," by Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb. Thank God the book reads more smoothly than the subtitle, or we'd never get past page one!

Cape Wind is entrepreneur Jim Gordon's proposed 25-square-mile wind farm, which has been wending its way through the shoals of government regulation since 2001. "Cape Wind" the book, due next month, generally steers clear of 1,000-page-long Environmental Impact Statements in favor of colorful storytelling about the tribulations of siting a renewable energy project off of Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Cape, a "devil's triangle of entrenched, often inherited wealth."

The authors divide the actors into black hats and white hats, so I'll do the same for you.

Among the black hats is former Phelps Dodge Corporation chairman Douglas Yearly, named "Copper Man of the Year" in 1993 for his leadership in the mining industry, and a board member of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. The Alliance is a "grassroots" organization that just happens to have really, really rich supporters who just happen to own really, really expensive shorefront mansions on the Cape. Another Alliance man is gajillionaire Richard Egan, the former CEO of EMC Corp., he of the purchased ambassadorship to Ireland. Coincidentally, Egan has poured megabucks into the political fortunes of one Willard Mitt Romney, who -- another coincidence! -- opposes Cape Wind.

The authors spare no love for Congressman Bill Delahunt and his aide, Mark Forest, who are depicted as coat holders for the more powerful Kennedy family, they of the Hyannis mansion. Loudmouth environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who showed up on the "green" cover of Vanity Fair last year, is a vociferous wind farm opponent. Welcome to the Hypocrites Ball.

Wait, there's more. The book opens with some raving from anti-Cape Wind pitchman David McCullough, and segues to his fellow Martha's Vineyard resident Walter Cronkite, "a pitiful old man who was being used" by Cape Wind opponents, according to one of the authors' sources. Oyster Harbors doyenne Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, Senator John Warner's former mother-in-law, actually accuses someone of being "a traitor to your class. " Marital opportunist Warner -- remember Elizabeth Taylor? -- tries to scuttle Cape Wind through parliamentary legerdemain. Jamie McCourt, co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, launches an unladylike f-bomb on page 93. Good stuff!

So who wears the white hats? Gordon, of course, Ahab-like in his pursuit of the windy white whale. Deval Patrick, who has consistently supported Cape Wind, is one of the Good Guys. I wonder if he'll blow the other way when a wind farm appears near his baronial second home in the Berkshires? State Representative Matthew Patrick comes off very well, as does P.J. O'Rourke's pal and neighbor, former New Hampshire representative Charlie Bass, an unfortunate victim of George Bush's stupid war in Iraq.

Yes, this book is lots of fun, and yes, I should disclose that I have a contract with its publisher. But remember: Praise saps the strength! If "Cape Wind" has a shortcoming, it is the authors' affected naivete about how the world works.

With more than 70 years of journalistic foraging between them, can the writers really feign surprise that the Lily Pulitzer-clad plutocrats would pay millions of dollars to kill a wind farm in their dearly purchased salt water bathtub? Are they really surprised to learn that PR flacks lie and dissemble for a living? Did they really think Senator Warner was a man of principle?

Anything is possible, I suppose. Even a wind farm in rich people's back yard.

Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com