Environmental Journalism and New/Digital/Social Media
Monday, April 21, 2014
Blowin' in the Wind
Blowin' in the Wind
By Abby Hans
April 21, 2014
Comparison between turbines and historical structures.
CAPE
COD, MA—The sky is pale gray with hints of blue. Occasionally the sun comes out for a tease
then hides behind the clouds, only to be whisked away by the wind. The ocean surface is sprinkled with seagulls
scavenging for food. For miles and
miles, sea grass sways, as the dunes shed their sand down-wind. Looking out as far as the eye can see, navy
blue water bounces in the choppy, turbulent tide. But about five miles out, where the eye can
still see, massive structures stand tall.
The 450-foot complexes seem tiny in the distance, and their triadic
propellers jut out and turn rhythmically. From a distance, these massive turbines seem to overlap as though their
arms are stretched out towards one another.
Are they omens of too much government interference, or are they symbolic
beacons of a future, sustainable America?
Proposed area for Cape Wind offshore wind farm.
The New England coast has been susceptible to dramatic
coastal erosion and rising sea levels for many years. For Jim Gordon, the brains and business
behind Cape Wind, moving to higher ground is simply not an option. Instead, Gordon proposed a plan in 2001 to
build a large-scale offshore wind farm off Cape Cod in Nantucket Sound, the
Cape Wind project. Everything seemed to
make sense: the waters are shallow enough for construction, and the region is
“arguably the best offshore wind resource in the entire world,” according to
Mark Rodgers, Communications Director for Cape Wind. For Rodgers, the proposed
location also has an important historical connection: “It harmonizes well with the
history of the region in which wind power was very important and in which a
region that was once an energy leader globally.
It was whale oil, but it was nonetheless very important in a period of
world history in terms of lighting the lanterns of the world and greasing the
wheels of the industrial revolution.”
But despite these solid ideas, Gordon received harsh opposition. Proposed in 2001, the actual Cape Wind farm
is not built yet.
Bruce Mohl
Despite
the project’s long-term benefits, the opposition to Cape Wind has escalated
into a bitter two-sided controversy. The
voices behind and against the project have extended over blogs, National Public
Radio, Facebook,Twitter, and more. Some
journalists covered the people involved, some the environmental impacts, and others
the politics and financing of the project.
One of the key journalists is the editor of CommonWealth Magazine, Bruce Mohl: “When National Grid signed a
contract with Cape Wind to purchase half of its power input, I think that’s
when it started showing up on my radar screen. And then once that happened, it won some
significant federal approvals, and we did some stories. I became interested in
the financial aspects of the project.” Mohl wrote numerous stories about Cape Wind
and continues to do so. According to his
reports, the project first proposed in 2001 is heading towards construction.
Artist's depiction of wind turbines 4.8 miles from the Mashpee shore
But
not without a fight. The opposition,
almost entirely composed of wealthy landowners and business people with houses
in the Cape Cod and Nantucket area, started with a weak argument: they didn’t
want to look at the turbines. Then, one
man decided to take the opposition farther.
Bill Koch, the powerful Floridian entrepreneur worth $4 billion, has put
around $5 million into Cape Wind’s opposition group. “Koch has the courage to admit he doesn’t
want to look at the turbines. But he
also knew a NIMBY argument would never derail Cape Wind, so he began analyzing
the project from an economic perspective,” wrote Mohl in his in-depth article, Look Who’s Talking. In my interview with Mohl, he talked about “the
very polarizing issue,” and asked, “Does it cost too much for the environmental
benefit you’re getting…the opponents have shifted it into that direction…you’re
for it ‘cause it’s good for the environment, or you’re against it for pick your
reason: you don’t want to look at it, it’s too expensive, whatever.” And Mohl was right. Once Koch began to look into the economics
involved, he quickly saw that both the construction and maintenance of the farm
would be costly. He told Mohl, “When it
comes to dollars and cents, people want the cheapest energy possible.” Sandy Taylor, Executive Assistant at the
Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound believes that the energy generated by the
turbines will cost three times what the cost is today. “Because it’s a new industry in this country,
they’ve had to change their tune because the truth is coming out and the
economics do not make sense because it’s all passed on to the consumer and the
tax payer,” said Taylor. She also spoke about
Governor Deval Patrick’s Green Communities Act, which has created loopholes for
Cape Wind. Governor Patrick not only
passed several pieces of green legislation during his term but also vigorously
supports Cape Wind.
Bill Koch (left) and Jim Gordon (right)
One major
success for Cape Wind came when a local utility, NSTAR, merged with Northeast
Utilities, based in Connecticut. When
NSTAR began to discuss a merger with Northeast Utilities, Governor Patrick
promised agreement on one term: that NSTAR buy roughly one-third, 27.5 percent,
of Cape Wind’s power input. And they did. This was a huge loss for Koch and
other homeowners on the Cape. One of Koch’s opposition strategies
was to deplete Gordon’s funding. (Gordon
has roughly $150 million in personal investments). Gordon has dedicated much of his own money to
the project, and Rodgers spoke of other support from less high profile
organizations: “What gets lost in that train is that we’ve also had an
extraordinary level of support at the grass-roots level, among real
environmental organizations. We have
strong support among the labor, trade, and health organizations. And,” he added, “political support.” In
addition, Koch told Mohl that he had two other strategies: “One is to just
delay, delay, delay, which we’re doing and hopefully we can win some of these
bureaucrats over. The other way is to
elect politicians who understand how foolhardy alternative energy is.”
Horseshoe Shoal
Sandy Taylor elaborated on
other reasons for opposition. Taylor
said there were major factors other than economics making people unsure about
the project. “I know there are
safety issues, maritime radar, and also aviation radar and the safety of the
400,000 flights that go over the sound in one year.” Taylor, a life-long sailor, said that the opposition
group makes an annual trip to the popular twenty-five mile regatta from Hyannis
to Nantucket Memorial Day weekend to explain to sailors the potential hazards
that the wind farm could have on sailing.
However, the sailors told Taylor that they would be willing to sail
around the turbines. Still, Taylor
mentioned past cases of birds being killed from the turbines. She also said that Horseshoe Shoal is a major
fishing ground, especially for squid. The
wind turbines would negatively impact that area. Finally, the tourism industry is what drives
Cape Cod and Nantucket’s economy. While
Rodgers thinks the project is finally within striking distance, Taylor says
“it’s not a done deal.” For her, “this
isn’t a green project, when you look at what it entails to make those turbines
and put them eighty feet into the seabed.
For boats to do that, yeah maybe after fifteen years it’ll offset all
the carbon that it took to build it.”
Furthermore, at
Cape Wind, Gordon sees this as a climate change issue. In an interview with
Mohl, Gordon said, “Cape Cod being a low-lying coastal community, it’s most
susceptible to the impacts of climate change.
There’s a biblical irony here. For
someone like Bill Koch to fight this project, it is a biblical irony.” In other words, if the people with waterfront
homes on Cape Cod do not help combat climate change, their properties will be
first affected. Despite these
frustrations, it is Gordon’s will to carry on and to educate that makes him not
only a businessman but a pioneer. Part
of Cape Wind’s most overlooked missions is to help launch an entirely new
industry in the United States offshore wind farming. According to Cape Wind’s website, “Europe has
built 64 offshore wind farms over the past 24 years and now has 58,000 people
working in the offshore wind industry. Although still untapped, the
United States has the greatest offshore wind power resources in the world.”
Wind power and resource potential off of Massachusetts East Coast
The Federal waters of Horseshoe Shoal are
“technically optimal” for a farm, which is expected to provide seventy-five
percent of electricity used in the Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard
region. Furthermore, Cape Wind’s website says the farm will actually reduce
carbon dioxide emissions by over 730,000 tons, the equivalent of taking 175,000
cars off the road each year. Mohl said, “The
first one is always tough; this would be a big momentum builder for people
trying to build offshore wind farms.”The question is whether or not
the long-term effects of Cape Wind will outweigh the cost.
I interviewed four people for
this article and asked them their thoughts on how the media has covered this
issue. I spoke with Mark Rodgers, Sandy Taylor, Bruce Mohl, and Cory Warren,
20, a resident of Sandwich, Cape Cod.
Cory Warren
Rodgers mentioned that the media certainly played up the
controversy. He also said that the media
often treated the opposition as a “newbie group” rather than an established
organization. Taylor said the Alliance
to Protect Nantucket Sound aims to educate people about what is actually
happening in the area. She said that
people have no idea what the reality is, “but we live and breathe it every
day.” She acknowledged Mohl as being one
of the more fair journalists covering the project and said that he had a more
objective approach than either Rodgers or Taylor had. Mohl commented, “The whole
dynamic has shifted from aesthetics and location to cost. It’s gotten all the approvals, and though
many are being challenged in court, my guess is that they’ll win all the
approvals to build the thing. The
question is whether the repairs will be worth it.” Finally, Warren lives in the lower-Cape in a
small town bordering Mashpee. He said, “I think people on [the] Cape
are generally interested in conserving energy and advancing more
sustainable technologies -- that goes for conservatives and liberals --
because of our surroundings. The beaches are eroding, the pollution on [the] Cape
is worse than ever, and when people are surrounded by beauty, they don't let
politics interfere with its preservation.”
He also encourages citizens to start a discussion about other
renewables. He, however, expressed what
most Cape citizens feel, that he truly sympathizes for both sides. ____________________________________________________________
Bibliography:
Bill Koch
(left) vs. Jim Gordon (right) for the Future of Cape Wind.
N.d. The Battle of Wills Between
Gordon and Koch. Web. 9 Apr. 2013.
Bruce Mohl.
2011. CommonWealth Magazine. Web.
"Cape
Wind." Facebook, 2009. Web.
"Cape
Wind." Twitter, n.d. Web. Chart Showing
Wind Farm Area. N.d. New England Boating. Web.
“Cory Warren.” Facebook, 2008. Web.
Jason Jones
180 - Nantucket. Dir. Jon Stewart. The Daily
Show with Jon Stewart. The Daily Show,
7 Aug. 2007. Web.
Massachusetts
50-Meter Wind Map. 2007. U.S. Department of
Energy. Web.
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