"It’s time for energy “Windependence,” to protect us from catastrophes like Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and the sunken prestige oil tanker.

Mass adoption of renewable energy would be a start in addressing North America’s disproportionate responsibility for global warming. If Denmark can glean 18 percent of its electricity from the wind, why can’t we? Perversely, the Cape Wind project is being opposed by the local NIMBY crowd, concerned about “visual clutter”…and the turbines’ effects on marine ecology.

These people are tilting at windmills. Surely any consequences of wind power production are negligible compared with the air pollution, radioactive waste and habitat loss from reliance on fossil and nuclear fuels.

May windmills sprout like flowers on your coasts, and along the Great Lakes, where I live, on whose shores sit several nuclear reactors and coal plants – decrepit relics of the last century. To the wind, I say IMBY: In My Backyard!"

Anne Hansen
Providence Journal
January 15, 2003

“Overall, the benefits of safe, clean, sustainable, home-grown wind power far outweigh its costs. If we hope to protect human health, stop further droughts, heat waves or the disappearance of winter as we know it in New England, we must develop our renewable energy resources as rapidly as possible.

The Cape Wind project could mark the beginning of a major energy transformation that will improve the quality of life, health, environment and security for all Americans.”
[Click here to read the entire column.]

Janet L. Sawin, Ph.D
Energy Policy Specialist for Greenpeace USA

“Wind energy has arrived. Its price has dropped steadily for two decades, and domestic wind energy installations nearly doubled last year. Countries in northern Europe are developing offshore wind farms. A small wind farm recently began operation off Prince Edward Island. The technology keeps improving - a wind farm built today will likely provide even more and cheaper energy in the future.

The visual impact of wind farms stirs much opposition. But the aesthetic question illustrates the need to avoid rushing to judgment. Some wind farms actually attract tourists who hail them as beautiful. Local support for a small wind farm in Searsburg, Vermont, increased after it was built and there for all to see.

Each wind farm proposal should be scrutinized carefully. But the debates about offshore and mountain wind farms demand the best from all of us, not just the developers. The stakes are high. There aren't many other renewable energy options, and there aren't many alternative wind farm locations.

The search for solutions to global warming can reveal new opportunities. We should act responsibly and give wind energy a fair shot. The forests, beaches, and ocean are counting on us.” [Click here to read the entire column.]

Robert Stephen Burrington
Vice President and General Counsel
Conservation Law Foundation
July 13, 2002

“IT’S TIME to take a stand. Cape Codders are special people, but we live in a paradise that can turn into a hell if we don’t stop terrorism now, today, before another 9/11. We will not be free from Arab terror until we are free from dependence on Arab oil. The “crazies of Islam” want us off their sacred soil, but we will be forced by the monied oil interests that control our national economy to stay there until we control our own energy destiny.…

I, too, would like to see Cape Cod (and everything else) stay like it was yesterday. But after 9/11, that’s just plain impossible. Instead of tilting at windmills, let’s all show the rest of America what unselfish, good, decent people Cape Codders are. Let’s show America how to begin throwing off the shackles of dependence on Arab oil -- even if it means we must see a bunch of tiny masts five miles off our shore. That’s a lot smaller price than New York City paid last Sept. 11.” [Click here to read the entire article.]

Walter Brooks
Editor and publisher
Best Read Guide, Cape Cod TODAY, and eCape.com
From a guest column, Providence Journal,
August 11, 2002

“’People who have decided this project shouldn’t happen are bringing up the regulation issue as a way to kill the project…They are not letting it get a full and fair hearing…It’s the fear of the unknown and resistance to change that are standing in the way of getting a clean source of energy.’”

Deborah Donovan
Union of Concerned Scientists
Greenwire
August 22, 2002

“Here’s what I believe is an accurate summary of the issue: We (on the Cape and Islands) are using more and more electricity. Our conservation efforts aren’t keeping up with our growing consumption. Therefore, we need to build more generating stations.

And regardless of whether we choose conventional or unconventional generating stations, let’s stop saying ‘Not in my backyard’. After all, we take electricity from the grid, so should shoulder some of the environmental burden associated with its generation.”

Chris Fried
Vineyard Haven MV Times
September 26, 2002

“The health and security risks associated with our energy choices are not always obvious, but as indicated by the Harvard study and the events of Sept. 11, they are real and dangerous. Now is the time to make decisions that will push us toward and cleaner environment and a self-sufficient, nonthreatening energy system.

As the founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility and President of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, I have been working to educate people on the dangers of nuclear energy and nuclear waste. Wind power holds great promise in helping to eventually phase out the use of nuclear power.”
[Click here to read the entire article.]

Dr. Helen Caldicott
Founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility
and President of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute

“I think this is an intriguing and needed form of power generation for New England. I’ll be on the first tour boat out to see them.”

Laurie Young
Osterville
Barntable Patriot
November 16, 2002

"The story of the Cape Wind proposal is not about wind turbines, or fisheries, or pristine seascapes. It is about the capacity of environmentalists — of citizens — to match their public positions with the private choices necessary to move toward a more environmentally and economically sustainable way of life.” Click here to read the entire column.

William Shutkin
Boston Business Journal
October 25, 2002

“I think sailboats and wind turbines are magnificent companions. They both need wind, they harness the power of the wind, and they don’t pollute…. Modern windmills are pieces of sculpture. To me they look like cranes in flight. Yes, they are large, new and different. But in one year the energy Cape Wind produces will offset from burning coal 1.525 million tons of Carbon dioxide (responsible for climate change, which will drastically decrease the land area on Cape Cod), nitrogen oxide (causing smog and acid rain), and sulfur dioxide (causing respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses).”

Jody Emerson Howard
Marblehead
Soundings
October 2002

““’The critical thing for everyone here is to recognize that we need to strike a balance. We need to protect the ocean, but that means both from construction of unnecessary facilities and from the effects of climate change.

Once we get past this…and we start to get some turbines up there and producing power and enabling people to see what they look like, you’re going to see a lot of enthusiasm developing around the region.’”

Stephen Burrington
Conservation Law Foundation
Wind Power Monthly
September 2002

“’These facilities are subject to the same scrutiny as someone would be for the construction of a wharf or of a dock or other facilities that use the bottom to anchor themselves. They’re not charged for the use of that bottom. The environmental impacts are looked at, but after that, there’s no suggestion that somehow those facilities should be paying extraction rights. My own take is that we have a sufficient regulatory oversight as it now stands.’”

David O’Connor
Head of the Massachusetts’ state Division of Energy Resources
Wind Power Monthly
September 2002

“The proposed wind farm offers us clean, home-grown energy and its development should be discussed on facts, not hyperbole.”

Jane Weissman
Provincetown
Provincetown Banner
August 15, 2002

“A battle of significant proportions is now being fought over a 420MW project proposed for a site off Cape Cod nearly a year ago. On the one side is a group of America’s elite- apparently convinced that their privileged life styles are under serious threat; on the other side, a building groundswell of popular support for America’s first offshore wind farm, based on the growing realization that a viable solution to America’s dependence on polluting forms of energy supply can safely be placed close to major centers of population, but more or less out of sight.

History suggests that it will be this popular mandate for change that prevails over wealth, influence and a worrying level of ignorance.”

Lyn Harrison
Editor, Windpower Monthly
September 2002

“Cape Wind is arguably the most beneficial development project ever proposed in this region. Some are opposed because it won’t be perfect. It’s true that it might look different from what we’re used to and it might have minor harmful consequences, but unless we want the alternative, which is immeasurable greater harm from acid rain and global warming, we must take care not to sacrifice the good in service of the search for perfection. Our voices can influence such projects in positive ways to make them better rather than making them go away.”

John Abrams
Martha’s Vineyard
MV Times
April 18, 2002

“Offshore foundations for wind turbines act as natural reefs. At the Vindeby offshore wind farm in Denmark, the variety of species of flora and fauna has actually increased since the erection of the wind farm in 1991.”

Soren Krohn
Managing Director
Danish Wind Industry Association
Copenhagen, Denmark
CCT January 23, 2002

“I do not think the moratorium that Rep. Delahunt suggests, based on the criteria described, is the correct approach to this issue.

We need our representative to be proactive in this matter, to move forward with a plan to set up regulations and policies that will facilitate the development of renewable resources in the near future.

I want to know what he plans to do to move this issue forward, not bring it to a halt.”

Susan Atkins
Yarmouthport
The Register
August 22, 2002

“For fisherman and others to insist that the wind farm in Nantucket Sound will take something of value for free from the public is a hollow argument. In fact, unlike the fisherman, the wind farm will not take anything from the sea.

The wind is free and everlasting. Think instead of the benefits of non-polluting renewable power. We should cheer on the entrepreneurs who take the financial burden in such a project to bring us clean, sustainable energy.”

Charles Kleekamp
Director, Cape Clean Air
The Register
August 22, 2002

“In response to last week’s flashy and colorful flyer in the I&M entitled ‘I thought they were kidding’, I too feared that ‘they’ might not follow through with an alternative, viable power generating source, that ‘they were kidding.’ I am delighted that the forces behind the windmills are pursuing their goal of a non-polluting energy source. I live on Nantucket and I do not mind the prospect of windmills out at sea generating viable power which could reduce the mass of pollutants generated by oil fired turbines…

I sail, I fish, I fly and I appreciate the wonder of uncluttered ocean views from our shores. If I am to live with windmills miles out to sea, I can manage. I can sacrifice the spec of visual pollution easily knowing someone is making an effort to curb several of our growing crises.”

Christopher F. Holland
Nantucket
Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror
August 22, 2002