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This [Cape Wind project] is precisely the kind of renewable energy that pretty much every Earth Day speech since 1970 has demanded that we develop. Now that it's finally here, though--now that we're talking about particular windmills in particular places, not abstract and squeaky clean 'wind power'--people aren't so sure...But I've given my share of Earth Day speeches, and seen the effect they had. Sooner or later you've got to do something.
-- Bill McKibben, Author of The End of Nature |
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400-foot molehills
Friday, February 12, 2010
As the U.S. Interior Department nears a decision on Cape Wind's proposal to build 130 wind turbines on Nantucket Sound, rhetoric rises from oceanic depths to 400-foot molehills.
Opponents have allied with Wampanoags aiming to protect views of sacred grounds, er, sacred waters, er, sacred something, when tribes aren't busy promoting casinos. As a fan of Cape Wind, I'd be satisfied with a large fraction of local electricity issuing from silent, nonpolluting technology.
Graceful and viable aren't good enough for NIMBYs; they expect magic, as if windmills could be invisible as well. Houses, work places, shops and the wires that carry electricity aren't invisible. Cars, ships delivering goods from China and the machines that wash our clothes and dishes aren't silent. If we've survived those, we can survive wind-powered generators.
Opponents claim windmills will "industrialize" Nantucket Sound. That horse escaped the barn 300 years ago during the first oil boom, local whaling, which included smoky, beachfront try-works to render the blubber.
Note: Click here to read this Op Ed in the Cape Cod Times by Tom Gelsthorpe |
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