People from near and far responded to an anti-Cape Wind op-ed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  These are just a few of their letters.

Time to Act is Now

Reading Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s commentary “An ill wind off Cape Cod” blew me away. Is he hallucinating, seeing pods of humpback whales and quaint fishing villages out at Horseshoe Shoal?

I spend a lot of time fishing with my mother at 49th pole and Eel Point on Nantucket and have seen nothing but seawater covering a sandbar. The rest of the editorial was the same old disinformation and scare tactics used by the Alliance to Protect Our View to capture the imagination of people who can’t form their own opinions based on facts.

I’m a 13th generation Nantucketer who has lived most of his life on Cape Cod. You can’t fool me with these scare tactics that the wind farm will destroy a pristine environment. I’m one of the first people that brought up the fact that it’s not pristine. These blue crabs he talks about are all but gone. There are no longer thick menhaden schools. The two-cycle engines on the Kennedys’ dinghies will do more damage to the Sound than the oil in the transformer at the farm. Their docks are uncompensated land grabs and hazards to navigation. Their trophy homes are what spoiled the quaint fishing villages.

Since the 1970s we have discussed over and over the need to give up our reliance on fossil fuels and we keep putting it off. Now you want us to hold off another 10 years until deep water technology is viable? I tell you, in 10 years Horseshoe Shoal will be deep water. It’s time for us to take a small step in the right direction for once.

Gary Ellis
Yarmouthport
Cape Codder, January 20, 2006


Saving Environment Means Tradeoffs

As we build America’s new movement to stop global warming, citizen-led groups from throughout the United States are reminding all Americans that building the path to a new low-carbon future will require tradeoffs from all of us – including residents of Cape Cod who are concerned about the presence of wind turbines. In coordination, these groups are working at the local, regional and national level to build a hopeful future of clean-energy sources, cutting-edge technologies, and rewarding and high-paying jobs.

That’s why over a dozen grassroots leaders, including many leaders on college campuses, signed a letter (which can be found at grist.org) to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., respectfully asking him to reconsider his opposition to Cape Wind. This coalition of groups, with thousands of active members, includes The Climate Campaign, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Student Coalition, The Climate Crisis Coalition, Energy Action, The Green House Network, GlobalWarmingSolution.org, The Green Campus Consortium of Maine, The Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and Greenpeace USA.

In coordination, these grassroots groups agree: Cape Wind will jump-start the clean energy industry and mark a major step in the battle against global warming.

Jonathan Isham
Department of Economics and Program in Environmental Studies
Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont
Cape Codder, January 20, 2006


Kennedy Attack ‘Myopic’

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s attack on the Cape Wind project (guest commentary, Jan. 12) is exaggerated and myopic.

He claims that noise from the Cape Wind turbines will be audible onshore. I have personally measured noise from wind turbines in upstate New York. Adjusting for the sound-reflectivity of water, I calculate that windmills six miles offshore won’t even register 30 decibels at the very loudest anywhere on land. Thirty decibels is the loudness of a whisper at 40 feet; this amount of "noise" will be masked by the sound of the wind itself.

Mr. Kennedy insists that 130 wind turbines will "destroy" Nantucket Sound. The platforms will occupy less than one part in 100,000 of the Sound’s acreage. In fact the windmills are far more likely to preserve the maritime environment than destroy it; they will draw enough clean power from the air to displace over two million barrels of oil a year, the equivalent of 10 Exxon Valdez spills.

The only problem the windmills present is that wealthy beachfront landowners don’t want to see them, preferring that the environmental costs of the power they use be incurred in somebody else’s back yard.

Charles Komanoff
New York City
Upper Cape Codder, January 19, 2006


Give me a break, RFK Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been as outspoken about protecting the environment as he is (Jan. 11 Oracle guest column) about opposing the environmentally friendly Cape Wind project. It is disappointing that one of his stature sees fit to talk out of both sides of his mouth.

His arguments against the wind farm have been refuted time and again by those who know better; see the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Modern turbines make no noise except for a quiet swish of air; they would never be heard on shore. Birds fly over and around the offshore wind farms in Europe and are, with very rare exceptions, unharmed. There is more bird kill caused by cars, plate glass doors and windows on Cape Cod than would occur as a result of the guy-wire free offshore turbines proposed for the Cape Wind project.

To refute another RFK Jr. argument, the oil stored in the transfer station will be nontoxic and, even in the improbable event that any would be spilled, it would not adversely impact the marine environment. It is the same stuff, mineral oil, that people used to take as a laxative.

I believe Kennedy knows all of this, but does not like the idea of seeing a wind farm, in clear weather visible a half inch above the horizon, occupying a bit of his view from the Kennedy Compound. Property values near other offshore wind farms have increased; so has tourism. I cannot imagine what he is worried about, unless it is the likelihood of fewer campaign contributions from others with waterfront property on the Sound.

Lesley H. Miller
Yarmouth Port
Harwich Oracle, January 18, 2006


Blinded by Hypocrisy

So RFK Jr., a man who has spent his life campaigning against the air pollution, water pollution, and rapid climate change caused by our addiction to oil and other fossil fuels, opposes Cape Wind, a project that will provide an average of 170 MW of electricity with none of this pollution. Who can take him seriously now when he talks about fighting all these modern-day ills, knowing he won’t support a viable clean, renewable project in his back yard?

Setting aside the blatant hypocrisy, the really bitter irony is that in advocating against an energy source that will have orders of magnitude less impact on our environment than fossil fuels, he by default advocates for business as usual – the very same fossil fuels he has spent his life fighting. How sad.

Erik Gehring
Roslindale
Cape Codder, January 13, 2006


Cape Cod Wind Project

As someone who hails from the coast of Massachusetts, I was disappointed to see “An Ill Wind Off Cape Cod,” by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Op-Ed, Dec. 16). This can’t be the same man who has been calling for renewable energy, including wind farms.

Unfortunately, the only thing Mr. Kennedy has in common with those who oppose the Cape Wind project is the “not in my backyard” syndrome. Many are wealthy property owners who think that a wind farm five miles off the coast will interfere with their views.

Mr. Kennedy’s resistance to the wind farm is out of step with the environmental community and efforts to fight global warming.

He said the wind farm could kill thousands of birds. But for every 10,000 bird fatalities, less than one is caused by wind turbines, a far smaller threat than global warming, which could threaten up to 35 percent of all species with extinction by 2050.

Additionally, Cape Wind will help prevent situations like the oil spill in Buzzards Bay that killed hundreds of seabirds, contaminated the beaches and closed shellfish beds for a year.

Offshore wind is an important step in fighting global-warming pollution and will begin a new era of clean energy in America. Cape Wind is the right project at the right time in the right place.

Kate Smolski
Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace
Washington, D.C.
New York Times, December 27, 2005