A program of the Cape Cod Technology Council.
Cape Wind
Newsletter Article - May 2007
Every couple of decades on the Cape, almost like a cycle of nature, the humans that live here work themselves to a frenzy about an issue. In the 60's, the formation of the National Seashore was virtually akin to a civil war. And in the '80's, the Paul Tsongas call for a building "moratorium" flamed the debate that lead to the formation of the Cape Cod Commission.
So, here we are, twenty years later, and the proposal to construct a wind farm on what many view to be a pristine ocean sanctuary brings out some unusual behavior. Local author Wendy Williams has captured many of the tales in a book to be issued this May creatively titled "Cape Wind".
The Cape Cod Center for Sustainability has invited Wendy to read excerpts of her book and to talk about her experiences writing about it. She
has real insight about the weaknesses and the outright failings of what is supposed in theory to be an objective regulatory review process.
We're in the midst of planning the event and trying to get a handle on the number of people who might attend. If you are interested to find out more about the time and place, please contact us by email and we'll give you more details.
And as we write this, we have no idea what the issue is going to be in twenty years."
Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for America's Energy Future on Nantucket Sound
Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb.
Public Affairs, $26.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-58648-397-8
This well-reported assessment of democracy manipulated by powerful federal, state and local insiders, and other not-in-my-backyard shenanigans surrounding plans for a wind farm five miles off Cape Cod, is certainly upfront about its bias. Williams, a former journalist-in-residence at Duke University, and Whitcomb, editorial page editor of the Providence Journal, jauntily champion the cause of energy entrepreneur Jim Gordon's "bold idea" to plant 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound—a project still snared in a regulatory maze as this peppery account went to press. The authors decry what they call fear-mongering by Gordon's well-funded opponents (2005 contributions: $3.3 million) and are particularly peeved by the obstructionism of Sen. Ted Kennedy, whose behind-the-scenes maneuvering is highlighted, as are the fulminations verging "on the incoherent" by environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr. — normally an outspoken opponent of coal-powered energy generation and a vigorous supporter of alternative energy sources. The Kennedys' stubborn opposition is shared by such moneyed neighbors as Listerine heiress Bunny Mellon and coal, oil and gas magnate William Koch, who are depicted as lutocratic bullies in this rambunctious, unsparing dissection of ruling-class abuse. (May)
