No increase in wind generated electricity rates

What should the Compact do now?

By Representitive Matthew C. Patrick

Today the banner headlines read, “Electricity costs to skyrocket.” How’s that for a holiday cup of good cheer? The chickens have come home to roost for the Cape Light Compact.  Instead of fighting the wind farm when it was proposed, they could have been the voice of reason and rationality in a debate marked by acrimony and deception. They could have been a reference for good solid facts and judgment. Instead, their leadership chose to be politically correct and opposed the wind farm. 

"The sad truth is that if we had considered the wind farm with open minds, the project might have been built and the Compact could have contracted for a stable, inflation proof source of electricity"

Now, the Compact’s power supply rates are increasing by 81% but it is not alone.  All electricity consumers across New England will see substantial rate increases.  However, the only difference between the Compact and other suppliers is that it has an immediate opportunity to access the bountiful wind power off our coast – enough wind to power the nation, the experts tell us.

The sad truth is that if we had considered the wind farm with open minds, the project might have been built and the Compact could have contracted for a stable, inflation proof source of electricity.  If that happened, the price of electricity on Cape Cod would only increase slightly – for up to 20 years.  Instead, the Chairman of the Compact bought into the dubious arguments against the wind farm and stridently opposed it in local newspapers.

The reason the price of electricity is going up 81% is the cost of natural gas and oil increased dramatically.  It increased even before hurricane Katrina hit.  A barrel of oil cost over $50 before Katrina and the price of 1000 cubic feet of natural gas went from $2 a few years ago to over $10 today.  The world is consuming more oil than it produces and  North American countries, U.S., Mexico and Canada, consume more natural gas than they produce.  Neither situation is likely to change.  It will only get worse as the years go by.  It will only be made more traumatic by natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes.

Renewable energy is largely immune to such increases

Renewable energy is largely immune to such increases except for the backup electricity used when the renewable sources are down.  The wind farm is projected to supply, on average, 75% of the Cape and Islands electricity.  The Alliance to Save Nantucket Sound has said repeatedly in their literature and public statements that the wind farm would not save much money for local residents.  This recent turn of events proves them wrong once again.

It was wrong to criticize some of the members of the Cape Light Compact when I said that, as former utility executives, they opposed renewable energy sources.  I found out later that it was the former utility execs who stopped the public opposition of the wind farm by the Compact’s chairman. But other members of the Compact proved their lack of knowledge at meetings I attended.  For example, a member said that there is no proof that air pollution from power plants cause illnesses.  His statement was allowed to go uncorrected by the rest of the members of the Compact as if it were a fact.  The Harvard School of Public Health has uncovered abundant data to the contrary.

This is why I proposed legislation that would require that Cape Light Compact Representatives be elected.  Elected representatives to the Cape Light Compact would be more accountable to the people they represent.  People who favored renewable energy could run for office and put their thoughts in the market place of public ideas. 

What should the Compact do now?  They should begin to negotiate the right of first refusal to establish a contract with Cape Wind when the project is permitted.  To the extent the Compact can negotiate a freeze in the price, a gentlemen’s agreement already reached between Cape Wind’s Jim Gordon and Deval Patrick, Democratic candidate for Governor, the better the people of Cape Cod will be.  They should also consider providing objective information about the wind farm much like the Cape Cod League of Women Voters did.

Our coastline is the Saudi Arabia of inexpensive wind energy and we will eventually benefit from it in numerous ways:  cleaner air, good jobs and less expensive, inflation proof electricity.  As long as the project is environmentally benign, we should embrace it and the sooner the better.

Matthew Patrick, D-Falmouth, represents to 3rd Barnstable District in the Massachusetts House. He is presently serving his second term in the state legislature and serves on the Energy Committee and is chair of the Energy Efficiency/Renewable Energy subcommittee.  Mr. Patrick has been a driving force in the negotiations between the four upper cape towns, the Commonwealth and the Department of Defense for a lease extension at the Mass. Military Reservation.  Representative Patrick is a former Falmouth Selectman, environmental activist and the former Executive Director of Self-Reliance Corporation.  Matt is a former Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Ghana, Africa from 1977 - 1979. He is married to Louise A. Patrick with whom he has two children, Mia, 22 and Sam, 15. He lives in the Falmouth village of Waquoit in an 1820 vintage home with an apple orchard and chickens.