Cliff Carroll: Stop the Wind Farm

All politics - and perspective - is local

By Cliff Carroll  

If "All politics is local", as Tip O'Neill once remarked, the Cape Wind project is now entering very unfriendly water as it finally gets the close scrutiny that the federal Army Corps process has failed to deliver.

Cape Wind's strategy from the start has been to try to convince the locals that this $800 million industrial project will somehow be good for Cape Cod and the Islands with its promises of abundant clean energy, jobs, and a massive reduction in polluting emissions from nearby electricity generating plants.

"Critics of the project have long pointed out that Cape Wind's claims are grossly overstated"

Critics of the project have long pointed out that Cape Wind's claims are grossly overstated, but you wouldn't know it from reading the 3,800-page, 24lb. Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) written by Cape Wind's paid consultants and blessed by the "See no evil, Here no evil" Army Corp.

But then along came the Cape Cod Commission with its own professional assessment of the project and the DEIS.

Despite is girth of 3,800 pages, the DEIS conclusions "appear to be based either on an incomplete or flawed analysis," the Commission report concludes. The Commission goes on to criticize the utter lack of "transparency" in the DEIS that makes it impossible to validate conclusions, to properly identify the source of those conclusions or provide detailed quantitative information that would allow for an independent assessment of the DEIS conclusions. In other words, they didn't fool the Commission.

The 3,800-page, 24lb. Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)

So what did Cape Wind do when confronted with this show of local resolve by the Cape Cod Commission? They stood before Commission members last week and defied their authority, telling them, in effect, they were nothing more than a little wheel in a far bigger game. The town of Yarmouth got a similar stiff arm from Cape Wind when they insisted on having more time to comment on the incorrect representation of agreements and the negative impacts of the project as part of the state's Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB) process. Quite alarming when you consider that the results of the recent survey of Nantucket Sound clearly show that Cape Wind has been permitting in our State waters all along. Cape Winds response, they will simply withdraw the offending towers and retreat to Federal waters rather than face the music from the local citizens whose sanctuary their steel forest will destroy.

Statewide Poll with only 16 local opinions

The clearest sign yet about Cape Wind's respect for local opinion was the political poll they recently promoted claiming that a "near" majority - or 47 percent - of a 400-person sample of state voters support their project. Of those 400 interviews, only 16 were actually from the Cape and Islands while the rest, presumably, wouldn't care if you painted the Sagamore Bridge pink for all the time they spend looking at it. Why would they care if Cape Wind puts 130 massive steel towers into the middle of our beautiful ocean vista, if you live in Worcester County? After all, they could always go to the Jersey Shore, where that states Governor has called for a halt to offshore windfarms until the proper federal regulations are in place.

Cape Wind project will decimate the Cape's tourism-based economy

Cape Wind's real intent with the poll was to send a not-too-subtle message to Governor Mitt Romney and Attorney General Tom Reilly that Massachusetts' voters support the project and politicians had better support it, too. But what the paid pollster failed to mention in their interviews with participants is that the Cape Wind project will decimate the Cape's tourism-based economy and ruin a beautiful vista from every beach in Nantucket Sound in trade for an industry-scale project that will permanently devistate the unique character of Cape Cod and the Islands.

The CapeCod Commission is not alone in their ability to see through the smoke screen. Both the Nantucket and Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce have voted -NO, The towns of Yarmouth and Barnstable-NO, The 3 Island Airports filed an objection with the FAA, The Martha's Vineyard Commission-NO and it goes on from there. Every coastal town on Nantucket Sound is still waiting to see the oil spill trajectory maps for the 40,000 gallon transformer that they demanded back in October. Cape Winds answer.... let"s just say you won"t find it in that 3,800 page, 24lb fable.

Cape Winds "It will be easier to apoligise than it will to ask for permission" spin machine has spent their formative months on this project attempting to woo Cape Codders with promises of abundant clean energy and just a little bit of spoiled horizons. The entire time attempting to avoid the ugly truth about things to come.

The view from Craigville Beach

580 lights destroying our nightscape

A 24 square mile industrial park the size of the island of Manhattan, 40 story turbines permanently scarring our ocean horizon, 580 lights destroying our nightscape, 130 air and sea navigation hazards in the middle of some of the foggiest air and waters in the world, and a 10 story, 41,000 gallon oil filled transformer in the middle of our fishing grounds, waiting to explode, just off our world famous virgin beaches.

Now that it is perfectly clear that all the hot air didn't work, Cape Wind is revealing just how little respect they have for the community of the Cape Cod and the Islands.

If you are going to build an offshore wind farm, build it offshore, not off our beaches in the middle of our ocean sanctuary.

Unfortunately Nantucket Sound can not protect herself, if she could, Cape Wind and their steel forest would be going out with the next tide.

Cliff Carroll has been a mortgage banker on Cape Cod for over 25 years, is an avid boater, and the proud founder of Windstop.org. Cliff lives in Bass River and has been a cape resident since 1964.  He has been very active in the wind farm debate.