Ken Salazar's Cape Wind Dilemma

After eight years of contentious discussion about the fate of Cape Wind, a proposed 130-turbine wind farm off the shore of Massachusetts' Nantucket Sound, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has pledged to make a final decision by April.

Cape Wind has fielded harsh opposition from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (it blocks the view from his family's Nantucket compound), the Mashpee and Wampanoag Native Americans (it blocks their view of the sunrise, important for a daily ritual), and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound (they just don't want it in their back yard).

The sponsors of the project say the turbines, which would be five miles offshore, would be visible just a half an inch above the horizon on a clear day.

Citing his strong support for the future of wind energy while touring the proposed location yesterday, Salazar said "what happens to Cape Wind, whether it goes up or it goes down, will not be determinative of the future of (offshore) wind energy in the United States." That's a nice idea. But it's wrong.

Setting aside the merits and drawbacks of Cape Wind, killing the project would be a major victory for NIMBY politics over clean renewable energy sources like wind and solar. Sure, it's easy to support renewable energy in the abstract. But when your sunrise or porch's mountainous view is obstructed by a hulking white wind mill? Forget about it, some say. But spiking Cape Wind would not eliminate the NIMBY headache that has plagued the project since its inception. It would only add fire to anti-wind movements at other proposed locations.

Cape Wind would create 420 megawatts of power, enough to offset the Cape's oil-burning plant, and could reduce the Cape's greenhouse gas emissions by 770,000 tons per year. These traits appease environmental activists but don't sway dirty energy interests. The main critic, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound wrote in a fund-raising letter to supporters that it will "do whatever it takes to win. We will never allow Cape Wind to become a reality." They mean business, and they've got some wealthy backers. Take conservative tycoon William Koch, for example, who got rich off coal, natural gas, and petroleum, and has donated more than $1.5 million to the Alliance.

Despite the Alliance's deep pockets, Cape Wind seemed poised to make history as the country's first off shore wind farm until last fall, when the Mashpee and Wampanoag tribes voiced their opposition. Last May, Massachusetts regulators completed the project's state and local permitting by unanimously approving power cables for the turbines. Before that, 107 members of the state's legislature co-signed a letter to Salazar urging him to approve Cape Wind "as soon as possible," and state regulators confirmed that it was unlikely to have a significant impact on tourism or wildlife. But the concerns of the Mashpee and Wampanoag add a level of complexity to the otherwise typical NIMBY critics.

Secretary Salazar has asked for a final round of public comments to help parse that complexity. But depending on what he decides in April, Cape Wind will either be a historic victory for wind power, or put wind in the sails of NIMBY-ists everywhere.

Photo credit: Kim Hansen via Wikimedia Commons