"Patrick, Kirk at odds over wind farm; Governor urges Obama to back it" by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | November 28, 2009
The administration of Governor Deval Patrick, in a sharp disagreement with Patrick’s handpicked Senate appointee, said yesterday that it would be a mistake for President Obama to grant US Senator Paul G. Kirk Jr.’s request to delay federal approval of the Cape Wind project....
Officials from the Patrick administration said the governor strongly disagrees with Kirk’s request and urges quick approval. “After eight years of thorough review and as the world convenes shortly in Copenhagen to tackle climate change, the governor believes the time is now to move forward with this landmark clean energy project - the only offshore wind project that has the potential to be built in President Obama’s first term,’’ Patrick’s secretary of energy and environmental affairs, Ian A. Bowles, said in a statement yesterday.
Oh, so it is REALLY about making Obama look good?
US Representative Edward J. Markey, who chairs a key congressional committee on energy independence and global warming, has, like Patrick, strongly backed Cape Wind. In a letter sent to the Obama administration on Nov. 9, three days before Kirk’s letter to the president, Markey urged the administration to approve Cape Wind before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen on Dec. 7. Markey wrote that approving the project would “send a strong message to international negotiators about the United States’ commitment to developing sources of clean energy and reducing global warming pollution.’’
Related:
"Markey, the dean of the delegation, has taken eight congressional trips abroad since 2005, some in his capacity as chairman of a select committee on global warming.
Pfffft!
Yeah, THANKS for the HELP, Ed!
And YOU-KNOW-WHO PAID FOR IT, taxpayers!
In taking up the fight against Cape Wind, Kirk is continuing a battle long waged by the late US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, his close friend, who strongly opposed the construction of 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. “He’s taking a stand that Senator Kennedy would have taken,’’ said Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers, who added that Kirk is sending a message that “even though the person who was the most prominent opponent of it is gone, the opposition to it still remains.’’
Related: The Hot Fart Mist of Ted Kennedy
It was not clear whether Kirk’s counterpart, US Senator John F. Kerry, agreed with Kirk’s request. Kerry’s spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment yesterday. All four Democrats running for Kirk’s seat in the special election strongly support Cape Wind, according to Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Cape Wind. The leading Republican candidate, state Senator Scott Brown, opposes Cape Wind, he said.
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"A sacrifice worth making" by Peter Murkett | July 13, 2009
Peter Murkett is a woodworker and writer.
I guess he would be all for , huh?
Mounting wind turbines on forested, uninhabited ridges is a sacrifice. I wouldn’t choose to do it but for climate change, and knowing that in Massachusetts my electricity depends on mountains elsewhere being carved up for coal, an environmental travesty that dwarfs the negatives of wind energy, and which only burns us deeper into carbon debt.
Oh, now we are accumulating debt!
Individual solutions like my neighbor’s turbine or my own little water jet are fine, however quixotic. To succeed in mitigating climate change we must also engage large players....
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Really, I'm tired of the fart mist. You don't want to listen, fine.
"2 Indian tribes object to wind farm plan
Two Massachusetts Indian tribes said they are frustrated that federal officials have not properly addressed their concerns about an energy-generating wind farm proposed for the waters off Cape Cod. The Mashpee Wampanoag and the Wampanoag of Gay Head said the US Minerals Management Service, the lead agency reviewing the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm, has not fully considered issues raised by the tribes. The tribes contend that the proposed wind farm would destroy a sacred site where their ancestors fished, hunted, and possibly were buried. They also said it would obstruct their views and interfere with their spiritual well-being (AP)."
No one ever listened to the natives much either; we just killed them.
"2 tribes object to Cape Wind turbines; Say Nantucket Sound is cultural property" by Beth Daley, Globe Staff | October 26, 2009
Native American rituals and beliefs have emerged as a surprising last-minute obstacle to federal approval of the nation’s first offshore wind farm, threatening to significantly delay the Cape Wind project.
Two Massachusetts tribes say the 130 proposed wind turbines in Nantucket Sound would disturb their spiritual sun greetings and submerged ancestral burying grounds. The Aquinnah and Mashpee Wampanoag tribes - with help from the main opposition group to Cape Wind - are pushing for the entire sound to be listed as a traditional cultural property on the National Register of Historic Places. A listing by itself would not necessarily stop the project, but would make permitting much more cumbersome.
And even if the tribes’ proposal is ultimately rejected as many observers predict, the issue will probably hold up a final decision on Cape Wind by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose ruling had been expected shortly. The concerns of the tribes had been seen as a minor annoyance by supporters of the project....
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Related: A cynical gimmick against Cape WindOf course, when you are getting out my way....
"Turbines are a costly blight" by Eleanor Tillinghast | July 13, 2009
Eleanor Tillinghast is director of Green Berkshires, an environmental advocacy group.
GOVERNOR DEVAL Patrick’s goal of 2,000 megawatts of wind power by 2020 will achieve very little at great cost, according to the state’s own data. Nonetheless, he is seeking from the Legislature an unprecedented set of special privileges to benefit the wind industry.
His Wind Energy Siting Reform Act will override 300 years of home rule, displace environmental laws, eliminate longstanding rights of appeal, and launch a process for opening the state’s last unspoiled forests and ridgelines to industrial wind development.
The governor has a study estimating that more than half his goal could be met in the Berkshires with 710 industrial wind turbines on public and private land. Those would replace just 5.3 percent of the state’s electricity consumption and offset a mere 1.5 percent of our overall carbon footprint at current levels. For those modest benefits, we would pay about $2.7 billion in federal, state, and local subsidies over 20 years. If we subsidized all electricity use in Massachusetts at that rate, we would spend $54 billion during that time on subsidies.
And WE SUBSIDIZE ENOUGH INDUSTRIES around here!
Those turbines will destroy the ridgelines and forests of the Berkshires. The state owns more than 120,000 acres here, purchased by taxpayers and donated by people trusting that it would be held for the quiet enjoyment of the public and the protection of habitat and wildlife disappearing elsewhere.
That's right, it is YOUR LAND, citizens of the Commonwealth!!
Cutting wide swaths of unspoiled forest for access roads, clear-cutting miles of ridgelines, erecting industrial structures with spinning blades that threaten migrating birds and the last remaining bats - these are irreversible actions with permanent consequences.
You know, like wars started over lies.
The act triggering all these costs will come at a great cost itself: the loss of local control in our communities. If this law passes, a wind developer can enter any town in Massachusetts demanding a permit for one or more wind turbines, and the town would be forced to review the application regardless of its bylaws, knowing that the state would be poised to override its decision and permit the project. And once this act is enacted, what will be the next industry seeking the blanket exemptions granted to the wind industry? Who will willingly accept the rule of law knowing that one powerful industry after another is lobbying to be exempted?
It is tempting to say we must do everything to avert climate disaster. The reality is that, just like a household, we can’t afford everything. We must choose thoughtfully among options. What can we do instead of subsidizing 710 industrial wind turbines on our state’s last remaining open land to offset 5.3 percent of our electricity use? We know that using energy more efficiently is far cheaper than building new sources of supply. From 2007 to 2008, our state dropped from fourth to seventh place in national rankings on energy efficiency. Clearly, we can do a lot more. And money for such things as replacing light fixtures and weatherizing homes is spent locally, providing local jobs, not enriching an industry that benefits a small group of investors and foreign companies.
Isn't that what tax dollars are for?
The governor’s Wind Energy Siting Reform Act will transfer power from towns, legislators, and the courts to the executive branch, giving him and his successors unprecedented power to determine the future landscape and economy of every community. The 5 percent of our state’s electricity provided by 710 wind turbines in the Berkshires will not slow the rise of coastal sea levels, but it will mean the irretrievable loss of a globally rare landscape. Be careful, this is your land, too. Assaults on our rights in the Berkshires are on yours in metropolitan Boston, too.
Like they would ever listen to us.
And no sooner are the words off my keyboard than:
"State presses wind projects: Bill aims to ease gridlock around appeals process" by David Abel, Globe Staff | November 3, 2009
With more than a third of the major wind-energy projects in Massachusetts stalled by lawsuits or permit appeals, the Patrick administration has proposed a landmark bill that would streamline the state’s appeals process and make it possible to win approval of such projects much more quickly....
Without a change in the permitting process, administration officials say, the state will not meet Governor Deval Patrick’s goal of producing 2,000 megawatts of wind power by 2020....
Opponents of the streamlining legislation say it would provide the state too much power and allow developers to steamroll legitimate opposition. They also say the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board, which would be expanded under the new bill to include representatives from municipalities and environmental groups, is an unfair arbiter, because its mission is to approve energy projects as opposed to protecting the environment.
“There has already been a pattern of abuses under the existing system,’’ said Eleanor Tillinghast, president of Green Berkshires, an environmental advocacy group. “This bill would completely override local people and create a situation that is ripe for even greater abuses than we’re seeing now.’’
In Massachusetts?
The cradle of the American Revolution?
The critics point to noise pollution, loss of pristine views, and bird deaths as some of the drawbacks of wind projects....
Related: Fly Away Little Birdie, Fly, Fly, Fly
Yeah, somehow LIFE never enters into the equation, does it?
Who cares about birds anyway?
Advocates for the bill, which lawmakers expect will be approved early next year, say it would reduce the permitting process for wind projects from the current limbo of protracted litigation to between nine and 19 months, with an additional year allowed for legal appeals.
I don't remember seeing anything on it; however, I might have missed it.
“The system right now just allows too much opportunity for project opponents to delay or derail a project, and it can be very frustrating,’’ said David Tuohey, a spokesman for Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co., one of 15 nonprofit utility companies that have been collectively building the turbines on Brodie Mountain....
Of course, ONE IT IS DONE, that's it! NO GOING BACK!
Lawmakers said the bill remains a work in progress, but that it has the support of both Senator Michael W. Morrissey and Representative Barry Finegold, cochairmen of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy, which has jurisdiction over it.
“We have a goal of getting 20 percent of our power from renewable energy, and right now we don’t have the proper zoning to get to those levels,’’ said Finegold, an Andover Democrat....
Morrissey, a Quincy Democrat, said he expects the committee to approve the bill by end of this week....
The bill, however, will not be retroactive, which means disputes such as those delaying the Brodie Mountain project would have to be resolved by the courts. That allows Silverleaf Resorts of Dallas, which plans to build a 300-unit condo complex on Brodie Mountain, to continue to argue that the turbines should be moved so they aren’t visible or in earshot of the future condo owners. They also argue that “ice throw’’ - ice that can build up on the turbines when they are inactive and get hurled when they go on - could present a danger to those using the mountain’s ski trails, which they bought three years ago.
That is ANOTHER PROBLEM I have not heard much about!
For the developers of the wind farm, whose permit process began in 1998, the process couldn’t be any slower. They said the injunction, issued because of questions about whether they had permission to build a road on a certain tract of land, means a loss of millions of dollars.
“This has been a big disappointment,’’ said Tuohey of the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. “Something has to change.’’
Well, get in line.
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Related: Nantucket Sound may get historic listing, delaying wind farm
Hey, government can really move when they want something:
"A decision in sight on Cape Wind dispute; Interior secretary orders parties to meet next week" by Beth Daley, Globe Staff | January 5, 2010
The Obama administration signaled a sudden urgency yesterday to resolve the nine-year dispute over building a wind farm off Cape Cod....
Yes, HE NEEDS a WIND at his BACK for 2012!
The announcement was made minutes after the Cape Wind project appeared to suffer an unexpected setback, when the National Park Service agreed with two Native American tribes that Nantucket Sound is eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its cultural and spiritual significance to the tribes. The decision caught many by surprise, because listing in the Register, which affords extra protection against development, is normally reserved for structures or smaller, more specific locations....
The administration, smarting from disappointing international climate talks in Copenhagen and the failure of Congress to pass legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is eager, some observers say, to show the world that it is serious about switching to a lower-carbon economy.
Yeah, this is ALL ABOUT HIS POLITICAL HEALTH, not yours, America!!
“There is a renewed sense of urgency to address climate change in the wake of Copenhagen and the need for real action on the ground or on the water, in this case,’’ said Sue Reid of the Conservation Law Foundation, a Boston-based advocacy group....
The National Park Service was expected to dismiss the sound as ineligible for listing because there was no specific property associated with the determination and the service says it discourages the nomination of natural bodies of water. But in a seven-page explanation of the determination, Park Service officials said Nantucket Sound was unusual because it was dry land before sea levels slowly rose after the last ice age, and it was clear that Native Americans had lived there at that time and probably on more elevated lands that were exposed longer, such as Horseshoe Shoals where the Cape Wind project is proposed.
“Based on multiple sources of evidence, the sound is part of a larger, culturally significant landscape treasured by the Wampanoag tribes and inseparably associated with their history and traditional cultural practices and beliefs, as well as with the Native American exploration and settlement of Cape Cod and the Islands,’’ the Park Service document says.
Cedric Cromwell, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe chairman, said in a statement that the decision “confirms what the Wampanoag people have known for thousands of years, that Nantucket Sound has significant archeological, historic, and cultural values and is sacred to our people.’’
Just wondering if you would like your grave disturbed.
Proponents of the Cape Wind project, however, see the tribes’ actions as a delaying tactic orchestrated in part by the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the main opposition group to the wind farm, which has worked with the tribes. But the tribes have vehemently denied that the alliance did anything but join with them in a like-minded cause, although for different reasons, to have the project moved farther off shore or elsewhere....
Agenda-pushing paper trying to make it sound like a "conspiracy," huh?
The news is the latest and probably the most significant twist in the Cape Wind saga, which has undergone years of environmental review and political maneuvering, including opposition from the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, whose home overlooked Nantucket Sound.
Some how Ted always got a pass on that.
All because it would have ruined the view.
While opponents’ main concern is aesthetics - the turbines would be visible on the horizon from the Cape and Islands - the battle was fought by raising other issues, including property values and harm to birds, fishing, aviation, and historic and cultural sites. Some saw Salazar’s involvement as helping the Obama administration and the Patrick administration gain favor with the public....
Just for ONCE I would like it NOT to be about POLITICS, hanh?!!!!
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And smells like you have some gas problems, too, Boston:
"Boston proposes wind turbine that could power 800 homes" by David Abel, Globe Staff | April 22, 2010
The plans are part of a larger effort by the city to cut greenhouse-gas emissions and better manage the effects of climate change....
“I am committed to moving this ambitious agenda forward, as we work with our residents and businesses to realize the full benefits of a low-carbon city and ensure that our city remains a vibrant one for future generations,’’ Mayor Thomas M. Menino said in a statement.
I'm glad he is your mayor and not mine.
In its report to the mayor, the Boston Climate Action Leadership Committee and the Community Advisory Committee urged the city to start calculating the projected effects of climate change — such as sea-level rise, heat waves, and more intense storms....
PFFFT!
Making my OWN WIND NOW, readers!
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