Blowin' in the Wind

Blowin' in the Wind

By Abby Hans

April 21, 2014

Comparison between turbines and historical structures.

CAPE COD, MA—The sky is pale gray with hints of blue.  Occasionally the sun comes out for a tease then hides behind the clouds, only to be whisked away by the wind.  The ocean surface is sprinkled with seagulls scavenging for food.  For miles and miles, sea grass sways, as the dunes shed their sand down-wind.  Looking out as far as the eye can see, navy blue water bounces in the choppy, turbulent tide.  But about five miles out, where the eye can still see, massive structures stand tall.  The 450-foot complexes seem tiny in the distance, and their triadic propellers jut out and turn rhythmically. From a distance, these massive turbines seem to overlap as though their arms are stretched out towards one another.  Are they omens of too much government interference, or are they symbolic beacons of a future, sustainable America?

Proposed area for Cape Wind offshore wind farm.

The New England coast has been susceptible to dramatic coastal erosion and rising sea levels for many years.  For Jim Gordon, the brains and business behind Cape Wind, moving to higher ground is simply not an option.  Instead, Gordon proposed a plan in 2001 to build a large-scale offshore wind farm off Cape Cod in Nantucket Sound, the Cape Wind project.  Everything seemed to make sense: the waters are shallow enough for construction, and the region is “arguably the best offshore wind resource in the entire world,” according to Mark Rodgers, Communications Director for Cape Wind. For Rodgers, the proposed location also has an important historical connection: “It harmonizes well with the history of the region in which wind power was very important and in which a region that was once an energy leader globally.  It was whale oil, but it was nonetheless very important in a period of world history in terms of lighting the lanterns of the world and greasing the wheels of the industrial revolution.”  But despite these solid ideas, Gordon received harsh opposition.  Proposed in 2001, the actual Cape Wind farm is not built yet.  

Bruce Mohl

Despite the project’s long-term benefits, the opposition to Cape Wind has escalated into a bitter two-sided controversy.  The voices behind and against the project have extended over blogs, National Public Radio, Facebook, Twitter, and more.  Some journalists covered the people involved, some the environmental impacts, and others the politics and financing of the project.  One of the key journalists is the editor of CommonWealth Magazine, Bruce Mohl: “When National Grid signed a contract with Cape Wind to purchase half of its power input, I think that’s when it started showing up on my radar screen.  And then once that happened, it won some significant federal approvals, and we did some stories. I became interested in the financial aspects of the project.”  Mohl wrote numerous stories about Cape Wind and continues to do so.  According to his reports, the project first proposed in 2001 is heading towards construction.

Artist's depiction of wind turbines 4.8 miles from the
Mashpee shore

But not without a fight.  The opposition, almost entirely composed of wealthy landowners and business people with houses in the Cape Cod and Nantucket area, started with a weak argument: they didn’t want to look at the turbines.  Then, one man decided to take the opposition farther.  Bill Koch, the powerful Floridian entrepreneur worth $4 billion, has put around $5 million into Cape Wind’s opposition group.  “Koch has the courage to admit he doesn’t want to look at the turbines.  But he also knew a NIMBY argument would never derail Cape Wind, so he began analyzing the project from an economic perspective,” wrote Mohl in his in-depth article, Look Who’s Talking.   In my interview with Mohl, he talked about “the very polarizing issue,” and asked, “Does it cost too much for the environmental benefit you’re getting…the opponents have shifted it into that direction…you’re for it ‘cause it’s good for the environment, or you’re against it for pick your reason: you don’t want to look at it, it’s too expensive, whatever.”  And Mohl was right.  Once Koch began to look into the economics involved, he quickly saw that both the construction and maintenance of the farm would be costly.  He told Mohl, “When it comes to dollars and cents, people want the cheapest energy possible.”  Sandy Taylor, Executive Assistant at the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound believes that the energy generated by the turbines will cost three times what the cost is today.  “Because it’s a new industry in this country, they’ve had to change their tune because the truth is coming out and the economics do not make sense because it’s all passed on to the consumer and the tax payer,” said Taylor.  She also spoke about Governor Deval Patrick’s Green Communities Act, which has created loopholes for Cape Wind.  Governor Patrick not only passed several pieces of green legislation during his term but also vigorously supports Cape Wind.

Bill Koch (left) and Jim Gordon (right)

One major success for Cape Wind came when a local utility, NSTAR, merged with Northeast Utilities, based in Connecticut.  When NSTAR began to discuss a merger with Northeast Utilities, Governor Patrick promised agreement on one term: that NSTAR buy roughly one-third, 27.5 percent, of Cape Wind’s power input.  And they did.  This was a huge loss for Koch and other homeowners on the Cape.  One of Koch’s opposition strategies was to deplete Gordon’s funding.  (Gordon has roughly $150 million in personal investments).  Gordon has dedicated much of his own money to the project, and Rodgers spoke of other support from less high profile organizations: “What gets lost in that train is that we’ve also had an extraordinary level of support at the grass-roots level, among real environmental organizations.  We have strong support among the labor, trade, and health organizations.  And,” he added, “political support.”   In addition, Koch told Mohl that he had two other strategies: “One is to just delay, delay, delay, which we’re doing and hopefully we can win some of these bureaucrats over.  The other way is to elect politicians who understand how foolhardy alternative energy is.”  

Horseshoe Shoal

Sandy Taylor elaborated on other reasons for opposition.  Taylor said there were major factors other than economics making people unsure about the project.  “I know there are safety issues, maritime radar, and also aviation radar and the safety of the 400,000 flights that go over the sound in one year.”  Taylor, a life-long sailor, said that the opposition group makes an annual trip to the popular twenty-five mile regatta from Hyannis to Nantucket Memorial Day weekend to explain to sailors the potential hazards that the wind farm could have on sailing.  However, the sailors told Taylor that they would be willing to sail around the turbines.  Still, Taylor mentioned past cases of birds being killed from the turbines.  She also said that Horseshoe Shoal is a major fishing ground, especially for squid.  The wind turbines would negatively impact that area.  Finally, the tourism industry is what drives Cape Cod and Nantucket’s economy.  While Rodgers thinks the project is finally within striking distance, Taylor says “it’s not a done deal.”  For her, “this isn’t a green project, when you look at what it entails to make those turbines and put them eighty feet into the seabed.  For boats to do that, yeah maybe after fifteen years it’ll offset all the carbon that it took to build it.” 

 

Furthermore, at Cape Wind, Gordon sees this as a climate change issue. In an interview with Mohl, Gordon said, “Cape Cod being a low-lying coastal community, it’s most susceptible to the impacts of climate change.  There’s a biblical irony here.  For someone like Bill Koch to fight this project, it is a biblical irony.”  In other words, if the people with waterfront homes on Cape Cod do not help combat climate change, their properties will be first affected.  Despite these frustrations, it is Gordon’s will to carry on and to educate that makes him not only a businessman but a pioneer.  Part of Cape Wind’s most overlooked missions is to help launch an entirely new industry in the United States offshore wind farming.  According to Cape Wind’s website, “Europe has built 64 offshore wind farms over the past 24 years and now has 58,000 people working in the offshore wind industry.  Although still untapped, the United States has the greatest offshore wind power resources in the world.” 

Wind power and resource potential off of Massachusetts East Coast

The Federal waters of Horseshoe Shoal are “technically optimal” for a farm, which is expected to provide seventy-five percent of electricity used in the Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard region. Furthermore, Cape Wind’s website says the farm will actually reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 730,000 tons, the equivalent of taking 175,000 cars off the road each year.  Mohl said, “The first one is always tough; this would be a big momentum builder for people trying to build offshore wind farms.”  The question is whether or not the long-term effects of Cape Wind will outweigh the cost.

I interviewed four people for this article and asked them their thoughts on how the media has covered this issue. I spoke with Mark Rodgers, Sandy Taylor, Bruce Mohl, and Cory Warren, 20, a resident of Sandwich, Cape Cod. 

Cory Warren

Rodgers mentioned that the media certainly played up the controversy.  He also said that the media often treated the opposition as a “newbie group” rather than an established organization.  Taylor said the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound aims to educate people about what is actually happening in the area.  She said that people have no idea what the reality is, “but we live and breathe it every day.”  She acknowledged Mohl as being one of the more fair journalists covering the project and said that he had a more objective approach than either Rodgers or Taylor had.  Mohl commented, “The whole dynamic has shifted from aesthetics and location to cost.  It’s gotten all the approvals, and though many are being challenged in court, my guess is that they’ll win all the approvals to build the thing.  The question is whether the repairs will be worth it.”  Finally, Warren lives in the lower-Cape in a small town bordering Mashpee.  He said, “I think people on [the] Cape are generally interested in conserving energy and advancing more sustainable technologies -- that goes for conservatives and liberals -- because of our surroundings. The beaches are eroding, the pollution on [the] Cape is worse than ever, and when people are surrounded by beauty, they don't let politics interfere with its preservation.”  He also encourages citizens to start a discussion about other renewables.  He, however, expressed what most Cape citizens feel, that he truly sympathizes for both sides.











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Bibliography: 

Bill Koch (left) vs. Jim Gordon (right) for the Future of Cape Wind. N.d. The Battle of Wills Between Gordon and Koch.

     Web. 9 Apr. 2013.

Bruce Mohl. 2011. CommonWealth Magazine. Web.

"Cape Wind." Facebook, 2009. Web.

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Chart Showing Wind Farm Area. N.d. New England Boating. Web.

“Cory Warren.”  Facebook, 2008. Web.

Jason Jones 180 - Nantucket. Dir. Jon Stewart. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The Daily Show, 7 Aug. 2007. Web.

Massachusetts 50-Meter Wind Map. 2007. U.S. Department of Energy. Web.

Mohl, Bruce. "Look Who's Talking." CommonWealth Magazine 9 Apr. 2013: n. pag. Web.

Mohl, Bruce. "NStar Pays Big Premium for Cape Wind Power." CommonWealth Magazine (2012): n. pag. Web.

"Natural Resources Defense Council." Renewable Energy for America. Wind Energy, n.d. Web.

Save Our Sound. The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, 2014. Web.

See How Anholt Offshore Wind Farm Was Constructed. DONG Engergy, n.d. Web.