New Challenges for Cape Wind: National Park Service Weighs In
Posted January 4, 2010 in Moving Beyond Oil, Reviving the World's Oceans, The Media and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
Today, the National Park Service decided that the Nantucket Sound is in fact eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. This determination will require the Interior Department to consider any related significant archeological, historic and cultural values when reviewing Cape Wind's permit. This long-awaited decision sparked immediate action by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. Salazar has committed to meeting with involved parties next week to find "a common-sense agreement on actions that could be taken to minimize and mitigate Cape Wind's potential impacts on historic and cultural resources."
The National Park Service's Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places made this reviewed based on concerns raised by the Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag tribes. These tribes argue that the designation of Nantucket Sound as a Historic Place is necessary since Cape Wind's 130 turbines will be visible on the horizon. These tribes hold that this visual will compromise their ancient rituals, which require among other things, an unblocked view of the sunrise.
This decision will undoubtedly continue to extend Cape Wind's timeline for bringing their project online and providing renewable energy through offshore wind. The core of this conflict is not new. On land, we have witnessed resistence to energy projects based on a host of challenges including NIMBYism, improper takings, historic and cultural considerations. Change enables new voices to be heard and innovative solutions to be applied. The merits of both sides will be need to be heavily weighed to determine the best way to balance our growing demand for clean energy with the attention to cultural sensitivties as we embark on new ways to generate renewable energy offshore.
NRDC has been following this issue closely. For additional blog coverage please view:
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/bcolander/us_offshore_wind_development_s.html
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/plehner/now_is_the_time_for_cape_wind.html
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Comments
RON BEATY — Jan 4 2010 08:01 PM
As a colonial-rooted Cape Cod native who firmly believes in the sanctity
of our maritime heritage, I am writing to ardently express my steadfast
support for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. Based upon sensible
logic, data and reasoning, I am also conversely opposed to the
controversial Cape Wind Project which seeks to despoil and rob us of the
pristine nautical legacy bestowed by our forefathers. As a result of the
likely profound damaging regional financial, ecological and public safety
consequences Cape Wind would wrought upon us all, it should not be allowed
to proceed forward to fruition.
The project poses a cogent danger to essential air and sea navigation.
Siting the project in Nantucket Sound is a breach of the public trust.
Contrary to their sham claims, the cost of the electricity which the
project will produce would not be cheap or competitive. It would be an
unbearable fiscal burden hoisted upon us without our sanction or consent.
Furthermore, it will represent a deleterious local economic blow by it's
absconding of undeserved taxpayer-funded subsidies, forced real estate
devaluations, and lost revenues from commercial and tourism activities.
The proposed one hundred thirty wind turbines will perpetually cause
unsightly visual contamination and distressing noise pollution. Finally,
Cape Wind will unnecessarily endanger a critical marine and wildlife
habitat.
Off-shore deep water wind has surfaced as a cost-effective and
technologically feasible option in lieu of the Nantucket Sound situated
Cape Wind Project. Cape Wind has chosen a location which possesses
countless expenses as well as hazards to public safety, the marine
environment, and the local economy. Deeper-water sites offer more powerful
winds and the advantages of clean renewable energy without surrendering
the irreplaceable natural beauty of Nantucket Sound.
More distantly sited off-shore locations guarantee the advantages of clean
wind power without many of the harmful effects of close-shore siting.
Furthermore, there would be little harmful impact upon air and marine
navigational safety and local tourist-based economies.
In 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab
(NREL) estimated a total off-shore wind energy resource of over 1000 GW.
The potential for deep water locations greater than 30 m (or 100 feet) is
enormous. Approximately ninety percent of the off-shore wind potential in
the United States resides in deep water.
With the aforesaid thoughtful rationales in mind, along with the
inherently unfair and inequitable nature of the proposed Cape Wind Project
itself, it must not become a reality which will forever doom our children
and grandchildren to a ghastly socially inhumane legacy.
Ron Beaty
West Barnstable, MA