A Lot of Fast Air

Cape Wind is a wind energy company started in Cape Cod, sometime around the beginning of the Millenium. Their current project has been going since then, with local and federal approval being given in 2009 and 2010, respectively. However, since 2001, an opposition group calling itself the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound was working to stop building. Another group , Clean Power Now, arose to help with grassroots support for the project, though. Both were citing environmental reasons for supporting or opposing the project, demonstrating just how polarizing the project was. 

But the reasons for the debate (between the different environmentalist factions, anyway) were mostly centered around the location of the project, the Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound. But there were also other voices that came into play. Several prominent personalities have taken positions on the matter, including Bill Koch (who owns an estate in the area), who funded the Alliance with about 1.5 million, citing aesthetic and economic reasons for why the windmills shouldn't be installed. He was supposedly working under the idea that "It could undermine Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket’s $1 billion-a-year tourist industry, impair radar for boats and planes, kill birds, hurt fishermen and be an eyesore in a body of water that’s equivalent to a national park." No mention of his interest in the energy field that this would possibly conflict with, and his spokesperson said that it didn't play a factor. But when such a prominent businessman takes a role in such a conflict, its hard to think that they don't have some sort of angle. And on the matter of aesthetics, only 14 percent of Cape Cod residents opposed the project, according to a poll. Another poll also found that the class least likely to support the project were high-income residents of the area.

Another personality who played a role in the issue was Walter Cronkite, who also has a seaside property on the cape. When he first heard about the project, he was dead set against it, having a knee-jerk reaction to what he viewed as a hostile invasion of a peaceful body of water. However, he eventually had a change of heart, and in an interview said '"I must say, as [the wind farm] was presented to me, I had to clench my teeth to be sure I didn't get hysterical," Cronkite said in a phone interview. "It sounded like such a ghastly invasion of this wonderful body of water, which is Nantucket Sound. I will confess, also, that I did not do my own homework as I should have before making the statements. I did not and I can only regret that now."' His image and opinions had been used for ad campaigns for the Alliance, but after thinking about it and taking an opportunity to speak with the founder of the project, he found that the worst of his fears on the matter where not as severe in reality as he initially perceived. 

The project itself is in the initial stages now, with testing being done in the area to see how the bases of the turbines should be designed to be best suited for their install locations. The project seems to be taking its time, and not rushing development, in the interest of making sure the impact is low during installation, and that accidents are not likely to happen. While they still need to get a portion of their funding together, the company is perhaps planning a bit too far ahead by beginning the process to purchase a marina that they plan to use as headquarters to manage and maintain the windfarm. However, they see it as a measure of their commitment to the project. 

Only time will tell the long term effects of the project, but it seems that at least the Cape Wind company is doing what they can to try and minimize the adverse effects in both the short and long term. For the most part, it seems that those opposed to the project are either overreacting, or focusing on the wrong reasons for countering the project.