Wind Power Woes

Implications: The use of onshore windpower has made remarkable strides in the US where the proper conditions exist, for example, in Texas where windy conditions are endemic and where the body politic supports initiatives of this type. In contrast, the major US effort for offshore widnpower, the Cape Wind project in Naragansett Bay, has been stymied over classic NIMBY issues.

Analysis:

 At current energy prices, windpower is one of the very few "green" sources that actually makes economic sense. In Massachusetts, despite the wishes of the Governor, the Federal Government and even the wishes of the local population who would use the power, the Cape Wind project is still in limbo.

Their nemesis is an environmental lobby spearheaded by wealthy land owners on Cape Cod, including Ted Kennedy, the state Attorney General, and at least one wealthy yacht owner, Walter Cronkite. To be fair, they are just exercising their congressionally granted rights, the sort of rights that aren't as prevalent in the U.K. and in Europe.

It's ironic that the U.S. objectors are all proponents of green power. For example, they have absolutely nothing against wind power in Maine. They just don't want to have to see the profile of a windmill several miles away when they look out of their breakfast windows. In the yachtsmen's case, he claims that windmills are a hazard to navigation, even though they will be sited on a relatively shallow, Federally controlled, sand bank.

If offshore windpower in the U.S., or any other sort of alternative energy initiative, is to move forward, we will need to re-examine some of our more recently granted rights to stymie the will of the majority.

In other words, offshore windpower is not an economic issue or a technical issue, it is a political problem of the first magnitude,