That proposal already has defined the Cape region as a battleground in the national debate over future energy sources.

EASTHAM -- Eastham is poised to become the first Lower Cape town to sail boldly toward land-based wind power. The town’s Energy Committee in January will issue Requests for Proposals from private developers to install up to four, 400-foot-tall wind turbines on two parcels of town-owned property in North Eastham. At a community meeting in town hall Saturday, committee members explained the process and the reasons behind the project as more than 80 townspeople listened intently.

If the town decides to put up a wind turbine it could cost as little as $25, the membership fee of a local cooperative. Seems like a pretty good deal, especially since turbines cost about $4.3 million apiece, and that doesn't include maintenance or repairs. And as icing on the cake the town would receive lease payments as well. ...There is a small risk for towns, added Downey. If additional financing power is needed the cooperative may ask towns to put their credit behind a project. If a town refused, it would be terminated as a member. That clause worried some selectmen, particularly David Schropfer who thought larger towns may push smaller towns, such as Eastham, into a risk they couldn't afford.

EASTHAM - Homeowners opposed to a proposed wind turbine project in town peppered the energy committee with data, anecdotes from other areas of the country, and vitriol yesterday. ''My property values are going to go through the basement,'' Lori Hovenstine told the committee during a meeting at Eastham Town Hall to air concerns about the town's plans to build four 400-foot-tall wind turbines in North Eastham. About 60 people cheered speakers and mumbled under their breath at committee chairman Brian Eastman's attempts to clarify some of their claims. People, most of them abutters to the proposed site off Nauset Road, said they were worried about view obstruction, noise, environmental damage and the durability of the turbines' enormous blades. ''These wind turbines are gargantuan monstrosities,'' Robert Misterka said. ''To put a heavy industrial development in the midst of a peaceful neighborhood is irresponsible.'' He said the 400-foot structures would dwarf the 220-foot-tall Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown.

Nauset Regional High School is exploring the possible use of town-owned land as a site for a wind turbine. Voters may be asked in May if "they'd like to discuss leasing us some land," Nauset principal Thomas M. Conrad told the Nauset Regional School Committee at a meeting Thursday in Orleans.

EASTHAM - Imagine four, 400-foot high wind turbines spinning in the air on the 13 acres of town-owned land off Nauset Road and abutting Cape Cod Rail Trail and Cape Cod National Seashore. At least two of the turbines would be visible as you drive along Route 6.

When it comes to getting major municipal projects approved at town meeting, Eastham looks a lot more like struggling Julio Lugo than Red Sox batting leader Kevin Youkilis. Three major municipal projects - a four-turbine wind farm, a 250-space parking lot and oceanside beach, and a $75 million municipal water system - are all in holding patterns through a combination of negative town meeting votes, pending litigation, and/or determined opposition. Major projects often require a two-thirds vote at town meeting, and that can be the choke point for a project, particularly in the face of a determined opposition.

Why some residents of Cape Cod refuse to plug in to offshore wind-energy project

With Edgartown in the lead, the Vineyard is poised to join with Nantucket and Cong. William Delahunt in pushing for the establishment of an offshore energy zone to harness wind, wave and possibly tidal energy from waters between the two Islands. The move is a first step toward the goal of making the Islands energy independent.

Neighbors and licensing authorities, who had received assurances that the turbine would be quiet and unobtrusive, had decided to give it a try. But once the turbine was up and running, they found the noise generated by the turbine a constant irritation.

The November 5 decision by the Martha's Vineyard Commission to create a district of critical planning concern (DCPC) for wind energy projects across the Island, but excepting Edgartown, demonstrated unusual discretion on the part of the regional agency. Spreading, not restricting, its portfolio is the customary MVC practice. Several commission members were not happy about the exception, going so far as to suggest that heeding to the Edgartown selectmen's request that their town be left out of this particular DCPC was unwarranted. After all, their argument went, it was just three Edgartonians asking for the exception, not really the town.

Nationally, demand for electricity is leveling off as residential power use falls, experts say, reversing a long upward trend. More efficient lighting and electric devices are partly credited for the change. New homes also are being built to use less electricity and government subsidies ...help older homes use less power. Rourke said the weak economy also has contributed to reduced electricity use.

No Cape and Islands subject has impacted the governor’s race like the controversial proposal by Cape Wind to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound.

The project, including the early research and the last stages of construction, will cost close to $1.7 million. The school had financial and other help from a variety of sources ...Spectators won't have to get too close to check it out: The turbine measures 262 feet to the tip of its tallest blade and is visible from Route 146, Interstate 290 and as far away as the second floor of Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Gordon Library, according to WPI.

At The Trinity Collection, high-end watches can fetch up to $8,000. But even the owners of the small Main Street store balk at the price they now pay for electricity, which can reach $800 a month during the summer, and how much more they would pay if the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm is built.

In 2011, Princeton residents' electric rates were 36 percent higher than the average rate in Massachusetts. The average PMLD customer using approximately 800 kilowatts per hour of energy a month paid $516 more for electricity in 2011 than the average Massachusetts customer paid. In 2011, the wind turbine project lost $628,000. From Jan. 1, 2010 through June 20, 2012, the wind turbine project has lost $1,875,000.

Legislators in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic passed a number of bills applying to the electric power industry, with several states committing to emissions reductions through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and other states making broad organizational changes to their regulatory processes.

The Compact was created in 1997 to buy energy in bulk for residents of the Cape and the Vineyard, as well as to provide energy-efficiency programs. The [Cape and Vineyard Electric] Cooperative was formed in 2007 to pursue renewable energy projects ..."We found that there was just so many people who were involved in both organizations."

The three schools are a large consumer of electrical power in town, with the middle-high school using more electricity than any other building. To help cut back on costs and be more “green,” the Energy Committee has begun looking into harnessing the power of the wind through turbines. Its thought is that one large turbine could be erected at the Recycle Transfer Facility, and a second smaller turbine could be erected at the high school, both of which could save the town a lot of money. In these difficult fiscal times, saving money where possible would be a plus.

Members of the Alternative Energy Initiative Committee are disappointed that town meeting voters rejected a request for $55,000 to study possible sites for wind energy. ...The request was for up to $55,000 to study two places believed to have enough wind velocity to harness energy.