I would like to offer my response to Edward Achorn's Jan. 3 Commentary column, "Curb your enviromentalism": Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an environmental lawyer who recognizes, appropriately, that not all locations are suitable for an industrial-scale wind facility.

The Nantucket Sound region is a fragile marine environment on the active list under consideration for sanctuary status by the federal government. Nantucket Sound exists in the North Atlantic Flyway. It is a habitat to endangered species protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The Department of the Interior, the lead permitting agency, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued guidelines for siting wind towers in 2003:

-- Avoid placing turbines in documented locations of any species of wildlife, fish, or plant protected under the ESA.

-- Avoid locating turbines in known local bird-migration pathways or in areas where birds are highly concentrated, unless mortality risk is low (e.g., birds rarely enter the rotor-swept area). Examples of high-concentration areas for birds are wetlands, state or federal refuges, private duck clubs, staging areas, rookeries, roosts, riparian areas along streams, and landfills.

-- Avoid known daily-movement flyways (e.g., between roosting and feeding areas) and areas with a high incidence of fog, mist, low cloud ceilings, and low visibility.

Avoid siting wind towers in Nantucket Sound, in other words.