Article
Fresh Breeze For Wind Project - Bush Gives Momentum To Alternative Energy
Hartford Current|David Funkhouser, Staff Writer|February 4, 2006
NEW HAVEN -- The head of Cape Wind Associates, the company that wants to plant the first offshore wind farm in the United States in Nantucket Sound, hopes his project will get a boost from President Bush's remarks promoting alternative energy in his State of the Union speech this week.
NEW HAVEN -- The head of Cape Wind Associates, the company that wants to plant the first offshore wind farm in the United States in Nantucket Sound, hopes his project will get a boost from President Bush's remarks promoting alternative energy in his State of the Union speech this week.
"I think the president did a good job in conveying to the public that wind and solar technology cannot only boost our economy but strengthen our national security," said Jim Gordon, president of Cape Wind. Gordon spoke at the Yale School of Forestry in New Haven Thursday as part of a lecture series on "Corporate Risk Management and the Environment."
Gordon offered an impassioned defense of the project, which would set 130 wind power turbines in Horseshoe Shoals, between Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The turbines, each more than 400 feet tall, would produce 75 percent of the electricity used by the Cape and the islands.
He called the project "the gateway to tapping a vast offshore resource of wind energy." Gordon cited a …
"I think the president did a good job in conveying to the public that wind and solar technology cannot only boost our economy but strengthen our national security," said Jim Gordon, president of Cape Wind. Gordon spoke at the Yale School of Forestry in New Haven Thursday as part of a lecture series on "Corporate Risk Management and the Environment."
Gordon offered an impassioned defense of the project, which would set 130 wind power turbines in Horseshoe Shoals, between Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The turbines, each more than 400 feet tall, would produce 75 percent of the electricity used by the Cape and the islands.
He called the project "the gateway to tapping a vast offshore resource of wind energy." Gordon cited a Department of Energy report that estimated the potential for wind power could equal the total existing output of electrical plants in the U.S., some 900,000 megawatts.
He said Cape Wind would reduce the nation's dependence on foreign energy sources, cut the cost of electricity, reduce air pollution and help address climate change by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.
Cape Wind has the endorsement of many environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council and others.
But the project has powerful opponents: It would sit 7 miles off Hyannis, 9 miles off Nantucket and about 15 miles off the Vineyard, summer destinations for some of the wealthiest people in the country.
The opposition, including billionaire sailor Bill Koch, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has spent millions to defeat Cape Wind. They have raised concerns that the wind farm will spoil the view, hurt the tourist economy, damage the seabed and pose a hazard to migratory birds. Gordon rebutted those claims.
"Here we found a site that had some of the best wind resources on the East Coast, didn't have a lot of conflicting ... uses, and was next to a rapidly growing electric demand center with very high electric costs," Gordon told the Yale audience. "Now that's the good news. The bad news is, I'm surrounded by some of the wealthiest lawyers and most politically influential people in the country."
He urged students and faculty to contact senators and congressmen to help thwart attempts to spike the project.
Cape Wind has been working its way through state and federal agencies for years. The 2005 Energy Policy Act put it under the jurisdiction of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, further delaying approval.
In December, U.S. Rep. Don Young of Alaska inserted a measure into a Coast Guard reauthorization bill that would require wind turbines to be located at least a mile and a half from shipping and ferry lanes. If approved, the measure would kill the Cape Wind project.
"There is no perfect solution," Gordon said. With demand for energy growing, he said, the nation can either build more nuclear, coal-fired or gas-fired plants, or find alternative sources of energy.
"You can't say you're a supporter of renewable energy, but when it becomes a distant view on your horizon, you oppose it," he said.
With the backdrop of high oil prices and Middle East instability, Bush on Tuesday proposed increasing funding for clean energy research by 22 percent, including zero-emission coal-fired power plants, solar and wind technology, and nuclear energy. He also wants to boost research into electric and hydrogen-powered cars and new ways of producing ethanol.
He said his goal is to reduce the country's dependence on oil from the Middle East by 75 percent by 2025.
The nation imports just over 60 percent of its oil. The Middle East accounted for more than 20 percent of imports last year.
Efforts to wean the country from foreign sources of energy and develop alternatives to fossil fuels date to the administration of Jimmy Carter and the oil crisis of the early 1970s.
Two years ago, then-Gov. John G. Rowland set the state on a course to buy 20 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2010, and 100 percent by 2050. A number of towns have signed on to the clean energy program as well.