RFK Jr.: Not in My Backyard

Robert F. Kennedy Jr wants environmentally friendly sources of energy, but not if it spoils the view from Hyannis Port! This is classic armchair quarterback stuff.

AS an environmentalist, I support wind power, including wind power on the high seas. I am also involved in siting wind farms in appropriate landscapes, of which there are many. But I do believe that some places should be off limits to any sort of industrial development. I wouldn't build a wind farm in Yosemite National Park. Nor would I build one on Nantucket Sound, which is exactly what the company Energy Management is trying to do with its Cape Wind project.

Environmental groups have been enticed by Cape Wind, but they should be wary of lending support to energy companies that are trying to privatize the commons - in this case 24 square miles of a heavily used waterway. And because offshore wind costs twice as much as gas-fired electricity and significantly more than onshore wind, the project is financially feasible only because the federal and state governments have promised $241 million in subsidies.

Cape Wind's proposal involves construction of 130 giant turbines whose windmill arms will reach 417 feet above the water and be visible for up to 26 miles. These turbines are less than six miles from shore and would be seen from Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Hundreds of flashing lights to warn airplanes away from the turbines will steal the stars and nighttime views. The noise of the turbines will be audible onshore. A transformer substation rising 100 feet above the sound would house giant helicopter pads and 40,000 gallons of potentially hazardous oil.

The Yosemite Park example is a straw man. I wouldn't build a homeless shelter in Hyannis Port either. Big deal. And the concerns about whirling turbines and potentially dangerous oil would happen anywhere they put these things. This is absolutely no different from the limousine liberal outrage you'd get from building low income housing in Chappaqua. If you build it, they will howl. Utter hypocrisy.

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Comments

[Dave]

Yosemite is overrated and under-exploited. I would build on it. Land is to be used, not preserved in some halcyon state of utopia.

[James Aach]

Another energy option being discussed in nuclear power. Few truly understand the good and bad points of this energy source. (There are plenty of both.) There's an easy way to do this, however - - a new techno-thriller novel about the American nuclear power industry, written by a longtime nuclear engineer (me). This book provides an entertaining and accurate portrait of the nuclear industry today and how a nuclear accident would be handled. It is called “Rad Decision”, and is at RadDecision.blogspot.com. There is no cost to readers.

http://RadDecision.blogspot.com If you find it useful, please pass the word.