Courtesy PublicAffairs
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Web-Exclusive Book Review
Cape Wind
By Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb (PublicAffairs)
Review by Jesse Kornbluth, June 2007
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We fled the Hamptons for a million good reasons, and now we go to Nantucket.
We rent at the end of the island, in a village so small and underpopulated it
looks like a stage set for Our Town. The beach is also shockingly empty,
and when we look out, so is Nantucket Sound. Pretty? Try exquisite.
If the unlikely alliance of Senator Ted Kennedy, environmentalist Robert F.
Kennedy Jr., Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, historian David McCullough,
and the richest, most conservative residents of Cape Cod have their way, the
body of water between the Cape and its southern islands will remain
virgin—that is, Jim Gordon will never be allowed to erect 130 giant wind
turbines in the Sound.
Wait. That doesn't track. The Kennedys are champions of clean,
economical fuel—and when it comes to "green" energy creation,
wind is right up there with solar. What are they doing on the same side of an
environmental issue with conservative Republicans and a few hundred elite
homeowners?
The answer's shockingly simple: if the turbines ever dotted Nantucket
Sound, the Kennedys and their Cape neighbors would actually see them from their
homes and sailboats. And that, by the evidence of Cape Wind, is all it
takes for these unlikely allies to oppose a project they'd probably
endorse—somewhere else. Oh, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound
trotted out any number of plausible reasons, from visual pollution to concern
for fish and fowl. But by the authors' account, rationality was just cover.
For Williams and Whitcomb, the opposition is a metaphor for a larger issue: who
owns America—the people or a plutocracy that buys political influence at
the first sign of provocation?
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It's not as if wind power makes no sense for New England. Forty percent
of its electricity is produced by natural gas, and with gas prices rising and
likely to keep on doing so, one cold winter could make even the middle class
feel poor. And there is wind aplenty—not just mild ocean breezes but
serious gusts that could send turbine blades spinning and electric power
inexpensively surging.
Cape Wind tells a number of stories. It's a capsule history of
real estate development on Cape Cod. A sprint through the business of
electrical power in New England. A primer on wind power. But mostly it's
the story of media and politics: how the Cape Cod newspaper, a well-subsidized
lobbying effort, Ted Kennedy's love of sailing, and Governor
Romney's desire not to offend the big oil money he'd need for a
presidential campaign came together to kneecap a brave entrepreneur.
The politics is nasty indeed. You know those blue-state Massachusetts
liberals, drinking latte and driving Volvos? They're hard to spot in these
pages. When he was running for governor, Romney railed against
"dirty" electric plants, giving hope to Cape Cod environmentalists;
soon after he was elected he turned against wind energy in Nantucket Sound.
Teddy Kennedy refused to meet Jim Gordon and covertly sponsored a congressional
bill that would have damaged only one turbine field—Gordon's. (John
Kerry, for his part, ducked the controversy.) Meanwhile, behind the scenes,
lobbyists and public relations tacticians banked six-figure salaries.
"In my 30 years as a journalist, I had never seen such a brazen attempt
to obstruct the democratic process," Williams writes. But that's also
the good news: "Unfortunately for project opponents, their behavior was
often so blatantly over-the-top that, with each bungled effort, more people
took notice."
Jim Gordon's been chipping away for six years now. It's not certain
that he'll ever prevail. Too bad the emotion that Cape Wind is
certain to generate in fair-minded readers can't be tapped and converted
into energy—I know that, reading these pages, I could have lighted a
city.
Jesse Kornbluth is the editor of HeadButler.com, a cultural concierge service
that recommends books, movies, and music. He has published seven books and has
written for many major magazines.
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