GE workers work for wind: Lynn plant will benefit from project off Cape Cod (Unions vs. Dems!)

Blue-collar General Electric workers in Lynn have launched a campaign to support a planned Nantucket Sound wind farm project vehemently opposed by many of the rich and famous residents of Cape Cod and the islands.

Leaders of the IUE-CWA Local 201, which represents 2,500 workers at GE's Riverworks plant, are passing out petitions and meeting with lawmakers in an effort to promote wind energy and possibly create hundreds of manufacturing jobs in Lynn.

GE, via its wind-energy unit, is in line to land the more-than-$200 million contract to build the 130 giant wind turbines for the proposed project, spearheaded by Cape Wind Associates.

With the absence of fuel cost, such a system will obviously be feasible over the long haul, barring unusual maintenance costs. The "kinks" to be worked out will be the resistance of the usual suspects who want no progress in this country, who ironically are the same ones who pushed this concept to start with, and the vested interest in existing systems, including oil, natural gas, and coal companies as well as those who transport them.

I assume when the wind farms connect to the existing grid they are paid by the grid operator who then sells to the end user or to a final distribution organization of some sort. If so, it may take awhile for savings to trickle down.

In order to become the dominant technology, there will have to be enough of them to meet today's needs as well as have the ability to expand to meet future needs. I know you addressed that potential limitation, but it comes to mind that inland sources of supplies will have to supplement the offshore generation. I doubt solar will have the capacity so it is either oil/gas or nuclear, pronounced nuke-u-lar. :-)

That will put the left in a bind. Do they fight the emerging technology which they previously supported, or do they still fight the existing systems? Since they have had no problem with hypocrisy in the past I guess they will fight them all.

In the US wind energy is purchased by the local/regional utility under a long-term contract, with or without an inflation adjuster. As such, unlike oil, gas, or coal, wind is not subject to price fluctuations or the cost of delivering fuel. Whether or not the utility passes along any savings of wind energy to consumers would be up the utility.

Wind is certainly not a baseload form of power generation, but it is a good alternative to supplement baseload power and/or allow for the retirement of older, less efficient and more polluting power plants. In fact, there are several old oil-fired power plants in New England that GreenPeace wants shut down, and the Cape Wind offshore wind farm could help supplement (replace?) the power these oil-fired plants currently generate.

But you're right, the Left will have to battle its own hypocrisy.

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