Windstorm; Why Are 'Environmentalists' Opposing Windmills in Nantucket Sound?

ABC News ^ | 7.25.03 | John Stossel

[mhking]

July 25— It's windy enough on Massachusetts' Nantucket Sound — the waters between Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard — that it makes the Sound an ideal idea place for windmills that generate electricity.

Wind farms are popular in Europe and California, and environmentalists like them because they're a relatively clean way to produce electricity. It's a reason Jim Gordon proposes to install 130 wind turbines 6 ½ miles off the coast of Cape Cod.

But there's a problem.

Although the Natural Resources Defense Council, and its attorney, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., support wind power (Kennedy says he's "strongly in favor of wind-energy production at sea,") Kennedy doesn't want a wind farm on Nantucket Sound, where his family might see it from their elegant compound in Hyannis Port.

Veteran newsman Walter Cronkite doesn't want Gordon's wind farm here either. Cronkite likes to sail on Nantucket Sound. He did a commercial for a group that's fighting the wind farm. In it, he says, "Our natural treasures should be off limits to industrialization and Nantucket Sound is one of those treasures."

His ad was paid for by the Alliance to Protect the Sound, which also supports wind power, but not on Nantucket Sound

The group's president, Isaac Rosen, complains that the developers will "make a fortune," and says, "I think building turbines, building machinery in an area where people go to get away from industry, to get away from machinery is wrong."

Is a wind farm is going to wreck that?

"I think building turbines, building machinery in an area where people go to get away from industry, to get away from machinery is wrong," Rosen said.

Gordon disagrees. He says his opponents "just don't want to live with a half-inch view off the horizon of wind turbines."

Rosen says Gordon and the developers are "trying to say, again, that it's just a bunch of rich people who are concerned with their views."

Don't they have a point?

Rosen said, "I think, you know, rich people and poor people have a right to our public resources."

At the marina, some people agreed, a wind farm would mar their public resources.

"I don't like it because I think it just ruins the natural beauty of the water," said one yacht owner.

Really? The "natural beauty" includes yachts like his, ferries, jet skis, all kinds of noisy boats. But a wind farm would ruin it?

Not in My Backyard Syndrome?

"That's the 'Not in My Backyard' syndrome again," one man told us.

Plenty of people like the idea of windmills. "Actually they look kind of cool!" one man said.

I agree. They look almost like sculpture. In Denmark they advertise them as a tourist attraction. But the opponents say windmills would do all kinds of terrible things.

Cronkite says in his commercial against the wind farm, "These massive wind turbines could disrupt the natural habitat for wildlife in the Sound and endanger boats."

Endanger boats? Makes me wonder how they miss ramming each other now. The windmills would hardly be a blockade. They'll be six to nine football fields apart from each other.

As ferry boat captain Richard Elrick puts it, "The turbines are gonna be placed so far apart that if any boater who's out there can't safely navigate around them, he ought not be out there sailing."

Walter Cronkite wouldn't do a TV interview, but on the phone told me, "Why shouldn't I be concerned? Who else will be concerned about my backyard?"

Robert Kennedy Jr. wouldn't do an interview either.

Isn't it hypocritical for Kennedy to preach conservation, and then object to an environmentally conscientious wind farm off his house?

Rosen said he doesn't see any hypocrisy. "I think it's perfectly consistent with mainstream environmentalism to say that our public resources are not up for grabs."

He said his group supported wind turbines on land.

So would Rosen's group support wind farms next to the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port?

"No, I guess what we're saying is that certain areas will be off limits to development," Rosen said.

Right, especially areas where rich environmentalists like to spend the summer.

Give me a break.

For more information, visit the following Web sites:

Wind farm developer Cape Wind: www.capewind.org

Wind farm opponent Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound: www.saveoursound.org

[petuniasevan]

NIMBY. NIMBY NIMBY NIMBYNIMBYNIMBY...

That's the cry of the limousine liberal.

[AdamSelene235]

Energy is the lifeblood of civilization.

Greenies hate everything about civilization: people,kids,energy,intellect,technology,etc,etc.

[OpusatFR]

Those things are a vast field of eyesores. The ones that line the highway going toward Palm Springs are just nasty looking pieces of industrial trash. Can't say that I blame the folks in Nantucket. Now, why are they trying to push them into the Chesapeake Bay!!?? Do you suppose I like them trashing my ~public~ view anymore than they like their ~public~ view contaminated?

[vger]

I think of them as dynamic art! Remember Christo's umbrellas? They were cool but they didn't produce any power. I say let's build 'em all over Nantucket Sound, it's better than the eyesores caused by new england's coal burning smudge pot energy plants by a long run!

[BenLurkin]

"Kennedy doesn't want a wind farm on Nantucket Sound, where his family might see it from their elegant compound in Hyannis Port. Veteran newsman Walter Cronkite doesn't want Gordon's wind farm here either. Cronkite likes to sail on Nantucket Sound."

So-oo typical. Limousine liberals want all the taxing and regulation to hurt other people while they use those same regulations to secure their priveleged lifestyles.

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

One of the primary requirements of being a liberal, besides checking your brain at the door, is to be an unabashed hypocrite in all things.

[BenLurkin]

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Excellent idea for a magazine!

[Cindy]

re post no. 3...


You beat me to it. Envirowhackos want absolutely nothing to do with civilization. They want everything to be pristine and -- no people.

[NutmegDevil]

There is a bunch of windmills visible in the north of the Irish Republic. They are quite elegant, not the same look as those Golden Eagle mixmaster/blender contraptions in California. Much more attractive than some yachts I've seen. I vote for Windpower in Nantucket Harbor.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

The group's president, Isaac Rosen, complains ... and says, "I think building turbines, building machinery in an area where people go to get away from industry, to get away from machinery is wrong."

Just how does a mammal with no fins or webbing get six miles out into the ocean without the help of machines? Without the help of technology these whackos are fish bait.

[diefree]

I love the modern windmills. I've seen them all over Europe and I think they're beautiful, especially when there are hundreds (or what seems like hundreds) of them together, all turning at the same time. They give off a very peaceful feeling.

[Cindy]

re post no. 11

I vote for Windpower in Nantucket Harbor, too. There are some beautiful windmills and wind power is a good source of energy. It must be true because, generally speaking, all the enviro types have said so.

[philetus]

You can't put one in Kennedy's or Cronkite's backyard, but the two of them would support putting them in my or your backyards.

They would even support taking all your property.

[meyer]

NIMBY is exactly right. It is the only reason.

I'd love to see somebody build a big, fat, soot-snorting coal-fired old-technology power plant there. :)

[uglybiker]

Why Are 'Environmentalists' Opposing Windmills in Nantucket Sound?

I can hear it now...

There once was Don Quixote from Nantucket....

[em2vn]

Right you are. Dramatic pieces of functional art. I enjoy watching them from afar. They are beautiful.

[speekinout]

I think those windmills are godawful. And I really don't understand how some people can think a few hundred of them are less offensive than one oil rig.

[pabianice]

Bed-wetting Liberals hate windmills because they turn to the right...

[vger]

Check out Tehachapi, California!! There are hundreds of them cranking out power. Go East on Hwy 58 from Bakersfield, they are almost hypnotic. I would like to put a giant one on my house. Maybe the libs would think it was more beautiful than the rusty car bodies in my front yard!!

[Leisler]

On the one hand the project is going to get 28 million a year, for ever, from the taxpayer. I'm against that. Further, it isn't a friendly or efficient way to make energy. So, strike two. However, to me anyways, if it it drives these fagu fakes up the wall, I'm for it. By the way, the Hudson Riverkeepers and Robert Kennedy and all the Hudson trust fund greenies were against a power line coming down around Storm Mountian on the Hudson and had it moved to a more working class route.

[mathurine]

Was there anything, anytime, anywhere that a Kennedy or a Cronkite did altruistically. Wealthy, self-indulgent two-tongued peckerheads is what they are and they don't care about anything but themselves.

[Inspectorette]

Check out Tehachapi, California!! There are hundreds of them cranking out power. Go East on Hwy 58 from Bakersfield, they are almost hypnotic.

Whenever we drive through there, we're fascinated by them. Huell Howser, who is an enormously popular TV personality out here on KCET (PBS), has featured them on one of his shows. He went up to the top of one of the tallest of them (really scary), and he extolled the virtues of them. (Hard to believe from PBS ;-)

[AndyJackson]

Nantucket Sound, where his family might see it from their elegant compound in Hyannis Port

The Kennedy's are known for their penetrating eyesight-when they are sober.

[attagirl]

it seems to me I read the enviros were against these in CA claiming they were disruptive to migrating birds or some such nonsense. The truth is they just want us beholding to Big Brother.

As far as the rich folks go, it's selfishness. Yeah--I agree. Some of those boats they own are just PLAIN UGLY--and gas guzzlers too. But no one consults me before they buy.

oh, well. In the meantime, let's all exhale all at once and blow these jerks away!

[RightWhale]

They are all sailors out there. Windfarms will affect recreational sailing, but each tower will have a light and a bell. Sailors are adaptible; they can adapt to windfarms.

[virgil]

Seems like we've come full circle. Farmers got their electricity for years from their own private "windchargers". Why can't people just get their own?

[breakem]

Nuclear

[gonzo]

"...On the one hand the project is going to get 28 million a year, for ever, from the taxpayer. I'm against that. Further, it isn't a friendly or efficient way to make energy..."

Yup! 28 mil a year for maintenance - above and beyond the value of any electricity produced!

The cheap, coal-fired generators be damned, and forget about nuclear. The 'Greenies' are nuts, and the limo-liberals are Wealthy, self-indulgent two-tongued peckerheads!!...........FRegards

[ccmay]

especially areas where rich environmentalists like to spend the summer.

A developer is someone who wants to build a house in the woods. An environmentalist is someone who already owns a house in the woods.

We have a lot of the environmentalist wackos here in Arizona who moan about the loss of all the beautiful desert. Of course, what they mean is the loss of all the beautiful desert around their own homes, as neighboring landowners claim the same rights to build as the malcontent greenies exercised previously. Every one of these hypocritical scum lives in a house on a site that was once bare virgin desert, but they are quite happy to make rules preventing the rest of us doing likewise.

And of course, outside the immediate Phoenix area there is beautiful virgin desert by the thousands of square miles, much of it already off-limits to development, and the rest unlikely to be developed even after a thousand years at the current rate.

-ccm

[jwh_Denver]

I'd love to see somebody build a big, fat, soot-snorting coal-fired old-technology power plant there. :)

Along with a couple meat packing plants.

[Rodney King]

I once new a man from Nantucket.

His... oh nevermind.