Northeast Sustainable Energy Association Urges Strong Support for Cape Wind

For over thirty years, the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association has been promoting real solutions for a better energy future. In our view, Cape Wind is the most important and positive energy development ever proposed in the Northeast.  We urge you to support Cape Wind.

The US Army Corp of Engineers’ comprehensive three year project review involved seventeen federal and state regulatory agencies and resulted in the Cape Wind Draft Environmental Impact Statement. By all criteria these agencies studied, Cape Wind is overwhelmingly positive, with no significant bird, navigational or ocean ecosystem impacts. They have concluded that Cape Wind will provide significant environmental benefits by offsetting other major sources of pollution, while stabilizing electricity pricing and reliability for the region by reducing dependence on imported fuels. And Cape Wind will help create new jobs and new economic opportunity for southeastern New England.

The Cape Wind turbines will provide the equivalent of seventy five percent of the electrical power needs for Cape Cod and the Islands, while producing no emissions or pollution. From the closest shores they will be barely visible on a clear day, just a few degrees above the horizon.  

In an era of rapidly rising world wide demand for energy, we must make real choices.  Wind power is an established and reliable solution. It is the fastest growing energy source in the world.  Wind is the lowest impact and most cost competitive energy source available. Yet some local opponents are still trying to stop Cape Wind. The environmental impact studies have shown their concerns to be generally unfounded. The only issue seriously in question is the subjective aesthetic impact of the project.

Like the sailing ships that brought prosperity to New England with their graceful beauty in earlier times, modern wind turbines are an elegant solution for today. Worldwide, in nearly every locale where wind power is in widespread use, the aesthetics of wind generators find overwhelming acceptance. Locally, in the town of Hull, Massachusetts, a wind machine located right on the shore has been embraced.  A huge majority of the townspeople want to build more.

Nantucket Sound has been polluted by spills from oil tankers bringing fuel to the power plant on Cape Cod Canal.  Other areas have also been polluted in providing power for Cape Cod and the Islands.

Ignored in most discussions of Cape Wind are the real alternatives and the aesthetic impacts of oil, gas, coal and nuclear power plants. Aesthetic blights from mining, refining, delivery and disposal of fuels for these plants, and the larger impacts of those technologies on our society, should be given serious consideration in evaluating Cape Wind. Current energy use patterns will lead to more environmental degradation, international tension and economic uncertainty.

The choice we face goes far beyond local aesthetics. Will we choose to continue our dependence on polluting fossil fuels from the Middle East? Will we choose a future plagued by international conflict, terrorism and climate change implicit in fossil fuel dependence? Will we choose to forego a golden opportunity to provide clean energy and good jobs for the region? The real question is whether we will choose a compromised future or the tremendous potential of sustainable prosperity.  

The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association chooses sustainable prosperity, and we urge you to do the same. Please write to the Army Corps of Engineers. Please reach out to friends, colleagues and opinion leaders and ask them to write and to attend the upcoming public hearings to support Cape Wind.  Addresses and schedules can be found on line at www.capewind.org/deis. Now is a critical time to be involved. Please join us with your strong support for Cape Wind.

Nancy Hazard, Executive Director, November 29, 2004

This statement on Cape Wind has been personally endorsed by the following members of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. We encourage you to add your support for this important project.

John Walsh, NESEA Board of Directors Chairman
Amelia Amon
John Abrams
Teny Bannick
Linda Ann Burtis
Bruce Coldham, AIA
Keith Dewey, AIA
Drew Gillette, PE
Joel Gordes
Paul Horowitz
Richard Komp, PhD
Richard Perez, PhD
Bill Reed, AIA
Dan Sagan, AIA
Michael Skelly
Bill Stillinger
Stephen Strong, AIA
Michael Tennis
Fred Unger
Jim Vann
Alex Wilson
Jamie Wolf