Kennedy faces fight on Cape Wind: Key lawmakers oppose his bid to block project
WASHINGTON — As record oil prices turn attention to the need for renewable fuels, momentum is building in Congress to buck Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s bid to block the proposed Cape Cod wind energy project, potentially reviving efforts to construct the sprawling windmill farm in Nantucket Sound.
One of the saddest and most distressing aspects of modern political gamesmanship is the intersection between public policy and self-interest. Here we are, in the midst of a gasoline crisis, when you’d think that the search for alternative energy sources would be of prime importance. And then there’s Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who opposes a windfarm in Massachusetts’ Nantucket Sound, ostensibly because it’s a mere eight miles from his own. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that window power is the answer to all that ails us, but wind is an inexhaustible research, and a source of power that could potentially make a difference, if not today then certainly in years to come. For a US Senator to oppose the Cape Cod Wind Farm because it’s too close to home rises to a degree of hypocrisy I would normally only attribute to Republicans.
There are many things I admire about Sen. Kennedy, but in this case there is nothing admirable about his gross hypocrisy, and he’s seriously risking whatever political capital and credibility he has remaining.
The efforts to move the wind farm forward occur amid growing attention to Kennedy’s role in the secret, behind-the-scenes maneuvering to stop it. Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska, the senator who inserted the wind-farm provision into the Coast Guard bill, has acknowledged discussing the matter privately with the Massachusetts Democrat.
Environmental groups have launched an aggressive advertising and lobbying campaign to persuade Democrats to abandon Kennedy and back a promising source of renewable energy. If the wind farm becomes a reality, advocates say, it could provide three-fourths of the Cape and Islands’ energy needs and could set an example for the nation.
The maneuver to stop the wind farm ”is clearly a backroom deal, and they’re going to get called publicly on it,” said John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA. ”The Democrats are going to kill the first big offshore wind farm in the United States because of their relationship with Ted Kennedy.”
The 130-turbine, 24-square-mile cluster of windmills would be about 8 miles from Kennedy’s home in Hyannis Port, and he has long opposed it. The Coast Guard bill would give Governor Mitt Romney, another wind farm opponent, the power to veto it, even if the project clears all other hurdles.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Ted Kennedy….
The Cape Cod wind farm will not solve our energy problems, but it’s a step in the right direction. For Sen. Kennedy to oppose it out of self-interest (and an alleged concern for the scenery and tourist potential of Cape Cod) is so wrong it almost defies description. While I’m angered by Kennedy’s perfidy and self-interest, Adam is truly outraged, as he outlined in this space earlier this month.
Kennedy argues that property values will decline and the local economy will be hurt because tourists don’t want to see turbines. This is disputed by a report that includes assessments from 17 different government agencies that concluded that property values are unlikely to drop and that the economy would probably be boosted from both increased tourism and the jobs created by the farm’s operation….
[T]his adds up to one unavoidable truth: many of our elected leaders have self- and corporate interests ranked ahead of the public interest in matters of serious consequence. If it were up to me, they would be publicly humiliated and forced to resign because of it, but sadly, I know that’s not going to happen. What I can hope for is that by exposing just a tiny clip of the ridiculous dealings that lead to the implementation of policy here, I can inspire a few people to learn a little more and become a little more involved in changing things.
This should be self-evident, but….
WE DESERVE BETTER….
