An ill wind off Cape Cod – A response
The New York Times ran an op ed on December 16, 2005, from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who wrote:
As an environmentalist, I support wind power, including wind power on the high seas. I am also involved in siting wind farms in appropriate landscapes, of which there are many. But I do believe that some places should be off limits to any sort of industrial development. I wouldn’t build a wind farm in Yosemite National Park. Nor would I build one on Nantucket Sound, which is exactly what the company Energy Management is trying to do with its Cape Wind project.
Michael Vickerman, Executive Director of RENEW Wisconsin, submited a response which begins:
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s litany of complaints over the proposed Cape Wind offshore wind farm is little more than conjecture spiced with hysteria. Had Mr. Kennedy bothered to bone up on the European offshore wind experience, which is extensive, he would have learned that the reality there is quite benign, nothing resembling the environmental nightmare he portrays. But what the facts say about offshore wind development is inconvenient to those who want to locate the project in somebody else’s back yard.
