Audra Parker, chief operating officer and executive director of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, stated this past Monday in the Cape Cod Times that, “Cape Wind is nowhere near a done deal — and the fight is far from over.” Parker addressed the FAA’s release of a “presumed hazard” report regarding Cape Wind’s potential radar interference in an op-ed piece for the regional paper.

Citing the Department of Interior’s inspector general-led investigation into potential wrongdoing in the federal review of Cape Wind and the denial of a “critical” permit by the Cape Cod Commission, Parker details a laundry list of unsettled issues standing in the way of the Cape Wind project. On the offensive Audra charged, “As long as Cape Wind continues to target a heavily conflicted site, it will face serious community, political, legal and financing challenges, each one putting the project even further from reality.”

Parker, a resident of Osterville, voices concern for what many Cape Cod locals consider to be a cornerstone of the anti-Cape Wind argument: the project’s “poorly sited” location in Nantucket Sound. She asserts, “relocation is the only responsible next step” and suggests finding a “better location that doesn’t needlessly risk our safety, our economy, and our home.”

While there is no doubt that Nantucket Sound is a heavily contested area, and Cape Wind an extremely controversial project, it is unsure how much longer the fierce battle will wage on. As Parker assures, one thing is certain for the future of the highly contentious Cape Wind debate: final approval will not come easy; it will be fought tooth-and-nail until the bitter end.

Eddie Keenan IV

The MMS has extended the public comment window for the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) until March 21, 2009. A record of decision, therefore, cannot be issued by the Interior Department until after the public comment window has ended. Although this marks yet another delay for Cape Wind, the same one-month extension was issued in 2008 following the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).

Comments may be submitted to the MMS by using the Public Comment System.

Click here to view the FEIS.

The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound filed a lawsuit Feb. 20 against the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management  (CZM) challenging its finding in January that the Cape Wind project adequately meets state environmental requirements for activities in federal waters.  Charlie McLaughlin, Barnstable’s attorney, confirmed that the town filed a similar suit the same day in the county Superior Court.

This marks a shift in focus from Obama’s Interior Department, who’s decision on Cape Wind is pending, to the court system of Massachusetts. The opponents of Cape Wind contend that the state agency’s determination has violated the law and, moreover, was reached prematurely. According to a prepared statement released on Wednesday, Alliance President and CEO Glenn G. Wattley said, “In its decision on Cape Wind’s impacts, CZM has clearly violated the law and abandoned its own mission to protect our coastal environment.” The Alliance asserts that CZM failed to consult with the Cape Cod Commission on its decision as required by law.

In the prepared statement the Alliance also noted that in prior comments on Cape Wind the CZM itself has stated, “The project will have both direct and indirect impacts to natural resources and uses within the Massachusetts coastal zone and the adjacent waters.”

While it remains to be seen whether the lawsuit will significantly interfere with the Cape Wind project, you can be sure to see more legal challenges and press releases over the next several weeks.  Only two weeks ago, Alliance Audra Parker vowed the fight over the Cape Wind project was far from over, and that’s quickly becoming clear.

Eddie Keenan IV

Ken Salazar has finally spoken up about Cape Wind! No, the Secretary of the Interior has not yet signed off on a lease for the Cape Wind Associates, but his comments in a recentinterview with the Associated Press mark the first time that Salazar has publicly discussed the controversial offshore wind farm proposal.

Salazar called Cape Wind a “good project,” one that “makes sense.” But in what will surely raise the ire of Cape Wind opponents, he said that it was important “we get this thing done and not get stuck in a not-in-my-backyard syndrome.”

As if realizing that opponents don’t particularly appreciate being reduced to NIMBYists, Salazar added that the idea of picking either renewable energy or conservationism is a “false choice,” that one was not exclusive of the other.

Still no word on when we can expect the long-awaited lease for Cape Wind. Stay tuned!

Last Thursday the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) voted in favor of issuing Cape Wind Associates a “super permit,” a composite certificate that encompasses nine outstanding state and local approvals related to electric cables.

The EFSB instructed Cape Wind to work with the seaside towns of Yarmouth and Barnstable in order to agree on “reasonable and customary conditions” for permits for burying electric cables. If an agreement is not reached, the board will intervene and decide upon reasonable conditions.

If formally approved, the certificate, which will receive a final vote by EFSB within sixty days, will officially conclude Cape Wind’s permitting at both the state and local levels. In doing so the measure would effectively trump the Cape Cod Commission procedural denial of the Cape Wind project. Without missing a beat, the Cape Cod Commission fired back with claims that the state board lacks the jurisdiction to overturn its previous denial of the project. This marks the second time in the past two years that the Energy Facilities Siting Board has asserted its authority over the regional planning and regulatory agency.

Eddie Keenan IV

Speaking at a Senate Energy Committee hearing today, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar brought up Cape Wind again. While much of the hearing focused on jurisdiction over offshore alternative energy projects, Salazar did offer a vague time frame as to when we can expect a decision on the offshore wind project.

Having tossed himself into the Cape Wind fray just a week ago, Salazar said today that “we would hope that we would be able to move forward with a decision on [Cape Wind]…sometime in the next several months.”

Sometime in the next several months? Well, at least it’s something, right? Now we won’t have to keep on hitting refresh on our news-feed every fifteen minutes in anticipation of the announcement…

Following President Obama’s announcement of a finalized framework for renewable energy production on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), responses were jubilant in looking toward the future.

President Obama noted in his speech at a wind turbine factory in Iowa, “It is estimated that if we fully pursue our potential for wind energy—both on land and offshore—wind can generate as much as 20% of our electricity by 2030.”

Strangely, he mentions offshore wind projects in New Jersey and Delaware, but didn’t mention Cape Wind.  Maybe he forgot?

In an MMS press release Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said, “It is fitting that on Earth Day President Obama is taking this bold step toward opening America’s oceans and new energy frontier, so that we can wisely build a clean energy economy that will create millions of new jobs across the country.” Salazar added, “This new framework will enhance our energy security and create the foundation for a new offshore energy sector that will employ Americans developing clean and renewable energy.”

In response, a statement was issued by Civil Society Institute and Clean Power Now which read, “Now, it’s time for the Obama Administration to take the next step and issue a Record of Decision on Cape Wind as soon as possible so we can begin to move aggressively to exploit the abundant offshore wind energy potential with a shovel ready project.”

But opponents say not so fast. According to Peter Kenney, the silver bullet is that the Cape Wind permitting process is no longer grandfathered.  He said, “Now MMS can revisit all of the problems that weren’t resolved in the Federal Environmental Impact Statement.  It is clear that they have tightened up their review standards.”

Talking with the press, Salazar was careful to note that the new guidelines will definitely be applied to the Cape Wind project, so we’ll have to wait to see how that affects Cape Wind’s federal permitting process.  Obviously, there’s still plenty left to figure out at MMS.

That’s right! Cape Wind: The Fight for the Future of Power now has a home on cable television. We’ve still got a lot of work to do on the film, but this is a big step for us.  We’re putting a full court press on the editing of the film and plan on having everything wrapped up and rolling out by the end of the year.  We’re also currently developing a rather ambitious national outreach program in partnership with Working Films to accompany the film’s release.

Thanks to all who’ve supported us and in advance to those who will provide support in the future. If you or your organization is interested in learning more about our film and the outreach program we’re developing please contact me via info@rebirthproductions.net.

The lessons learned by the Cape Wind experience have universal applications, so no matter what community you serve or are served by, there’s something for you.

Thanks,
Dan

The site long mentioned by opponents of Cape Wind as a an alternative to Cape Wind’s offshore site has finally been selected by the state of Massachusetts for development of a sizable wind farm. Because it is relatively remote from residences, the site should have little opposition as the process for permitting begins.

Quoted from the Boston Globe:

The Massachusetts National Guard today announced a proposal to build a wind farm on the Massachusetts Military Reservation that would include up to 17 turbines and vastly increase the amount of electricity generated by wind power in the state.

As the first of many steps toward building the project at the 22,000-acre facility on Cape Cod, the National Guard has filed a site plan for review with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Force Space Command.

Depending on the size, number, and capacity of the turbines, the project could produce up to 34 megawatts of power, boosting Governor Deval Patrick’s goal to develop 2,000 megawatts of wind power in Massachusetts by 2020. Currently, 11 wind turbines across the state have a total capacity of 6.8 megawatts, according to Robert Keough, spokesman for the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

The plan has won the support of numerous elected officials, including Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and US Representative William Delahunt.
“Putting wind turbines at MMR makes sense both economically and environmentally,” said Murray.

The plan has also received the support of community activists who have vehemently protested the Cape Wind project, a controversial proposal to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. “It’s something we’ve been saying all along, that you can say yes to wind, but no to Cape Wind,” said Audra Parker, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.

Mark Rodgers, a Cape Wind spokesman, said the project had considered the reservation as a potential site but eventually rejected it. “We determined placing the same kind of wind farm there as we’re looking to do offshore could probably produce half as much energy,” he said. “That said, there certainly is good potential to do wind development at that site.”

Before projects go forward, the FAA reviews them to determine if they pose a hazard to aviation, said Jim Peters, New England spokesman for the FAA. Wind turbines, for example, can interfere with air traffic radar signals (a problem that has been raised with the Cape Wind project). If it is determined that the project is a hazard, the FAA will provide a list of ways to mitigate the hazard in order to move forward, Peters said.

For those of you familiar with the Cape Wind fight, you know that it hasn’t always been the stuff of tea parties. As a reminder that the cultural phenomenon of Cape Wind can get pretty weird, folks are now arguing over the legacy of “the most trusted man in America”. Yesterday, Walter Brooks, publisher and editor of the blossoming “online newspaper” Cape Cod Today, and ardent Cape Wind supporter, took Cliff Carroll to task over comments at the Windstop.org website about Walter Cronkite’s early role as unwitting spokesman for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound

There was a lot of media coverage surrounding Cronkite’s statements and subsequent revisions, but the history is known mostly through anecdotes, which you’ll see in the film. As usual for Cape Wind, tempers are flared and the language is pointed. After all, if Cape Wind is about anything, it’s about the Future of Power in America.

See Windstop’s post at their homepage: windstop.org, and Walter’s reaction at Cape Cod Today: http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/2009/08/06/21st-centory-american-toies-sink-to-new?blog=69

This morning’s Providence Journal takes a comprehensive look at the offshore wind race and is well worth the read: check it out here. As we’ve been saying since the beginning, offshore wind is huge - not just because the turbines are 400 feet tall, but because it’s worth potentially $50 billion over the next decade. Cape Wind is just the tip of the iceberg. The big story emerging from that potential is about the regional battle over who gets the first steel in the ground.

More than being a symbolic leader in an imaginary race, the first company to build will likely dictate where massive manufacturing facilities are set up, leading to a technology cluster around their operations, much like Silicon Valley or the 128 strip. This is why governors and legislatures are moving quickly to create favorable rules, tax incentives and public sentiment.

Anyhow, check out the article to get the full scoop, and stay tuned here. We’ll be releasing a new trailer for the film soon, but don’t tell anyone.

As Hurricane Bill and the Presidential vacation bear down Martha’s Vineyard — only Obama’s arrival is certain — the island is whipping into a fury. Residents and businesses are preparing for an influx of national press and paparazzi and anticipate a big economic boost after a disappointing June. With the Washington press corps coming, reporters are looking for a narrative to hammer all week. The storyline is already starting to take shape.

Much to our delight, the Cape Wind debate, which is omnipresent in the island community, is popping up in national bylines (see National Journal), threatening to steal some of the thunder.

And the rumors are abounding that activists will be all over the island from both sides of the Cape Wind battle, hoping to catch Obama’s eyes and ears. His visit serves as an apt reminder of how important his role is in the Cape Wind debate. Since January’s favorable federal report the Cape Wind project has been stuck in limbo, awaiting a final decision from the President’s Interior Secretary on whether it can move forward. The decision is expected to come in the next month or so, but the feds have missed every other arbitrary deadline they’ve set before, so the battlers of Cape Wind are going on the offensive.

Be sure to contact us if you hear anything exciting or want to meet us on the island and get yourself on camera.

News from the film as well! The new trailer, which we premiered at Silverdocs, will be posted here and everywhere on Monday. We’ll also be updating regularly on the shenanigans over the next week, posting pictures and linking to stories, so stay tuned.

Cape Wind has been all over the news in the last several weeks, and here I’ll do my best to briefly summarize them in order, starting with Obama’s Vineyard vacation, three weeks ago.

Obama arrived on Martha’s Vineyard Sunday via Marine One, and we only know this because of reports out of the White House. Not surprisingly, Obama made no mention of Cape Wind in between golf rounds, but there was plenty abuzz. Both the Alliance and Clean Power Now made it into a front page story in the LA Times which portrayed the delays for Cape Wind as bureaucratic lolly-gagging at the federal level. As opponents to the project would counter, there’s still a lot of questions to be answered. Anyhow, the piece is a great brush up on the Cape Wind state of affairs.

I mention the LA Times story first because it was written prior to the untimely passing of Massachusetts senior Senator Ted Kennedy. Kennedy’s legacy of fighting for Massachusetts, civil rights, women and the poor might never be matched, and his passing punctuates the painful vacuum of civility in our current discourse over healthcare. With regards to Cape Wind, his absence from the debate means as much as his opposition has over the last seven years. As the most outspoken political opponent of the project and as the whip which brought many of the state’s legislators in line with him, Kennedy’s departure opens the door for new voices in the political arena to take a leadership role in the battle, whether for or against Cape Wind. Based on comments by Kennedy’s nephew, Robert Kennedy, Jr., (starts around the 16 minute mark) last week, it looks like he’s poised to take that mantle on the opposition side.

The media is certainly playing the story up. I recommend checking out this hard-hitting, if not brassy, editorial in the Boston Globe on the day of Kennedy’s burial and a thorough Cape Cod Times story here.

Later the same week, Greenpeace showed up on the scene. I was filming some BRoll of the beautiful common at the shoreline of Oak Bluffs when I noticed some people handing out fliers to passers-by. Turned out, Greenpeace made a mock Martha’s Vineyard Times set in 2029 with one side praising Obama for approving Cape Wind and another side showing people putting up levees on the shoreline to combat rising seas. Later that day they went over to the marina and released the contraption in the photo below. As usual, there were a lot of raised eyebrows and plenty of explaining to people, all of which made for great film.

Greenpeace's Float in Oak Bluff's Marina - Courtesy of the Greenpeace website.

Later that day I stopped by the press pool which had taken over the auditorium of the Oak Bluffs School to see what was happening. Much to my chagrin, it was just a whole bunch of people plucking at laptops and milling around. Apparently when the President is on vacation, there’s not much for the press corps to do but wait.

They’ve certainly been busy since then, and I’ll follow up with another post in a few.

As you may have noticed, since Obama’s visit to Martha’s Vineyard at the end of the summer, Cape Wind has been hitting the national press a couple times a week. Even as the heat of the historic Congressional battle over healthcare is cranking up, Cape Wind is making it onto the New York Times editorial page and eliciting pointed British rhetoric in the Economist. Most of the recent attention is focused on the appeal from the local Wampanoag tribes to make Nantucket Sound a historic sanctuary, which would effectively stop the project and likely create a host of other commercial restrictions for the water body. The tribes have largely been sidelined in the permitting process and certainly deserve fair consideration, but I doubt that alone is the cause of all the recent press for Cape Wind.

I think what we’re seeing is a rapid ratcheting up of the emerging environmental/energy lobby, which has long pointed to Cape Wind as a bellwether for the offshore wind industry in America. In our own experiences at conferences held by offshore wind industry groups we’ve heard Cape Wind described as everything from a red herring to the holy grail, but this is a new meme – the national press corps hanging Cape Wind around the neck of climate change legislation. It’s been about a month now, and things are starting to get shook up.

The last we heard about the climate change bill was back in June when the House passed the Markey-Waxman bill by seven votes under duress from Speaker Pelosi to get the bill out of the House before the even more contentious healthcare debate was on their plates. The bill certainly has its flaws, the most glaring of which is the carbon trading portion, which is already being blamed for the next great financial bubble, but the real work is to be done at the end of this year in the Senate.

A couple of weeks ago President Obama stopped by MIT to start hitting the talking points, and many took his choice of location – MIT is a frequent battlefield for Cape Wind – as an indication he was finally going to tip his hand on the issue. No such luck, but it did raise the spectre of Cape Wind (intentional or not), as it’s the only issue all of us locals could talk about in the context of renewable energy, aside from the wicked smaht researchers at MIT doing crazy things with algae and batteries.

Following the President’s visit, with Cape Wind lurking in the subtext, and perhaps unfettered by the ghost of Ted Kennedy, Rep. Markey surprised us all yesterday when it was revealed he wrote a letter to Secretary Salazar pushing for approval of Cape Wind over the complaints of the Wampanoags. How is it surprising that Markey, author of the House climate change bill, supports Cape Wind, you ask? Markey has been a fun character in the Cape Wind saga for years now, and has been cited as the most stubborn waffler on the issue. He was the target of petitions, protests and radio ads, but he never waivered in his non-position, despite his key role in shaping this great country’s energy future. To put it another way, there may have been some champagne uncorked over at Clean Power Now and the IBEW.

We’ll have to wait see what happens next, but don’t hold your breath – this could still take awhile to unravel.

We haven’t posted much recently (we’ve been totally submerged in editing!), but here’s a little video that provides a pretty comprehensive update on the project. It’s coming from the proponent side, but does cover the whole story:

We’ve been shooting and editing non-stop for the last couple of months, all the while anxiously awaiting any signal from the Interior Department about the fate of Cape Wind. Trying to pull meaning from the cryptic, carefully crafted messages of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has been a futile task, leading people on both sides to the brink of lunacy. Citing unresolved issues with the historical impact process, no final approval from the FAA, pending litigation over the EFSB “super permit”, it seemed entirely plausible that Salazar’s self-imposed deadline would slip by, like most other Cape Wind deadlines.

Well, the final moment is upon us. Recommended reading is Beth Daley at the Boston Globe. Off for a busy day of shooting!

Nine years, 8000+ pages of study, some $70 million dollars spent, two wars, and a remarkably profitable Al Gore documentary later, the Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar approved the Cape Wind project today. On the heels of possibly the largest and costliest oil spill disaster in American history, those who’ve been working for Cape Wind’s approval found double-vindication. For them issue is clear: there’s two ways to produce energy offshore, one that causes visual pollution with minimal environmental impacts and one with the potential to devastate our oceans, air and ionosphere.

According to opponents of Cape Wind, however, the decision was politically driven. The feds have been paying plenty of lip service to the various opponents for years (fishermen, business owners, two local tribes, town representatives, bird enthusiasts and beyond), holding hearings and stakeholder meetings, promising they would weigh all of the impacts and assuring everyone’s interest would be considered. But when the final environmental impact statement was released in January 2009, they stood united in disgust, aghast that the findings of the Interior Department seemed to simply ignore their claims.

Over the last year, the Interior Department has been hard at work convincing the press and the public that they did indeed consider everything, they performed a rigorous scientific impact study, and they stand by their decision. The culmination of this recent posturing, which you can read and watch here, was when Sec. Ken Salazar made a much-ballyhooed trip to Cape Cod to meet with the two local Wampanoag tribes of Mashpee and Aquinah and also to tour the project site, binoculars and all. Of course, there will be mitigation in the form of payments to affected parties and minor alterations to the project itself, but looking at Record of Decision released today, it’s hard not to define clear winners and losers.

The past several weeks getting to this point have been harrying for the production team. Anytime Salazar spoke about Cape Wind’s pending decision we would walk away more confused than before. He went out of his way to meet with all the stakeholders and even participated in sacred tribal rituals. Then, he spoke of the profound spiritual importance of Nantucket Sound, while in the same sentence explaining the importance of offshore wind for national security. In retrospect, when the Interior Secretary invokes national security, we should’ve known his decision, but leading up to today, we had no idea. His press secretary was tight-lipped, and with each “leak” we found - first expecting an Earth Day announcement (which meant approval), then thinking it would be a late Friday press release (meaning disapproval) - we found ourselves more anxious and less certain, arguing amongst ourselves in a black box.

Well it’s all over now…just kidding! Cape Wind has plenty of hurdles left, and we hear from Audra Parker of the Alliance that there’s at least ten groups, including towns and the tribes, which are preparing to file federal lawsuits seeking an injunction to prevent construction, which the state, feds and Cape Wind all say could begin by the end of the year. We’ve heard arguments on both sides that are equally dismissive or assured of the legal challenge, so all we can do is keep the cameras rolling, which we’re doing.

A few months ago, with Ken Salazar’s blessings over Cape Wind, the permits for the project were finally granted. The bell finally rang on the exceedingly long permitting process, but that merely marked the beginning of a new round. Undeterred, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, along with other opposition groups, immediately geared up to swamp the Cape Wind project with a series of lawsuits from every angle possible. Just after Ken Salazar’s announcement, Audra Parker, President and CEO of the Alliance explained in an April 29 USA Today Op-ed : “Lawsuits will be filed by the Native Americans whose burial grounds will be desecrated; by residents, fishermen and business leaders who make up the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound; and by communities concerned about their economic future.” Proponents of the project are pleading with the opposition to drop it. Nevertheless, The Boston Globe reported that the first of these suits have been filed, and concerns the negative impact that the farm could have on the migration of birds and whales. And, as a follow up to our last post, the Martha’s Vineyard/ Duke’s County Fisherman’s Association and Jonathan Mayhew (father of Matthew Mayhew, whose boat Producer Dan Coffin filmed aboard), also filed a suit this week, reports the Martha’s Vineyard Times. In order to stop the project now, a legal injunction would have to be ordered.

On August 12, 2010, we will host a SNEAK PREVIEW of the film at the Cape Cinema in Dennis, MA. Many of the key players – both opponents and proponents – in the Cape Wind story will be in attendance, and following the screening the audience will be invited to participate in a discussion of the film and the future of energy on the Cape and beyond.

More excitingly, perhaps, is that we will have several cameras rolling at this sneak preview, as the characters in the film watch themselves in what was for them a decade-defining struggle to either construct or thwart Cape Wind. Some of the footage from the sneak preview will be included in the final scene of our film!  Yeah, the movie within the movie – pretty cool, right?

You might wonder why we are creating movie-in-a-movie. In my June 24 post, I shared how our producer Dan Coffin got a taste of life aboard a fishing boat. By interacting with stakeholders in the controversy and literally experiencing their perspective, we get an intimate and privileged perspective of all sides of the debate over Cape Wind. Ultimately, our goal is to inform the public by sharing what we have filmed, and compel citizens to develop an opinion on the matter. The best we can and hope to do is share with you, the public, and allow you to start making your own decisions – informed decisions. So, as disseminators of information regarding the Cape Wind project, we are further spinning the mill when we discuss the issues surrounding the wind farm proposal with virtually everyone we meet. If our film is in this way truly becoming part of the story, we hope that in addition to informing the public about Cape Wind, we can also help the various sides of the controversy find common ground.

The best part is going to be the grand celebration just across the lawn in the Cape Cod Museum, drinks and hor’dourves on us! And YOU ARE INVITED! If you’re interested in attending, sign up for our newsletter on our home page, and you will be automatically entered to WIN TWO TICKETS to this historical event! In addition, since we want the most engaged members of the debate to be there, we will be giving tickets away to people actively responding to our blog posts.