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.

No, I did not get drunk off of whiskey. That might have been a bad career move for my first week of work. I am Caitlin, and I just began working with Rebirth Productions as a Production Assistant. That means that I go along on many of the shoots, conduct research and coordinate logistics, keep the notes, help film, collect sound, make sure we don’t forget anything, and when we do, I go find whatever we may have left behind. And, occasionally, I’m the lucky one who gets the coffee. From my privileged perch, I get to see all that goes on in production, and then while the producers are cranking away with the editors (they’re doing a lot of that these days), I get to share with you what our production team is up to. Expect lots of updates from now on!

So, what do squid and whiskey have to do with this? I’m getting to that…

My first week on the job, we were filming the fishermen. Cape Wind Associates is hoping to build America’s first offshore wind farm on Horseshoe Shoal, and opponents to the wind farm claim it will disrupt fishing in that area for at least the amount of time required to build the project and perhaps longer. The chief fisheries that occur in Horseshoe Shoal are squid, conch, and scup. The squid fishery is the most productive, but it is only in operation for a few weeks out of the year.

To get the story, we shot fishermen in a meeting with the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, we filmed them on a boat out at sea while fishing, and we filmed them from the air, trawling around the Cape Wind Meteorological Tower.

In order to film the fishermen at work, Producer Dan Coffin pulled his weight aboard the Quitsa Strider, captained by Matthew Mayhew and operating out of Menemsha on Martha’s Vineyard. In his 24 hour trial, Dan became a fisherman. Sleep was replaced with hours of hauling lines, manning the helm, sorting through fish (thanks Division of Marine Fisheries) and hoisting crates. All that while he was filming the process and trying to keep squid goo off the camera lens.

But, there was a minor logistics problem: Director Robbie Gemmel and I needed the camera early the next morning on the Cape in order to film those same fishing boats from a helicopter before they sailed to other fishing grounds, off the shoal. So, we figured it out: the boat would land in Woods Hole near midnight to offload over 3,000 pounds of fish. We got a call from Dan a few hours before they docked. The message: bring a bottle of whiskey. I guess that the life of a fisherman is… trying. It is hard work and sometimes tough to make ends meet. I witnessed this firsthand at the Alliance meeting, and so did Robbie and Dan. A week earlier, I certainly would not have predicted that I would be sitting on a dark and isolated dock, at midnight, waiting for 3,000 lbs of fish and film equipment, with a bottle of whiskey. I will admit, Robbie and I tried not to get too carried away by the ridiculousness of the situation, and we saved most of the whiskey for Dan and the crew; they needed it more than we did.

I am no fisherman, but I certainly appreciate them, because I love to eat seafood. And, having driven hours to get to the dock when I should have been sleeping, there was no way I was leaving without some of the darn squid. After all, opponents to the project claim that the “premium quality” Nantucket Sound squid will be no more if Cape Wind is to be built. So, thanks Dan, for getting me some squid, just in case. I was told that meals on the road would be covered. I didn’t realize this is what was meant! And now, I certainly have a much greater appreciation for where my seafood comes from, and all the effort that goes into catching it.

Here is the final result of the squid spectacular when I got my payment home: behold the Grilled Sausage-Stuffed Squid. (Recipe here ).

Sausage-stuffed grilled squid fresh from Horseshoe Shoal

What are your thoughts regarding the plight of the fishermen? If the fishing grounds do end up being disrupted, and possibly indefinitely off-limits to fishermen, would it be worth it for clean renewable energy? Is the Horseshoe Shoal fishing dispensable, considering the ramifications it could have for the fishermen? What are your thoughts?

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.

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

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.

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.

What do you think? Hit up the comments section.

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.