What is that smell?Well, it smells like NIMBY, but these guys swear there's no NIMBY here.
Cape windmills 1 just got fascinating, with Cape windmills 2. This surprise campaign issue doesn't stand as tall as one of those white monster energy saviors, but it's just as stationary. It's not going anywhere.
I truly did not want to get into this at all. Yet, it pops up like a Wack-a-Mole game, here and there and here again.
The guys at CapeCodLiving.com are anti-windmills 1 central. They seem to vacillate between gross calumnies and other insults in their posts and comments, and pushing fact-like opinions from their favorite experts.
And several times in several places, they have put me in the just-doesn't-get-it class.
Politicians, PR folk, bloggers, newspaper writers are all fair game. You must face up to it, Bugsy and Magical are passionate, if one-trick, bloggers.
The oddest aspect is how they and some other windmills 1 opponents claim this is not a NIMBY issue. This includes Sen. Ted Kennedy. Many are also quick to say that this has nothing to do with class or privilege.
Both claims seem to be absolute drivel.
Windmills 1 are not as crazed and dishonest as the Lexington/Concord area folk who fought the expansion of Hanscom Field and foisted yet another runway on the poor and middle-class of the Boston area instead. The laughable central claim that somehow their neighborhood was historical as a basis is madness. The Boston areas they wanted and got the runway in smother their history many times over.
It will also be amusing to watch Sen. John Kerry's reaction -- now that the backyard is his. This should test his commitment to renewable energy when it is where he boats and within sight of his swank places.
Regardless, the multiphase fight is brewing and should reappear in various forms for months to come. We have:
- Windmills 1 (Cape Wind/Gordon) opponents and proponents.
- Governor and Lt. Gov. candidates pro and con.
- Windmills 2 (Cashman) and whether it is an augmentation to or replacement for Windmills 1.
- Interested outsiders, like Kennedy and Kerry.
- Environmentalists and renewable-energy folk, who are by no means agreed on what to do.
Among the current candidates, Deval Patrick alone says 1) he studied the issue carefully and 2) decided that windmills 1 was a good choice.
So, now with all the wrinkles, this is a issue ripe for discussion. Who would have thought it?
We'll have to see if it figures into the Party convention. We can be sure that post-convention debates will bring up windmills 1 and 2. The candidates who hoped their mealy-mouth non-responses were adequate had better get some defensible positions.
Sad Little Update: Okay, I take it back. After this post, the CCL folk mired down into the Lexington/Concord ploy -- extreme NIMBYism with craziness of saying stop windmills 1 because the ocean view would no longer be exactly what JFK would have seen. Over the edge. LeftinLowell has a hand-washing post too. I hereby wash my hands also and am unlikely to publish any comments. If I cover this at all, it will be because of what candidates say or for news developments.
Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, Cape Wind, Deval Patrick, John Kerry, windfarm, CapeCodLiving, Ted Kennedy
2 comments:
No hard feelings, Hoss.
We don't support Deval because he choose not to support us. That's why we decided to start blogging in Boston, so you could see that there is another point of view.
We like the Buzzards Bay location - with reservations. More importantly, we think the process worked.
We have a consensus for a new location. We hope you and your friends will help us help Deval see the light.
And yes. We blog hard on the Cape. But, we've been fighting an ugly media machine for a long time. When Gordon packs his tent, we'll go back to our gardens and you can have the blog-o-sphere to yourselves.
"We like the Buzzards Bay location"
How shocking!
You like the location... drum roll please... because it's NOT in Cape Cod.
That smacks of elitism and I will combat it everywhere I see it. They can put a windmill on Egg Rock in Swampscott for all I care -and I'll take Swampscott over any town in the Cape, thank you very much.
If Cape Cod wants jobs, they need to have more than one industry. Here's your chance. Reject it at your own peril.
"We have a consensus for a new location."
No, we don't. We have an *idea* for a second location. It isn't a replacement. There's a 120 megawatt difference in the amount of electricity the project will make... and Massachusetts has need for both projects. We'll become the cleanest state in the country. Here's our chance to honor our committments to Global Warming.
"We hope you and your friends will help us help Deval see the light."
Deval sees the light. That's why I'm voting for him and will do everything in my power to make sure he wins. There isn't a single issue in this campiagn more important than the environment. We have 10 years to stop the tipping point. We NEED Cape Wind NOW.
"When Gordon packs his tent, we'll go back to our gardens and you can have the blog-o-sphere to yourselves."
Maybe you should either pick some new topics or stop pretending you're progressive.
"And it will be no surprise to see opposition in Buzzard's Bay when suddenly it is their back/front yard."
And when Manhattan is under water because the Polar Icecaps melted, I won't be surprised either.
"I am sure no one would care if a private developer bought a piece of property in my quiet neighborhood to build a high rise apartment building."
I call it like I see it. You're a liar.
________________________
There is no more important issue than global warming. See the light, please.
Everyone has to make sacrifices, this is the Cape's sacrifice. If it passes, they'll build more projects and you won't be alone in your sacrifice.
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