Supporting Alternative Safe Alternative Forms of Energy Needs to Begin at Home
January 31, 2005 | Print this page | Share This | Email this page
Right around the corner from Rhode Island, in Nantucket Sound, a drama is playing out that could have a profound economic impact on our state, and even on national policy.
The drama surrounds the construction of a wind energy project several miles offshore in the sound. The Cape Wind Energy Project, with 130 towers reaching 420 feet high, would be the largest of its kind in the world.
But Nantucket Sound happens to be the site of a national seashore that is enjoyed by many vacationers – and also is home to some of our region’s most esteemed, and wealthiest, citizens.
Therein lies the drama. And yet at a time when the United States needs to wean itself from dependency on Mideast oil and other fossil fuels, and meet more of our energy needs from renewable and non-polluting sources, the Cape Wind Energy Project is one Rhode Islanders should support, for several reasons.
First, there’s simply the cost of energy. New England is at an economic disadvantage relative to other parts of the United States when it comes to energy prices. Just think of how much your family is paying to heat your home this winter.
In as little as two years, the Cape Wind Energy Project could begin feeding clean, cheap energy into our regional power grid. On a day with average wind, the plant is expected to produce 420 megawatts of energy – enough to meet three-fourths of the local needs. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found that the project “will add energy with a near zero marginal cost to the New England electric distribution grid.”
The result? You don’t have to be an engineer to figure it out, but in the corps’ words, “downward pressure” on energy prices.
Even though the project is in Massachusetts, it would be a boon to the Rhode Island economy. Indirectly, lower energy costs in the entire region can help stimulate investment and job creation. But more directly, Rhode Island workers, products and services stand to gain from the economic boost from such a massive project – an estimated total investment of $770 million.
But the reasons to support the project aren’t just economic. The Cape Wind Energy Project is an opportunity for New England to emerge as a national, and even international, leader in clean, alternative energy.
If the oil shocks of the 1970s didn’t deliver the message, it has been clear since Sept. 11 and the Iraq War – as the price of oil continues to hover around $50 a barrel – the United States needs to lessen its dependency on Mideast oil. As global warming continues, alternatives to fossil fuels must be developed. Sadly, the United States lags far behind Europe in exploiting clean and renewable sources of energy.
Nothing, of course, is cleaner, more abundant and as inexhaustible as the wind. Wind is the fastest-growing energy source in the world, as more and more countries – and even U.S. states like California and Texas that have appropriate topography – try to meet at least some of their energy needs from wind power. According to estimates, energy produced by the Cape Wind project can replace 113 million gallons of oil a year and reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions by one million tons per year, the equivalent of taking 162,000 cars off the road – all while producing no pollution.
Elsewhere along the Eastern Seaboard where similar projects are being considered – such as Long Island – they’re watching what happens with Cape Wind. New England has a chance to point the way toward cleaner energy. If we say not in our backyard, it will be hard to demand it in someone else’s.
Of course, there’s another side to the story. For those who live around the sound, there is the prospect that the Cape Wind project will affect their property values. And Nantucket Sound is a treasured national seashore, visited and enjoyed by about 5 million people every year. Some worry that the view and the ambience will be lost forever with more than 100 wind towers turning offshore.
But the Corps of Engineers’ environmental impact statement, an exhaustive 4,000 pages, largely finds that the project is environmentally sensitive. Models show that the towers, which will be 5 to 10 miles away, will hardly be visible from shore. And in other places where such windtowers have been built, they even have turned into something of a tourist attraction, attracting gazers and day-sailors.
The public comment period on the project remains open until Feb. 24. As the person responsible for encouraging the preservation, expansion and development of Rhode Island’s economy, I see the Cape Wind Energy Project as a chance for our state to grow economically and participate in a model project that will place us among the leaders in this country and abroad in clean energy production. Rhode Islanders and other New Englanders should support it.
Michael McMahon
Executive Director
Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation