Blue Mass Group

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Congress to let Romney kill Cape Wind?

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The Alaskans are still after Cape Wind: now they’re proposing to let their little assistant (Our Ex-Guv) pull the switch on Cape Wind:

The new language, floated by U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, would target the Nantucket Sound project specifically, sources say. In particular, the proposed compromise would grant Massachusetts officials authority to approve or deny the project even though all 130 turbines would be built in federal waters.

…Advocates of the proposed Cape Wind project said the emerging deal confirms their suspicion that Young’s initial amendment was not about maritime safety but the Nantucket Sound project.

“It exposes that this really is a direct attack on the Cape Wind project,” said Sue Reid, staff attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation. “It’s directly against the specific provisions of the Energy Policy Act that addressed Cape Wind … that had been in the pipeline a long time.”

So … Romney’s environmental legacy will be deviously pulling out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and now — probably — killing Cape Wind.

Thanks to Daleynews.

UPDATE: Just to be clear, here’s who else is working on the bill:

Yesterday, Young and Stevens were joined by other ranking transportation officials on the conference committee – U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and U.S. Rep. James Oberstart, D-Minn. – to resolve outstanding differences on the Coast Guard bill.

House switchboard: 202-225-3121

Senate switchboard: 202-224-3121

I wouldn’t feel bad about calling Inouye or Oberstart … after all, who the heck are Don Young and Ted Stevens to be mucking in our business?

And ironically, I got these numbers from the 700 Club website, which is what first comes up when you Google “congress switchboard”. Thanks, Pat Robertson!

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Comments

  1. So, I have a habit of making lemonade out of lemons, but hear me out…

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    If Congress allows Willard to pull the plug, he will.  Fine.  It only allows the Democratic candidates to provide another example of why having a Democratic governor is important.  Deval Patrick has already come out supporting Cape Wind; AFAIK, Tom Reilly has been a bit more ho-hum.

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    If Willard gets to pull the plug, a new governor can plug the project back in — and since nothing substantial will change economically or in the energy markets between now and December, Cape Wind proponents will really line up behind Deval Patrick since there will be a tangible differentiation.

    • “If Willard gets to pull the plug, a new governor can plug the project back in”

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      Do you know whether that’s really true?  It isn’t always easy to put a project like this back together if it receives what appears to be a “final” denial, and the people or companies behind it move on to other things.  I fear that if Romney kills it, it’ll stay killed, and we’d have to put together a new wind power project from scratch, and it could take many years.  I don’t know that’s the case, so that’s why I ask: do you know differently?

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      If the cost is not having more wind power built for a decade, then even if it helps a little in the governor’s race, it’s not worth it.

  2. I called Inouye’s office, and when I mentioned Cape Wind, the person on the phone responded that “we’ve been getting a lot of calls on the Young amendment” and offerred to take down my comments.  The fact that he knew “Cape Wind” meant “Young Amendment” without me ever having mentioned it, means they must be aware of the issue and are probably really getting some calls about it specifically.

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