Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Big news on Cape Wind coming today at noon – UPDATED: it’s a go

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UPDATE: The Globe is now reporting that Salazar will approve Cape Wind.

As you have probably heard, US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has made his decision on Cape Wind, and is coming to the State House to announce what it is.  His decision, set to be announced at noon, hasn’t leaked out yet, AFAIK, is reportedly “yes”, but and the fact that both Governor Patrick and Lt. Gov. Murray will be standing next to him suggests that it’s going to be a thumbs-up.  Also, the fact that President Obama was just touring a plant that makes wind turbines strikes me as non-coincidental.

If it’s a go, it will be a HUGE win for Governor Patrick, who has been a steadfast supporter of Cape Wind ever since he ventured into public life in Massachusetts — long before he was Governor, or even the Democratic nominee for Governor.  He stood against the state’s senior Senator, who was unalterably opposed, the junior Senator, who was unalterably unwilling to take a stand, the sitting Attorney General and (at the time) odds-on favorite to win the primary, and a whole bunch of other local heavyweights, to back the project.  And now it looks like he’ll get it.

Out of curiosity, I tried to figure out where Charlie Baker stands on Cape Wind.  Couldn’t for the life of me figure it out.  There’s nothing I could find on his website, so no help there.  Here are a couple of nuggets I picked up via the Google.

Baker, former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, tiptoed around the topic and refused to outright state whether he supported or opposed the Cape Wind project. He said a decision will already be finalized at the federal level before he enters office, if elected governor, therefore “the state doesn’t really matter at this point.”

Ah, a real profile in courage right there.  That one’s from last September.  Here’s a more recent one, from March:

Baker said Massachusetts residents pay the fourth-highest rates for electricity in the country, and he blasted Cape Wind for failing to say exactly how much ratepayers would save from the proposed wind energy project.

“The whole thing looks like a no-bid contract,” Baker said.

Uh, OK – so you’re against it?  But wait – MA residents pay high electricity rates.  So you’re for it?  I’m still confused.

Stay tuned.

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Comments

  2. …as Mihos was such a long term rabid opponent (which didn’t prevent me from supporting him, as at least I knew where he stood).

    <

    p>Now – as the turbines turn…he’ll be for it.

  3. “”With unemployment hovering near ten percent in Massachusetts, the Cape Wind project will jeopardize industries that are vital to the Cape’s economy, such as tourism and fishing, and will also impact aviation safety and the rights of the Native American tribes in the area. I am also skeptical about the cost-savings and job number predictions we have heard from proponents of the project,” Brown said in a statement.

    <

    p>So, to recap:
    * Despite the fact that Cape Wind will create 1,000 construction jobs, Brown leads with 10 percent unemployment in MA.
    * He’s worried about the impact on tourism, but not at all worried about the impact oil spills have on tourism?
    * He’s completely ignored the reality that these will have zero impact on fishing.  Good grief — if a fisherman can navigate his boat in a port, he can certainly steer clear of monopoles which are each 1/3 to 1/2 mile apart.
    * Aviation safety?  The studies are done — no negative impact on RADAR.
    * Native American tribes?  Really?  I look forward to Senator Brown’s insistence of funding the Bureau of Indian Affairs to drive education, health, and employment numbers closer to the national average.  I won’t hold my breath.
    * He’s skeptical of the numbers which show the project will have a favorable impact.  Of course he is.  I’m skeptical that Scott Brown has any ability to be critical of those reports, because I’m skeptical the man has any idea of which he speaks when it comes to the economics or engineering of wind power.

    <

    p>Gawd.

    • http://www.climatestrategies.u…

      <

      p>

      This study details how 23 strategies, if undertaken as part of a national policy, would result in

      – 2.5 million net new jobs and a $134.3 billion expansion in GDP in 2020; with a cumulative expansion in GDP of $342 billion from 2010 to 2020;

      – Over $5 billion in net direct economic savings by businesses and households in 2020, at an average net savings of $1.57 per ton of GHG emissions avoided or removed;

      – Reduced consumer energy prices for gasoline, fuel oil, coal, natural gas and electricity.

      – Reducing U.S. GHG emissions to 27 percent below 1990 levels in 2020, significantly more than targets called for by proposed legislation or the President.

      (h/t A Siegel)

    • I really had to pause and make my brain understand that this was not a parody of Scott Brown.

      <

      p>He really comes pre-jumped (as in shark).

      • Everyday Brown is showing more and more evidence that he is a one-termer. Hopefully we can get a decent candidate to beat him.

        <

        p>Also it’s looking more and more likely that Patrick will be re-elected as the good-ship SS Baker keeps running into the rocks of incompetency and aloofness.

    • Those “rights” are not claimed by all the affected Native Americans:

      Two prominent members of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) say there is no historical basis to support claims by tribe leaders that a wind farm in Nantucket Sound would interfere with important cultural ceremonies based on the rising of the sun in the east. They say the claims are fiction.

      Tribe member Jeffrey Madison, in a February 9 letter sent to Ken Salazar, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, supported by a statement signed by eight members of the tribe including Beverly Wright, a tribal council member and former five-term chairman of the tribe, disputed the tribe’s claim about the cultural value of the Cape Wind site.
      . . .

      “I believe it to be a fabrication, invented by a small number of tribal members who happen to be involved in tribal government and who happen to be opponents of Cape Wind who wish to derail the project,” Mr. Madison wrote. “I do not believe that they understand that creating ceremony to achieve political objectives undermines the credibility of our legitimate cultural values and our people as a whole.”

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