Op-Ed Dismantles RFK Jr. Opposition to Cape Wind

Offshore wind turbines. (Photo: m.prinke)

Author takes Kennedy’s Cape Wind claims, rhetoric to task.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar now says he expects a final decision on Cape Wind by year’s end. But the eight-year battle for the nation’s first offshore wind farm is not in the free and clear quite yet. And one of the biggest (and most unlikely) opponents to the project, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is not giving up any time soon, despite the fact that his oppositional planks have once again been systematically dismantled.

I’ve never completely understood Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s staunch opposition to Cape Wind and what would be the first offshore wind farm in the United States. Kennedy, whose family’s Massachusetts compound in Hyannisport would be six miles from the nearest tip of the Cape Wind project area, is an environmental lawyer and activist with an impressive resume including work for the NRDC, Riverkeepers and Pace Law School.

Kennedy’s work has ranged from fighting point-source waterway pollution in New York State and protecting Appalachian mountains from devastating mountaintop removal mining, to working for private industry promoting concentrating solar projects in the Southwest. I could go on, but the point is, few would doubt Mr. Kennedy’s environmental convictions — well, excepting Cape Wind, that is.

Following the lead of his now late uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Bobby began rolling out out every single oppositional bullet point in the book. From negatively affecting the tourism and fishing industries to causing unwanted obstacles for local ferries and airlines, Kennedy’s opposition has not waned, despite the fact that his claims have largely been proven untrue.

Kennedy was first taken to task by authors and environmental strategists, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger who first dissected the dubious claims made about Cape Wind made in 2006.

But more recently, an Op-Ed in Cape Cod Today took Kennedy to task on his claims, and in the opinion of this author, should have quashed tired talking points once and for all. Carl Freeman writes:

“On August 25th, Bobby Kennedy Jr. was a guest on the NPR morning show discussing a variety of issues. I found myself agreeing with almost every point he made until the subject of putting a Wind farm in Nantucket Sound came up.

I am sorry to say that everything he claimed to be outraged about concerning Cape Wind was either a complete lie, or at least a distant relative of the truth.”

Read the point-by-point rebuttal to RFK Jr. by Carl Freeman at Cape Cod Today.

Photo: m.prinke via flickr

Tags: cape wind, offshore wind, wind energy

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This post was written by: Timothy B. Hurst

Tim Hurst is the founder/editor of ecopolitology and executive editor of LiveOAK Media. Tim mostly covers energy and environmental politics, renewable energy and green business; but seems to write more about music festivals in the summer for some reason. When not reading, writing, thinking, or talking about environmental politics to anyone who will listen, Tim likes to ski, hike with his aging labrador, and toil in his Colorado vegetable garden. He's on twitter at @ecopolitologist.

2 Responses to “Op-Ed Dismantles RFK Jr. Opposition to Cape Wind”

Ron Beaty says:

December 27, 2009 at 6:46 pm

As a colonial-rooted Cape Cod native who firmly believes in the sanctity of our maritime heritage, I am writing to ardently express my steadfast support for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. Based upon sensible logic, data and reasoning, I am also conversely opposed to the controversial Cape Wind Project which seeks to despoil and rob us of the pristine nautical legacy bestowed by our forefathers. As a result of the likely profound damaging regional financial, ecological and public safety consequences Cape Wind would wrought upon us all, it should not be allowed to proceed forward to fruition.

The project poses a cogent danger to essential air and sea navigation. Siting the project in Nantucket Sound is a breach of the public trust. Contrary to their sham claims, the cost of the electricity which the project will produce would not be cheap or competitive. It would be an unbearable fiscal burden hoisted upon us without our sanction or consent. Furthermore, it will represent a deleterious local economic blow by it’s absconding of undeserved taxpayer-funded subsidies, forced real estate devaluations, and lost revenues from commercial and tourism activities. The proposed one hundred thirty wind turbines will perpetually cause unsightly visual contamination and distressing noise pollution. Finally, Cape Wind will unnecessarily endanger a critical marine and wildlife habitat.

With the aforesaid thoughtful rationales in mind, along with the inherently unfair and inequitable nature of the proposed Cape Wind Project itself, it must not become a reality which will forever doom our children and grandchildren to a ghastly socially inhumane legacy.

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Timothy B. Hurst says:

December 27, 2009 at 11:17 pm

Ron- My first thought after reading your comment was to reply by thanking you for the time and effort you obviously put into crafting it – even though I disagree with it on just about every front. That was until I saw that you left the same exact comment on another post here at ecopolitology, as well as on other sites.

So, instead of replying to yours with a well-reasoned and properly-cited comment of my own, I decided to save my energy and ask that you don’t spread your spam around here with the same-old comment you’ve left everywhere else.

So, if you find the time to write an original comment and not a rehashed version of a comment you’re likely spreading all over the internet, I’ll consider rethinking my decision.

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