[lit-ideas] No Wind Farms in Kennedy's Back Yard
- From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 15:09:03 -0400
Kennedy faces fight on Cape Wind
Key lawmakers oppose his bid to block project
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | April 27, 2006
WASHINGTON -- As record oil prices turn attention
to the need for renewable fuels, momentum is
building in Congress to buck Senator Edward M.
Kennedy's bid to block the proposed Cape Cod wind
energy project, potentially reviving efforts to
construct the sprawling windmill farm in Nantucket
Sound.
The chairman and the top Democrat on the Senate
Energy and Natural Resources committee said
yesterday that when the bill Kennedy backs that
would effectively halt the wind farm comes up for
a vote in the Senate, they will object on
procedural grounds. They say they'll argue that a
renewable energy project shouldn't be lumped in
with a bill governing the Coast Guard.
Meanwhile, a group of rank-and-file House members,
worried about the political ramifications of
rejecting alternative energy sources while
motorists pay $3 a gallon at the gas station, have
persuaded House leaders to sidetrack the entire
bill for at least several weeks, even though it
was slated for action this week. The delay could
give supporters of the wind farm time to make
their case to members of Congress.
''Are we going to be for developing alternative
energy or not?" said Representative Charles Bass,
a New Hampshire Republican who helped persuade
House leaders to table the bill until at least
mid-May. ''The longer you delay it, the longer
there is for people to examine the issue, and to
determine what's going on here."
The efforts to move the wind farm forward occur
amid growing attention to Kennedy's role in the
secret, behind-the-scenes maneuvering to stop it.
Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska, the senator who
inserted the wind-farm provision into the Coast
Guard bill, has acknowledged discussing the matter
privately with the Massachusetts Democrat.
Environmental groups have launched an aggressive
advertising and lobbying campaign to persuade
Democrats to abandon Kennedy and back a promising
source of renewable energy. If the wind farm
becomes a reality, advocates say, it could provide
three-fourths of the Cape and Islands' energy
needs and could set an example for the nation.
The maneuver to stop the wind farm ''is clearly a
backroom deal, and they're going to get called
publicly on it," said John Passacantando,
executive director of Greenpeace USA. ''The
Democrats are going to kill the first big offshore
wind farm in the United States because of their
relationship with Ted Kennedy."
The 130-turbine, 24-square-mile cluster of
windmills would be about 8 miles from Kennedy's
home in Hyannis Port, and he has long opposed it.
The Coast Guard bill would give Governor Mitt
Romney, another wind farm opponent, the power to
veto it, even if the project clears all other hurdles.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/04/27/kennedy_faces_fight_on_cape_wind/
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