USA Today
Yes to Cape Wind
Peter H. Connelly - Vero Beach, Fla.
Sadly, many Americans continue to be dangerously shortsighted when it comes to energy needs and our priorities. We are not going to be independent of anti-American nations with huge reserves of oil if we do not begin to break down some of the barriers to alternative energy ("Cape Wind battles reflect lack of energy seriousness," Our view, Alternative power debate, Jan. 11).
As long as not-in-my-backyard attitudes prevail in decisions on drilling for oil, wind farms and other alternative energy options, we are doomed to repeat history. Remember the oil embargo in the 1970s and the subsequent oil crisis? Placing 130 power generating turbines several miles off the coast of Cape Cod would be a thing of beauty, as it would be one step in the right direction of decreasing our dependence on the non-renewable energy of fossil fuels.
Posted at 12:07 AM/ET, January 20, 2010

Boston Globe:
FINDING SITES FOR WIND FARMS

Turbines? Bring them on
January 19, 2010
AUDRA PARKER makes several eloquent arguments for resiting the Cape Wind project away from Nantucket Sound to south of Tuckerman Island (“A better site for Cape Wind,’’ Op-ed, Jan. 13). But every wind project anywhere is going to have some negatives to some people. The fact is, renewable energy is diffuse - you need a lot of wind farms and solar farms to replace the kind of dense energy sources, such as coal and oil, that we’ve built our economy on.
It is easy for people to say no to a wind turbine in their locality. But more people are going to look at the big picture and say yes to wind to avoid climate disruption and to reduce the amount of money we spend on foreign oil.
Compared with practically any other form of energy generation, wind farms are very benign. They don’t generate any significant pollutants. They have been designed to minimize bird strikes, and in fact the Massachusetts Audubon Society supports the Cape Wind project. If the Tuckerman Island location is good for wind, then build a wind farm there as well as in Nantucket Sound. We’ll need both of them, and many more elsewhere, to avert the kind of climate extremes that, in fact, threaten the way of life of those living on the Cape.
ROBERT COOPER
Wellesley

Don’t exclude Nantucket Sound
January 19, 2010
AUDRA PARKER implores us to stop wasting time trying to put an industrial project such as a wind farm in Nantucket Sound. She says doing so would disrupt the commercial fishing, recreational boating, passenger ferry traffic, and the flights overhead. It sounds to me like this is already a pretty busy place. What, exactly, is she trying to preserve? The status quo, presumably.
Moving beyond fossil fuels while meeting our ever-growing energy demands requires sacrifices from all of us, including changes in how we view the world. I welcome the day when wind farms in Nantucket Sound - and at other favorable sites across the country - will seem as normal and nonindustrial to us as the fishing boats steaming across the horizon and the planes soaring overhead.
TODD MACFADDEN
Brookline

New York Times

Letters
The Cape Wind Project
To the Editor:
Wind power is a sector with the potential to produce many thousands of jobs. While China and other countries are creating the clean energy jobs of the future, our country has dithered for nine years deciding about Cape Wind, which would be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm.
This project would create up to 1,000 new jobs while serving as a crucial springboard for homegrown renewable energy development. It would produce enough electricity to meet nearly 75 percent of the electricity demand on Cape Cod and nearby islands; would replace up to 113 million gallons of oil per year; and would save New England about $500 million in energy costs over the next two decades.
If the parties cannot agree by March 1, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar should allow the project to proceed without further delay.
Berl Hartman
Cambridge, Mass., Jan.
9, 2010
The writer is co-founder of the New England Chapter of Environmental Entrepreneurs.

The Wall Street Journal

LETTERS
JANUARY 14, 2010, 6:03 P.M. ET

Wind Power Is Good For Massachusetts

Regarding your editorial "Nantucket Wind Ride" (Jan. 8): Perhaps few things have surprised environmental advocates more than the Aquinnah Wampanoag Indians opposing Cape Wind's construction of 130 wind turbines off the eastern coast of Martha's Vineyard, on the grounds that such an installation would interfere with their spiritual sunrise rituals. Note that the Aquinnah live on the westernmost limit of Martha's Vineyard, where they undoubtedly continue to enjoy divine sunsets.

The Wampanoag's claim that windmills would offend their "view-shed" is as eccentric as the island's well-heeled waterfront homeowners believing that money and privilege alone can overwhelm Cape Wind's proposal. While money may be temporarily buying the influence of others, it can't be traded for environmental exclusivity. Without an American-led green energy revolution, no amount of money will protect waterfront compounds, yacht clubs and sailing docks from rising sea levels.

Cape Wind delivers innovation, energy independence, and economic rebirth.

Stacy Clark

Dallas