Dirty Coal blows up Mountains in the process of Mountain Top Removal, destroying communities, their drinking water and is excused from environmental laws.
Coal Ash is stored around the nation in unlined pits, contaminating rivers and streams.
Fracking and Tar Sands cause their own environmental destruction as the US becomes little more than a Third World nation, governed by Dirty Energy and Democracy Sold.
The rest of the world moves on, leading in Alternative Energy.
So should we!
Cape Cod wind farm tiptoes ahead
08/11/12 posted by CCToday
TODAY's quote: "It seems these members of Congress prefer serving the interests of the big polluters that bankrolled their campaigns over the interests of working families. That needs to end now. Congress must stand up for the tens of thousands of Americans whose jobs are on the line and renew the Production Tax Credit."
- Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club.
Cape Winds changes minds
Hy-Line's Mr. Scudder watched from his dock as research crews unloaded ocean samples from the Megan Miller research vessel that had returned from the sound as part of Cape Wind's survey work. A decade of review on the project has eased any questions he had, he said. Photo courtesy of Cape Wind.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Hy-line Cruises President Philip Scudder said his ferry company here was once a vocal opponent of the alternative-energy proposal that blew into Cape Cod nearly a decade ago. The U.S.'s first offshore wind farm? In the middle of pristine Nantucket Sound? He wondered how his boats carrying vacationers bound for Martha's Vineyard would navigate around the turbines.
Cape Wind spokesman Mr. Rodgers believes some opponents, like Bill Koch, who has a waterfront home on Cape Cod and who is in the coal business, are worried about competition from wind energy. Mr. Koch is a founder and largest funder of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. The Alliance is the project's main opponent.
Sierra Club "follows the money"
A recent Sierra Club expose followed the trail of money from big polluters to politicians and non-profit front groups. For example, the oil and gas industry spent more than $146 million on lobbying alone in 2011, while Big Oil tycoons David and Charles Koch gave at least $85 million to 85 right-wing “think tanks” and advocacy groups over the past decade and a half. Meanwhile, organizations like the Manhattan Institute and the Heartland Institute that defend oil subsidies while attacking renewable energy have received upwards of $600,000 each since 1998 from the oil company Exxon.
The report concludes that over the past decade the fossil fuel industry has mounted a coordinated campaign to discredit renewable energy and hinder its growth.
Clean Energy Under Siege, reveals how the fossil fuel industry is using tactics such as financial contributions to political campaigns, faux “think tanks,” phony intellectuals, and astroturf groups to shift public opinion and discredit renewable energy.
Click here to read this article in the Wall Street Journal. [Article below]
http://www.capecodtoday.com/news/EXTRA/2012/08/11/cape-cod-wind-farm-tiptoes-ahead
Cape Cod Wind Farm Tiptoes Ahead
Work Gets Started Even as Controversial Offshore Massachusetts Project Faces Regulatory Hurdles and Stiff Opposition
By JENNIFER LEVITZ
BARNSTABLE, Mass.—Philip Scudder said his ferry company here was once a vocal opponent of the alternative-energy proposal that blew into Cape Cod nearly a decade ago. The U.S.'s first offshore wind farm? In the middle of pristine Nantucket Sound? He wondered how his boats carrying vacationers bound for Martha's Vineyard would navigate around the turbines.
Matthew Healey for The Wall Street
Journal
Randolph Bolton is shown Thursday with a tube of sediment
from the sea floor collected as part of survey work for the Cape Wind
project.
But now, Mr. Scudder, a 13th generation Cape Codder and part of the family that owns Hy-Line Cruises, supports Cape Wind, the proposal to place 130 wind turbines, with the highest blade tip reaching 440 feet above water, some five miles offshore. He says it would bring not only clean energy but economic opportunity: Hy-Line is now shopping for vessels to eventually give "eco-tours," educational boat rides out to see the turbines up close.
Mr. Scudder illustrates the conflicting views on the long-debated project in an area known as the jewel of Massachusetts and a vacation land for the affluent. After a decade, Cape Wind developer Energy Management Inc. is beginning geological survey work in the sound, a precursor to its goal of starting construction next year.
But whether the wind farm is built remains to be seen. Cape Wind has yet to receive all the approvals it needs to start construction. Opposition is firm and has included wealthy Cape Cod homeowners from the late Sen. Edward Kennedy to Republican donor and energy businessman William Koch.
![[image]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-BR988_WIND_NS_20120810154813.jpg)
The Obama administration is pushing for more renewable-energy projects, both on and offshore. This week, the Interior Department said it was assessing a proposal by the North American arm of Statoil STO +0.20%ASA, a Norwegian energy company, for a wind farm off the coast of Maine.
The Interior Department approved Cape Wind in 2010. The project calls for the off-white wind turbines in a 25-square-mile area in a shallow part of the sound, a triangular body of water surrounded by Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. The closest vantage point would be nearly five miles away in Mashpee, next to Barnstable.
The turbines are "majestic and beautiful," and on a clear day would appear "like a half-inch sailing mast on the horizon," said Jim Gordon, the president of Energy Management, Cape Wind's developer.
Opponents are skeptical.
"I'm just not buying it," says Barnstable Town Manager Thomas Lynch, who worries about public-safety costs to the town if there were a problem at the wind farm.
The project is estimated to cost $2 billion. Energy Management said it has spent $50 million developing it and is working with Barclays PLC to secure private funding. The wind farm is expected to produce as much as 468 megawatts of renewable energy, which is about 3.5% of the 13,300-megawatts total generating capacity in Massachusetts.
Cape Wind has signed long-term contracts to sell 78% of its power to the state's largest utilities.
The wind power's cost is as much as twice that of conventional power, but because it would be a small portion of the overall energy pool, consumers would see at most a 2.2% increase to their monthly bills, according to estimates in a 2010 report by Massachusetts regulators.
Cape Wind has yet to clear one major regulatory hurdle: the Federal Aviation Administration is reviewing the project after opponents appealed its initial approval in 2010. The FAA must determine whether the wind farm would pose a risk to aircraft radar.
The project also faces headwinds from a decline in the price of natural gas, which undermining the case for renewable energy—though it isn't clear how long the dip will last.
Matthew Healey for The Wall Street
Journal.
Captain Brad Primer on the Megan T. Miller as it heads
out to collect seabed samples for the offshore wind turbine
project.
In addition, the federal government's tax-credit program for wind projects is set to expire at year-end, and Congress has shown little gusto for alternative-energy subsidies in the wake of the fallout over government loans to failed solar-panel company Solyndra LLC.
"It's more difficult, but our plan is to do everything we can to move forward in any way," said Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Energy Management.
Mr. Rodgers believes some opponents, like Mr. Koch, who has a waterfront home on Cape Cod and who is in the coal business, are worried about competition from wind energy. Mr. Koch is a funder of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, said his spokesman Brad Goldstein. The Alliance is the project's main opponent.
Mr. Goldstein said Mr. Koch's business interests have nothing to do with his opposition to the project. Mr. Koch believes the proposal isn't feasible without government support and that it "spoils a beautiful sanctuary," Mr. Goldstein said.
Thursday, at the harbor in Hyannis Port, a village that is part of Barnstable, Hy-Line's Mr. Scudder watched eagerly from his dock as research crews unloaded ocean samples from a vessel that had returned from the sound as part of Cape Wind's survey work. A decade of review on the project has eased any questions he had, he said.
Motioning out to Nantucket Sound, he said, "Some people are worried because there's never been something out there, so it's unknown. But the chance to have the first offshore wind farm in the U.S. on Cape Cod—I see it as an opportunity."
Write to Jennifer Levitz at jennifer.levitz@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared August 11, 2012, on
page A3 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Cape
Cod Wind Farm Tiptoes Ahead.
Sierra Club --
August 2, 2012
Contact: Eitan Bencuya, 202-495-3047
Sierra Club Releases New Report Highlighting Attack on Clean Energy
“Clean Energy Under Siege” Study Follows Money Trail Behind Campaign Against Renewable Energy
WASHINGTON D.C. – Over the past decade, the fossil fuel industry has mounted a coordinated campaign to discredit renewable energy and hinder its growth, according to a new report released today by the Sierra Club.
The report, Clean Energy Under Siege, reveals how the fossil fuel industry is using tactics such as financial contributions to political campaigns, faux “think tanks,”phony intellectuals, and astroturf groups to shift public opinion and discredit renewable energy.
This misinformation campaign is currently evident in the struggle to renew the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind energy. The PTC helps support the more than 75,000 jobs in the wind industry, but if the tax credit is not renewed before the end of this year, as many as half those jobs could be lost.
"From California to Pennsylvania, clean energy jobs are under attack by fossil fuel interest groups – yet many in Congress are sitting on their hands while tens of thousands of American jobs hang in the balance," said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. "It seems these members of Congress prefer serving the interests of the big polluters that bankrolled their campaigns over the interests of working families. That needs to end now. Congress must stand up for the tens of thousands of Americans whose jobs are on the line and renew the Production Tax Credit."
The Sierra Club’s report follows the trail of money from big polluters to politicians and non-profit front groups. For example, the oil and gas industry spent more than $146 million on lobbying alone in 2011, while Big Oil tycoons David and Charles Koch gave at least $85 million to 85 right-wing “think tanks” and advocacy groups over the past decade and a half. Meanwhile, organizations like the Manhattan Institute and the Heartland Institute that defend oil subsidies while attacking renewable energy have received upwards of $600,000 each since 1998 from the oil company Exxon.
Wind power is a clean, competitive energy source that has seen strong momentum over the past few years. Already, states like Iowa and South Dakota generate 20 percent of their electricity from wind power, and the wind industry is on track to produce 20 percent of America’s electricity by 2030.
More than 400 American manufacturing plants build wind components, keeping jobs close to home.
To read the report Clean Energy Under Siege visithttp://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/downloads/SierraClub-CleanEnergyUnderSiege.pdf
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