http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/us/politics/26wind.html?ref=politics
Now, I was a little upset when reading this article considering our location. New England is home to four seasons, lush forests, skiing, mountains, rivers, lakes and the ocean. In order to protect this from climate change, the United States needs to reduce our need on foreign oil considering we use somewhere in the ballpark of 20 percent of the total world oil usage, while producing around 2%. In the works for the past nine years has been a plan to add a wind farm to the east coast, to be specific, off the coast of Cape Cod. This wind farm would produce 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound around 5 miles from the coast and would be around 24 square miles total. This farm goes right along with President Obama's plans to create cleaner energy, will create jobs and reduce our need for foreign only, if only a little at first.
My issue after reading this article is with the selfish individuals who oppose this plan for their own personal reasons. Many argue that it would hurt the view from historic sites. If that is their argument, then that rules out any wind farms along the East Coast considering our long history. My other issue with this argument is that historic sites are important because of what happened there, not what happened 5 miles out to sea. If they want to use the sea argument, say it will hurt the view, but they did not say that.
I was also a bit disappointed when I learned that Senator Ted Kennedy opposed this plan. For those of you who may not know, the Kennedy family has a home in Hyannis, Cape Cod. I feel that for the greater good of not only the economy, but the environment as well, people should give up their personal preferences of having a nice view from their beach front home. To be honest, I just don't get it because we do not complain about seeing tankers at sea from the coast even though they look ugly and dark, while polluting the oceans. So I guess that since I don't like the sound of airplanes, I am going to fight against airports across the United States even though it helps and services millions of people across the globe daily.
It is about time that people in the United States put aside their personal preferences for the greater good of the world and the economy. We are talking about a view here, a view! Come on. It is not like we are opening a military base out of US territory so that we can bypass any Constitutional protection for individuals or to blatantly disregard human rights. Just saying. I hope that on Friday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar makes the decision to push this further.
4 comments:
Couldn't agree more with the ridiculousness of people who favor a view over renewable energy. We all love the ocean, but I love being able to turn on lights and heat my home even more. I was also extremely disappointed to see ted kennedy opposed this measure. i know he was an advocate for healthcare and the rights of underprivileged people but when it came to issues directly affecting him, he was just like anyone else. Not in my back yard. You're right to question our perception of tankers, too. We don't like seeing windmills, but we're fine with huge, greasy behemoths on the sea? What about oil spills and piepline bursts? What about the conflict it causes? For such a critical issue the question of aesthetics should not even enter the eqaution.
It is sad how American citizens could not care less about the environment and preserving it. It is even worse that people view a windmill as something terrible as well. So many people already hurt the environment and do not do a thing to help by littering and not recycling, but an alternative source of energy is a travesty?
I wonder if they could publicize how many jobs this project would create for locals that would be losing their view. While I agree that the natural beauty of The Cape is something to protect, the view does no one any good if people can't find jobs to sustain themselves there. I would certainly also think that people would rather have a wind farm instead of an oil platform and maybe they could get fancy with the way they designed the turbine blades, like how they make cell phone towers that look like trees in Loudon, NH. These projects are vital to our the national interest but we can go about them in ways that impact the fewest amount of people and the ways that make the smallest amount of damage to the natural environment.
I agree with everyone on this post. Wind energy is clean and can create many jobs in a hurting economy. People like Ted Kennedy had personal interests they were protecting, not voting for their constituents beliefs. That's just something you should remember when electing officials to represent your views. Would you rather get energy from windmills 5 miles from shore or rely on oil that is still washing up onto the shore in the gulf?
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