I have immense respect for Robert F Kennedy Jr, and have been frequently moved by his outstanding speeches on big-picture environmental topics. I'm not alone, however, in continuing to be surprised and baffled at the Kennedy tradition of steadfastly opposing the Cape Wind turbine project, the first major offshore wind energy project in the US, slated for Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts. But this post isn’t about the Kennedy family opposition, it's about another surprising and confusing source of opposition to the project. According to the New York Times, a Native American group has now raised its voice over the potential project on the grounds that the massive turbine farm "would thwart their spiritual ritual of greeting the sunrise, which requires unobstructed views across the sound, and disturb ancestral burial grounds".
I have immense respect for Robert F Kennedy Jr, and have been frequently moved by his outstanding speeches on big-picture environmental topics. I'm not alone, however, in continuing to be surprised and baffled at the Kennedy tradition of steadfastly opposing the Cape Wind turbine project, the first major offshore wind energy project in the US, slated for Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts. But this post isn't about the Kennedy family opposition, it’s about another surprising and confusing source of opposition to the project.
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According to the New York Times, a Native American group has now raised its voice over the potential project on the grounds that the massive turbine farm "would thwart their spiritual ritual of greeting the sunrise, which requires unobstructed views across the sound, and disturb ancestral burial grounds".
The political ball is play is as follows: The group has managed to get the National Park Service to declare that Nantucket Sound *might* be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Whether or not this actually happens (a huge swath of open ocean is an unusual place for historic designation), the bureaucratic delay this will cause could open the door to legal action and so on. Isn't politics fun?
All the practical reasons to oppose a project like Cape Wind have been thoroughly debunked, including the idea that wind turbines hurt home values. So that leaves only the spiritual, aesthetic issue at hand.
Fair enough. There are some legitimate opinions to be heard about the aesthetics of wind farms – though most are based only in fear of something new and different. I'm obviously opinionated about this matter, but mostly, I'm concerned about what this says about our potential to work together to evolve our world's energy production and move towards something resembling sustainability on a global level. What are the costs of such rabid NIMBYism? Especially when it comes from those who otherwise claim to be steadfast supporters of renewable energy and sustainability? Where ought one draw the line between aesthetic tradition and change?
Article continues: http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/01/cape-wind-controversy-hits-new-low-illustrates-cost-of-nimbyism/
