Page - October 24, 2007
Offshore wind offers an immediate, clean, safe and effective answer to both global warming and energy security. By its very nature wind is indigenous and limitless. It is a completely safe and resilient energy supply, not dependent on uncertain fuel supplies or rising energy prices.
Given the stark urgency of global warming, we believe that the
presumption should always be in favor of renewable energy projects,
unless there is specific evidence of environmental harm. The
November draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) has identified
no such harms from the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts and we
now give the project our full institutional support.
We have a 35-year history of protecting the world's oceans from
dumping, over fishing and other exploitation. As such, we do not
take this decision to support the Cape Wind farm lightly. It is
also our belief, backed by studies of this and other offshore wind
projects in Europe, that any environmental impacts caused by
installing these turbines offshore are minor, especially when
compared to the truly profound impacts of global warming on the
oceans, estuaries and coastal lands. From the ice pack of the polar
regions to the coral reefs of the tropics, global warming is
already directly harming ocean ecosystems.
We have been at the center of offshore wind development in
Europe over the past decade. We have closely monitored offshore
projects in Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany. These projects
have each raised a similar debate to the discussion around the Cape
Wind project. The ecological concerns raised by wind power skeptics
in Europe have not born out and we do not expect the concerns
raised in the United States to endure either.
Now is the time to take every action
available to slow the impacts of global warming. In fact we should
have started long ago. Offshore wind is a big step in the right
direction and can contribute quickly to a tangible reduction in
global warming pollution. In addition, the avoided pollution and
health impacts from coal and oil plants and the inherent risk of
nuclear power make wind power the picture of true social progress.
From local jobs to clean energy, this project is right for America
and right for the Cape. In years to come, the people of
Massachusetts will be proud of this contribution to the clean
energy revolution.