Wind Farms Spark NOMB Complaints

As the Not On My Beach crowd speaks out against wind farms, a certain level of hypocrisy emerges and shows the way for NIMBYs everywhere.

1 minute read

April 12, 2007, 9:00 AM PDT

By tnac


"The loudest and most prolonged of the wind battles began in 2001 off the patrician shores of Cape Cod, where community dissent has delayed an ambitious plan to create America's first offshore (and the world's second largest) wind farm. The project, known as Cape Wind, would erect 130 turbines on a shoal in Nantucket Sound just five miles away from the closest beaches."

"One of the loudest of these local voices is Robert Kennedy, Jr.'s. The irony: Kennedy is a senior environmental lawyer for the New York City-based National Resources Defense Council, which has issued a statement in support of Cape Wind. But Kennedy continues his protests. In an op-ed in the New York Times in late 2005, he said he is in favor of wind farms in "appropriate landscapes," but that windmill arms reaching 417 feet above the water would be visible for 26 miles. Their bright lights would "steal the stars and nighttime views" from Cape Cod, he wrote. "

"Although no other wind project has prompted such extensive, high-profile debate, the arguments over Cape Wind are informing cases around the country. "

Sunday, April 1, 2007 in The Next American City

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