Harvest could be
Jim Gordon is winning over some converts.
When he first proposed four years ago to build a large wind farm on Nantucket Sound, some thought it a joke. Others were deeply hostile. Now, well into an extensive review process, the seeming fantasy is starting to look real. A test windmill is up and gathering data. Gordon believes he could have permits within 12 months and be generating electricity by 2006. And one-time skeptics and opponents are now giving the wind farm a second look.
Gordon is an idealist who speaks with a missionary's passion about clean energy technologies. But he's a hard-headed businessman as well, one who has made his money while doing environmental good.
"For me,
this is the natural progression of my business career," he says. He was at
He started with a few conservation and pollution control projects. Later on he developed six of his own power generation plants, pioneering the use of natural gas instead of far dirtier oil and coal.
Still, he
notes, "we haven't learned a lot of lessons" from the embargoes. Back
then, imported oil accounted for 28 percent of
And even Gordon's natural gas plants still contribute to global warming. Wind power doesn't. It emits zero pollutants and is indefinitely renewable. And his proposed wind farm is no penny-ante demonstration project. The 130 windmills would generate electricity equal to three-quarters of the demand of the cape and islands.
Despite that,
the initial reaction was negative. Some people were horrified
by the notion of tall windmills dotting Nantucket Sound, spoiling the
landscape. The so-called
For a while, the opposition seemed to carry the day. The alliance seemed to capture broad support, claiming it would spend millions. Celebrities like Walter Cronkite pushed the alliance's message. And even many environmentalists - whom one would have thought were Gordon's natural allies - were disapproving.
That has begun
to change. Cronkite is no longer fronting ads for the
Partly that's because
the aesthetic argument cuts both ways. I've seen wind turbines dotting the
hills south of
Yet the real
shift in attitudes stems from a minor ecological catastrophe. In April, a ship
carrying oil for a
It was a close-to-home comeuppance that caused the coalition, as it carefully puts it, to "more closely evaluate" Gordon's project. Add up the most hyperbolic charges against the wind farm and they wouldn't equal the damage caused by that one, relatively small spill. The point was lost on few that if the cape used wind instead of fossil fuels, far fewer oil tankers would be plying the area's waters.
At the same time, the alliance has begun to lose credibility. It was caught last year doctoring documents. To many, the alliance looks more self-interested than public spirited, an exercise on old- fashioned NIMBYism. Indeed, as alliance contributor Francis Lowell bluntly told the Cape Cod Times, it's really "NIAMBY," not in anybody's (or my) back yard.
Add all this up and you begin to realize: This thing might actually happen. If so, it's good news for all of us. It's been a somewhat lonely battle for Gordon. "I've seen coal plants get permitted faster," he says. Yet if you actually care about global warming, pollution and energy independence, the success of the wind farm is of critical importance.
For if the project fails or if lobbying trips it up, the message to other potential investors will be simple: Don't bother. If it succeeds, however, it will set a precedent for the development of wind power across the country. That, ultimately, is the most compelling argument to Seth Kaplan of the Conservation Law Foundation. It is why, he says, "We have to find a way to get to yes."
Talk back to Tom Keane at tomkeane@tomkeane.com.