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Feb 21 - U.S. Newswire
After four years of favorable regulatory review showing the project would lower energy costs, reduce air pollution and help wean the New England region off its dependence on imported oil and natural gas, Cape Wind's future is now threatened because of Alaska Congressman Don Young's backdoor attempt to kill America's first offshore wind farm. Last week, Rep. Young distributed a five-page letter to colleagues in Congress urging support for an amendment he says he plans to offer in Conference Committee. "He's only been talking to NIMBY opponents and his letter reflects that, it is one-sided and inaccurate," said Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers. Today, in its own letter, Cape Wind is setting the record straight. Read the letter from Cape Wind to Representative Don Young here: http://www.capewind.org/downloads/Don_Young_022106.pdf The "Young amendment" was first reported in an article in the Congressional Quarterly on December 5, in which Young's office denied its existence and called Cape Wind "paranoid." In subsequent media reports, Young's office mostly refused public comment or said little about what he was trying to do. "Up until now, Congressman Young has apparently been trying to conceal his efforts," said Rodgers. Congressman Young is seeking to attach the amendment to the Coast Guard Reauthorization Bill in Conference Committee. The stated purpose of a Conference Committee is to "resolve differences" between House and Senate Bills, not to introduce new provisions that were not reviewed by either chamber, as is happening in this case. If the Amendment gets attached in Conference Committee, it is difficult to remove as both chambers tend to vote on important spending bills "up or down" with no changes. "Making important energy policy that affects national security, the economy and public health is too important to be done behind the closed doors of a conference committee that avoids public hearings or the scrutiny of the full committees of each chamber," said Rodgers. "This is coming at a time when members of both parties are talking about their commitment to reform Congress to make their work more transparent and to curtail the influence of lobbyists," Rodgers continued. At the heart of Young's letter and Amendment is a call to ban offshore wind farms within 1 1/2 nautical miles of a shipping channel or ferry route. For comparison, the required buffer zone between offshore oil and gas rigs and shipping lanes is 500 feet. The entire justification offered for Young's 1 1/2 mile ban is a recent report in the United Kingdom that identifies an approach on how possible marine navigation radar risks of offshore wind farms should be reviewed. Crucially, the UK approach calls for a buffer zone of 500 meters, about one-third nautical mile. The UK approach rejects a "one size fits all" solution and leaves it up to the UK Coast Guard to evaluate each project beyond 500 meters on a case-by- case basis. By contrast, Young's Amendment would strip authority away from the US Coast Guard to review any offshore wind project, like Cape Wind, closer than 1 1/2 nautical miles to a shipping channel or ferry route by banning them outright. Young inaccurately claims his amendment is based on the UK approach but he has more than quadrupled the size of the UK buffer zone. Not surprisingly, Young's Amendment is opposed by the Coast Guard. Young's Amendment also brushes aside the experience in Denmark where an offshore wind farm near Copenhagen sits 1/4 nautical mile from an extremely busy shipping lane, and another offshore wind warm in the Baltic Sea is 1 nautical mile from the main channel that connects the Baltic Sea with the North Sea. These and other Danish offshore wind farms have had no reports of any problems with sea navigation. The following is an extract from the lead Cape Cod Times article on Sunday, February 19, entitled, Alaska lawmaker joins Cape wind farm fray: One of the top-paid lobbyists hired by the Alliance is Guy Martin, a former Washington counsel for the state of Alaska who describes himself as a longtime friend of Young's. Martin, who worked in offshore leasing issues and coastal zoning, also helped win federal support for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline -- a project Young calls the "single most important achievement" of his career. Don Young is the House Chair of the Coast Guard Conference Committee, key Senate Members that can defeat this amendment include: Stevens (R-AK), Snowe (R-ME), Cantwell (D-WA), and Inouye (D-HI). The Young amendment threat comes just as President Bush and leaders in Congress are making repeated public statements about the need to accelerate the development of wind power in the United States to help make America less reliant upon oil and other fossil fuels. Cape Wind enjoys the enthusiastic support of thousands of residents of Cape Cod and the Islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket and in statewide polls Cape Wind is favored by margins of 3-1 to 6-1. The following is a partial list of organizations that are opposed to the Young Amendment: American Wind Energy Association, National Ocean Industries Association, Maritime Trades Council, Seafarers International Union, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, Conservation Law Foundation, U.S. PIRG, Greenpeace, Woods Hole Research Center, Natural Resources Council of Maine, Environment Maine, Friends of the Earth, American Lung Association's Maine and Massachusetts Chapters. Cape Wind's proposal to build America's first offshore wind farm on Horseshoe Shoal would provide three-quarters of the electricity used on Cape Cod and the Islands from clean, renewable energy - reducing this region's need to import oil, coal and gas. Cape Wind will create new jobs, lower electric costs, contribute to a healthier environment, increase energy independence and establish Massachusetts as a leader in offshore wind power. For more information visit http://www.capewind.org. --- More: The "Young Amendment" introduced at the last-minute in a back- door attempt to kill Cape Wind would deny New England and the United States many benefits of the Cape Wind project Cleaner Air Cape Wind will help improve air quality by reducing harmful air pollution emissions in New England by several thousand tons per year. The Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board reports that, "the air quality benefits of the wind farm are significant, and important for Massachusetts and New England." According to Norman Anderson of the American Lung Association of Maine,"...we request that the Cape Wind project be viewed within the context of a public health intervention. As a region, New England has the highest adult asthma rates in the country...Maine citizens will still experience respiratory health threats from our upwind neighbors unless they enact aggressive pollution reduction measures..." Energy Independence By harnessing our local wind resources, we can contribute to reducing our dependence on imported energy. Cape Wind will provide clean, renewable energy capable of replacing each year: 113 million gallons of oil per year or 570,000 tons of coal, or 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas. New England is at the end of the supply lines for all of the coal, oil and natural gas it imports from other regions and countries to supply most of its power plants. Since 1973, America has transferred over seven trillion dollars of its wealth to OPEC countries. Our dependence on foreign energy leaves our economy and national security at risk. At one of the many public hearings on Cape Wind, Martha's Vineyard resident John Packer stated, "With respect to all the politicians, if we let this opportunity go, how many more years will it be? I am not raising two sons to fight an oil war, and that's it. We talk about resources. Our children are our resources. There's a young football player sitting back there. I'd hate to think he has to go fight for oil because we don't have the courage to build a windmill." Reduced energy costs Electricity prices in New England have doubled over the past 5 years because of the rising cost of fossil fuels imported into the region. The Massachusetts Energy Facility Siting Board that approved Cape Wind's cables found that Cape Wind will reduce energy costs by 25 million dollars per year. Cape Wind will also provide long term fixed price contracts that offer lower and stable electricity prices for up to 20 years, providing some needed relief to consumers. Natural gas prices have also more than doubled over the last five years. The United States Department of Energy stated that Cape Wind and renewable energy will also conserve natural gas and help lower rising natural gas costs. Provide New England with Needed Electricity According to the electric grid manager, the Independent System Operator of New England, there is a risk of rolling blackouts in cold winter conditions due to an over-reliance on natural gas for generating electricity and that, "New England should diversify its fuel mix for power generation by developing resources that use alternative fuels (e.g. renewable energy sources...)." The US Department of Energy has stated that Cape Wind would provide regional electric reliability benefits. Jobs and the Economy Cape Wind will establish New England as a global leader in offshore renewable energy technology. Cape Wind will create up to a thousand jobs in manufacturing, assembly, and ocean construction, boosting our local economy and creating 150 permanent jobs. According to US Department of Energy Under Secretary of Energy David K. Garman, "As the first shallow water offshore project under review in the United States, utility-scale projects like Cape Wind are important to our national interest and a critical first step to building a domestic, globally competitive wind industry. Success in the project could also lay the foundation for a focused national investment to develop offshore wind technology in the coming years." According to the Maritime Trades Council, "Our organization represents seventy thousand unionized workers engaged in marine and maritime related industries. Skilled local workers that range from fishermen, to merchant mariners, dock workers, dredge and ferry workers, pile drivers and many other marine and building trades personnel...the Marine Trades Council has unanimously endorsed Cape Wind because of the overwhelming environmental and economic benefits of this renewable energy project." Kick Start New England's response to global warming Cape Wind will demonstrate to the world that New England is serious about addressing global warming by reducing global warming greenhouse gas emissions by almost one million tons per year -- equivalent of removing 162,000 cars from the road. Global warming contributes to rising sea levels and more frequent storms that erode our beaches and cause coastal property damage. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Cape Wind, "is to our knowledge, the largest single source of supply-side reductions in CO2 currently proposed in the United States, and perhaps in the world." |