Cape Wind

The Cape Cod Commission - the group that apparently controls power transmission lines on the Cape - denied Cape Wind's application to bury transmission lines on the Cape. (See the Boston Globe article)

At the same time, oil prices hit near $90 a barrel today, and I've see projections that we'll be seeing $100 a barrel for crude oil in the near future - just in time for the winter heating season.

It seems utterly ridiculous & short sighted to block Cape Wind's application - it just seems like the latest attempt of the priveleged folks on the Cape & the Islands to block something that they wont even be able to see from their precious ocean front property. It's a federally approved project that would provide 75% of the cape & the islands' electrical energy. They've completed their NEPA mandated EIS. What BETTER time to start a project like this (other than years ago)?

Today is just one of those days when I am baffled & angered by people's inability to change, to accept what we have to do to survive. If we don't start projects like this now, the costs of construction are only going to increase as the years go by (as the costs of energy rise significantly, as they seem to be starting to do) - when we can least afford to fund such a project.

The Mass Maritime Academy has it's own wind turbine in Bourne. During the PMC, I slept in a tent underneath it. It wasn't ugly, it was elegant. It did make a little noise, but MUCH less than a truck driving by, or a train, or even air conditioner compressor - and I am a very noise sensitive person (I've been known to walk out of restaurants simply because they were too loud & the noise makes me angry. I can't handle sporting events or large crowds- too noisy). I found the soft swooshing noise to be soothing, and I slept very well that night.

How come we can fund a US Military Expansion in Africa (AFRICOM) under the thinly veiled guise of humanitarian aid (which everyone recognizes as perhaps a shift in our oil dependency from the Middle East to Africa) - but we can't fund projects like Cape Wind to become more self sufficient while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions?

People are afraid of change. I guess it's human nature. And that human nature might just be our downfall.

I hope it's not. But unless people start to wake up soon, we are all going to suffer. I do not like the thought of my kids being set back to a pre-1900s era because a majority of the population is too busy watching Survivor (or whatever the flavor of the month is) to pay attention to the real reality.