Kennedy faces fight on Cape Wind
Key lawmakers oppose his bid to block project

By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | April 27, 2006

WASHINGTON -- As record oil prices turn attention to the need for renewable fuels, momentum is building in Congress to buck Senator Edward M. Kennedy's bid to block the proposed Cape Cod wind energy project, potentially reviving efforts to construct the sprawling windmill farm in Nantucket Sound.


The chairman and the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee said yesterday that when the bill Kennedy backs that would effectively halt the wind farm comes up for a vote in the Senate, they will object on procedural grounds. They say they'll argue that a renewable energy project shouldn't be lumped in with a bill governing the Coast Guard.

Meanwhile, a group of rank-and-file House members, worried about the political ramifications of rejecting alternative energy sources while motorists pay $3 a gallon at the gas station, have persuaded House leaders to sidetrack the entire bill for at least several weeks, even though it was slated for action this week. The delay could give supporters of the wind farm time to make their case to members of Congress.

''Are we going to be for developing alternative energy or not?" said Representative Charles Bass, a New Hampshire Republican who helped persuade House leaders to table the bill until at least mid-May. ''The longer you delay it, the longer there is for people to examine the issue, and to determine what's going on here."

The efforts to move the wind farm forward occur amid growing attention to Kennedy's role in the secret, behind-the-scenes maneuvering to stop it. Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska, the senator who inserted the wind-farm provision into the Coast Guard bill, has acknowledged discussing the matter privately with the Massachusetts Democrat.

Environmental groups have launched an aggressive advertising and lobbying campaign to persuade Democrats to abandon Kennedy and back a promising source of renewable energy. If the wind farm becomes a reality, advocates say, it could provide three-fourths of the Cape and Islands' energy needs and could set an example for the nation.

The maneuver to stop the wind farm ''is clearly a backroom deal, and they're going to get called publicly on it," said John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA. ''The Democrats are going to kill the first big offshore wind farm in the United States because of their relationship with Ted Kennedy."

The 130-turbine, 24-square-mile cluster of windmills would be about 8 miles from Kennedy's home in Hyannis Port, and he has long opposed it. The Coast Guard bill would give Governor Mitt Romney, another wind farm opponent, the power to veto it, even if the project clears all other hurdles.

Kennedy rejected suggestions that he doesn't like the wind farm because it would be near his Cape home, and said the project probably wouldn't be visible from the Kennedy compound. He said he's against the project because it would create a range of environmental and navigational problems and would hurt tourism, one of the area's key industries.

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Environmental profiteering is the biggest threat to the American people.

Ted wasn't the only Mass offical that is against the wind farm, John Kerry doesn't want it either. It is ok for the elites to keep a prsitine views of land when Joe is having to having to pay more to heat and cool their homes.

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An informed voter scares the Goverment lackeys.

An American first and always a Conservative.

I live in one of the most liberal areas, of a very liberal state. When I first proposed installing residential wind turbans and solar panels on my property I met nothing but resistance. It took over three years to finally get the permits for the energy saving modifications. NO ONE WILL EVER CONVINCE ME LIBERALS ARE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY.

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Then why do we even listen to their enviroment rants? They just want to control the population.

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An informed voter scares the Goverment lackeys.

An American first and always a Conservative.

I quit listening to them years ago. My goal is to remove as many from public office as is possible.

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Poole is looking for a job, Teak.

Matbe you can fill a vacated seat with a good conservative like her...

The Democratic party does not represent "liberals".

"Liberals" would be the people pushing FOR renewable, sensible energy solutions.

The biggest issue among democrats is "he/she is too liberal to be a democrat".

The Democratic party represents the same big money interests that the Republican party does. In rhetoric they sometimes differ, in action they are unified.

Then maybe "liberals" should stop supporting the Dimocant Party.

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Well, is that any different than the conservatives who demand deregulation of everything so that business can operate unfettered by government regulation on their pollution, dumping of waste, or unilateral decision making, and then sue everyone under the sun in order to prevent the corporations from setting up in their neighborhood or dumping waste down the road or deny insurance claims based on the corporation's legal power to decide in their own favor?

Maybe teak wanted to fashion his solar-panels as a vertical crucifix, forty feet tall.

Blame it on the Libtard nIMBY's.