"minke, humpback & right whales that inhabit the area." Do they swim in 13 to 40 ft water?
"The reef growth that MMario mentions might work better in deeper water, not in the area where they're considering which is 13 to 40 feet deep" Why does the depth have anything to do with it? Some reefs are exposed at low tide.
"the loss of marine life has been tragic.... Part of this is due to over fishing & part caused by development & pollution." How much is due to building structures in the ocean? Structures will bring back marine life.
Other arguments by the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound: "The proposed plant represents seizure of 24 square miles of public trust lands in Nantucket Sound by a private for-profit venture, with no discussion or permission from the state and federal agencies that serve as the guardians of public trust and no associated payment" But it is Ok to seize private land for private commercial development. Isn't electricity production considered a public utility?
"One of the many vessels to travel through this area is an oil barge that regularly visits Nantucket." With more non-fossil fuel electricity who needs the oil. We need to "get off of oil" but we need to keep it safe for hauling in oil?????????
"Each turbine will have four flashing lights, for a total of 520 flashing red and amber lights, and the corners of the complex will be marked with fog horns. This will cause visual, noise and light pollution." Don't light houses have flashing light and fog horns? Sounds like a navigational aid to me.
"Southeastern Massachusetts is an electricity exporter." How much of that is from fossil fuel or nuclear?
"the result could be an environmental disaster." What is the result of continued burning of fossil fuels?
"losses in property values for Cape Cod, and potentially Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard." Is this the real heart of the problem?
The Alliance to protect Nantucket sound claims to be an environmental organization, yet its co-chairman Bill Koch has a business empire based on oil refining.
Greenpeace which supports the project, believes that the Alliance to protect Nantucket sound is a front group for wealthy landowners who don't want to have to look at windmills from their houses on Martha's Vineyard
The Alliance has a history of underhanded tactics. In Februay 2006, the co-founder of the group settled a defamation case for $15k brought by Cape Wind because he sent a fake press release with completely false information from a Hyannis company he did not represent. Cape Wind will donate the money to Housing Assistance Corporation of Cape Cod.
The turbines would be sited between 4-11 miles offshore depending on the shoreline and would be visible on the horizon as half a degree high. At peak generation, the turbines will generate 420 megawatts of renewable electricity. This is enough to meet the needs of 420,000 homes. The project is expected to produce an average of 170 megawatts of electricity at any given time, about 75% of the average electricity demand for Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket island. It could offset close to a million tons carbon dioxide every year and should produce enough electricity to offset the consumption of 113 million gallons of oil annually.
Currently 45% of the Cape region's electricity comes from the nearby Canal Power Plant in Sandwich, which burns bunker oil and natural gas. The Cape Wind proposal is relatively unique in that it would directly offset petroleum usage unlike most of the country where electrical power generation from oil is rare.