Published:
Save Our Sound Alliance Urges Feds to Deny Cape Wind
HYANNIS, Mass., April 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the federal public comment period on the Cape Wind Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) comes to a close, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound calls for the Minerals Management Service (MMS) to reject the critically flawed DEIS and deny the Cape Wind project.
Assembling a team of more than 40 experts to thoroughly review the massive federal report, the Alliance has concluded that the DEIS is deeply deficient and biased and therefore an insufficient basis for permitting Cape Wind. The DEIS relies on erroneous assumptions of costs and benefits, and grossly understates or ignores Cape Wind's potential adverse impacts to our electric bills, local economy, property values, tourism, public safety, and environment.
As MMS itself concedes in Appendix F of the DEIS, the Cape Wind project is not financially viable. The estimated cost of electricity produced by Cape Wind would be $128 per megawatt hour -- double the average current wholesale price of electricity in southeastMassachusetts -- even after tax credits and subsidies. Cape Wind has yet to answer several key questions: What does this costly production mean for our rates? Would our electric bills increase $25 or $50 per month, or even more?
The costs of the Cape Wind project clearly exceed the benefits, which are significantly overstated in the DEIS. Cape Wind would not have beneficial effects on air quality or climate change because of "cap and trade" programs, which limit total emissions. The project would not change the cap amount and therefore not reduce the overall emissions.
While the DEIS overstates project benefits, it understates potential costs including public safety, historic resources, tribal interests, avian impacts and commercial fishing. Assessing the costs and benefits of the project, the Beacon Hill Institute concluded that Cape Wind's benefits would not be worth the vast resources it would cost, and the project would result in the waste of over $1 billion in resources.
The concerns of the Alliance are echoed by a chorus of local opposition. Elected officials, tribal leaders, commercial fishing organizations, chambers of commerce, ferry lines, airports, environmental groups, business owners, and citizens have spoken out against the flawed DEIS and urged MMS to find a responsible location for much-needed renewable energy. MMS should reject the proposed project outright and instead find a consensus-based winning and cost-effective alternative.
SOURCE Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound
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