When Jim Gordon set out to build a wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod, he knew some people might object. But there was a lot of merit in creating a privately-funded, clean energy source for energy-starved New England, and he felt sure most people would recognize it eventually. Instead, all hell broke loose. Gordon had unwittingly challenged the privilege, power, and assumptions of some of Americas richest and most politically connected people, and they would fight him tooth and nail, no matter what it cost, and even when it made no sense.
Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb have covered the Cape Wind controversy from its first days, from meetings of concerned mansion owners at the Wianno Club in ultrarich Osterville- near socialite Bunny Mellon's many-chimneyed home-to debates on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Their entertaining, acidly funny account reveals that the battle over wind energy in Nantucket Sound is, at its heart, about an issue relevant everywhere in America: how the wealthy manipulate democracy to serve their own interests.
Cape Wind is a rollicking tale of democracy in action and plutocracy in the raw as played out among colorful and glamorous characters on one of America's most historic and renowned pieces of coastline. It is also a cautionary tale about the challenges of evolving beyond reliance on fossil fuels and "foreign oil," and an all-too-real lesson about why America lags behind the rest of the developed world in adopting clean energy.
The battle over Nantucket Sound is only the most spectacular of coastal conflicts over energy. the environment, and aesthetics that have erupted in recent years-not only in the U.S. but in many other countries. Wind power is coming, all over the world, and in many places where the turbines appear, so does controversy. As clean energy technology develops, so will the battles. This book explains why, in a deliriously readable way.
