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TUESDAY, JULY 11,
2006
WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO
GET THE CAPE COD WIND FARM PROJECT OUT OF THE HANDS OF “POLITICIANS”
AND INTO THE FAST TRACK FOR COMPLETION?????????
First it got the tentative
approval of the Director of The Environment Protection Agency of the
State of Massachusetts and evidently someone said “who the heck does
he think he is to give such an approval. Well all hell broke loose in
the mighty chambers of The Political fiefdoms around the Country and
that was like the “first shot heard round the world at “Concord
Bridge” at the start of the “Revolutionary War”! This will probably
be much bigger than that war which was mostly fought in just a few
places in the Country and this one is over 5 years old now, I think
and I am just talking about the after affects of the idea of Wind
Farms in general. The Cape Cod Wind Farm is just the latest in a
large outcry by “SOME” environmentalists. I think most
environmentalists have given the nod for these Wind Farms to start up
and supply the country with much needed “clean energy” and they are
equating “Wind Farms” damages to the environment as but a small
fraction as compared to the horrific damage created by “diesel, oil,
coal, nuclear and other types of non-renewal fuels that those electric
stations and other operations that require fossil fuels to function
emit every day in the form of acid rain and innumerable other
damaging substances. Only those that understand how they work and
what the magnitude of those problems those “poisons” represent, that
are left in our “living, breathing and reproduction” environment. We
will suffer and will continue to suffer for eternity, unless and until
something is finally done about it!
Finally, the Cape Cod Wind
Farm is on its way to fruition! Right? Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hold it
right there!!! Where did you get that news from, the Globe? Let’s get
real and study what is going on in the politics of the situation. On
the left side we have Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat-MA who is
adamant that he wants no part of this Cape Cod Wind Farm project to be
placed where it is now being proposed in the Nantucket Sound Area.
Let’s not forget where Mr. Edward M. Kennedy, Senator from MA,
Democrat, lives, that being Cape Cod, MA. Well, I don’t think it is
exactly a direct look from his estate to the proposed Cape Cod Wind
Farm project but it must be somewhere fairly close by boat? Huuum!
Anyway, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat From MA, struck up an
agreement with one of the World’s greatest environmentalist, Senator
Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, (tongue in cheek), to create
legislation to kill the Cape Cod Wind Farm Project. For those of you
who are not familiar with Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, he was very
concerned about the “shipping lanes” traffic which was looked at and
was not a concern of The United States Coast Guard when they were
first asked to look at the situation by the Secretary of The
Environmental Protection Agency for Massachusetts in the preliminary
environmental impact study that was done by both the State of
Massachusetts and the Cape Wind Farm Project itself and seen as
legitimate at the time by the U.S. Coast Guard. By the way Senator Ted
Stevens is the same Senator of Alaska that is chafing at the bit to
start drilling for oil in the great Alaskan Wilderness Area and I
think brings up that legislation every year. Some legislative issues
bring out strange bedfellows indeed and this issue is no different. I
wonder what the Quid pro quo is for this “compromise” made up as if
the players were a group made up of an “Oligarchy”.
One only has to look at the
results of the “agreement” between two politicians who are so far
separated on the political spectrum as Senator Kennedy is so far left
of center as far as the eye can see and Senator Ted Stevens in is so
far to the right as the eye can see that you know something is not
kosher. How can these two men agree on this subject to make up
legislation that would give the Governor of any State, never mind the
Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney the final say-so on whether
something should or should not be built in Federal Territory? Fact is
that the legislation was defeated and another bill was passed or
should pass.
If the bill has passed it
will give the Untied States Coast Guard Commandant the final say-so as
to if the Cape Cod Wind Project will be given the right to proceed. I
only know that as a resident of Massachusetts I have never been asked
whether the Cape Cod Wind Farm project should or should not be allowed
to proceed and benefit this state. I think that those questions that
were posed by Senator Stevens should have been asked of the citizens
of Massachusetts. I just wanted you to read what Senator Ted Stevens
had to say in a press release by the US Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation. You be the judge. By the way I don’t
think the bill passed. But the bill that was put up as a substitute
gives the US Coast Guard Commandant the right to let the project
proceed. What decision do you think the US Coast Guard Commandant
will make, Hummm! Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, the Chairman of the
U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Isn’t
that the Committee that regulates the U.S. Coast Guard?
Thanks for listening!
Don Abbott
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WIND FARMS, CAR POOLS AND VICTORY GARDENS pertaining to wind
power, wind energy and wind turbines.
In the 1990s a family found that while up near the side of a mountain,
the winds were very heavy and they looked into the possibility of
putting a wind farm on the property that if it became a reality there
would be nine wind turbines and eleven wind turbines on another
section of their land. The turbines are rated at 1.5 mega-watts each,
so the 20-turbine site could reap approximately 30 MW of power.
Wind Turbines are here to stay and if you think they aren’t then just
read up on the technology and where they can put the turbines needed
to produce the electricity. This is without question the cleanest of
renewable energy on earth in my opinion.
No matter what you do to improve on the environment there are going to
be people who throw up red flags everywhere. They have almost
innumerable choices when it comes to saying no, that is a word that
when you see it, it makes you say, “Oh no, not again! “I know who to
try to explain that to and what value these kinds of renewable energy
have.” But there are so many issues that people come with, when it
comes to Wind Farms some are “possibly” legitimate and some are over
the ”top” so to speak!
Back in the 1800s to the present, coal was/is used for energy and is
still used for the same purpose but it is a “little different” today
with a lot of choices with respect to it’s “sulfur” content and it
will be used for the foreseeable future until we get enough of those
“alternative, clean energy resources like Wind Farms etc.” They have
orders for coal right now that will last for a century or even longer
before we are free from its grip on society. It seems like coal was
gone as a fuel until oil started to begin its decline with respect to
its use everywhere, but that was an understatement, Coal is probably
100 times and more used now then all of the coal that was used in the
past. They can’t load up the coal carriers on trains and Colliers,
(ships that haul coal) fast enough. The “automobile industry” had to
be “shook up” before it started to find “alternative fuels” to run
it’s hybrid models that we thought wouldn’t be made for years or at
least until the oil stopped being pumped out of the ground.
They talk about the carbon footprint today and we haven’t even done
anything to address it to speak of in this country alone to lower the
“affects” of that “footprint” except for this Wind Farm type of
renewable energy. Acid Rain, air pollutants, oil spills that happen
all too often and still they have some single hulled oil tankers
roaming the world looking for someplace to ruin for the unforeseeable
future. I believe each persons carbon footprint in Great Britain is
rated very high at somewhere around a number used in tonnage and that
is about half of what it is in the United States and the US is still
less than those who live in Australia which is rated somewhere around
1/3 more tonnage per person.
They talk about nuclear energy and they make it sound like it is clean
fresh and “no problem” except when they try to explain the ten
thousand years it will take for the cleansing effect of time on the
fuel rods they will take out of the nuclear power plants when they
refuel them. Where are they going to find the places to hide them and
make them safe from polluting the entire world within a short time
frame? They have to be stored under water to keep the air from being
polluted by the waste and there is another way of storage that kind of
makes one wonder how bad things must be with this technology. They
have other storage systems that are dry but to explain that technology
would be like taking the course which I don’t offer here.
There are other ways to store the radio active wastes that come from
the nuclear power stations and other “nuclear items” like the
ingredients in nuclear bombs that are dismantled and war heads they
destroy because of nuclear disarmament agreements that include
disposing of dangerous substances that last almost forever. Believe it
or not they have a method of storage that includes going down into the
ocean and under the ocean floor to where the plates lay, they in some
way would put the waste under these plates and the waste would be
“locked” there for a gazillion years and at some point the stuff would
become harmless and reenter the “atmosphere” because of the “natural
movement of the plates” and without any “environmental catastrophes”
envisioned. I guess you and I wouldn’t have to worry about this
problem but it always bothers me when someone says, “we can’t be
responsible for the unborn babes!” I wonder what will happen someday
when all of these kinds of “fixes” come to fruition and people don’t
know what or where in the heck all this stuff came from or how much
longer do they have to wait before they dare move anything or check to
see if indeed these were the answers from “10,000 or more years”
before. Wind Farms can help in a colossal way if enough of them
are built around the world and if they grow old they can be replaced
with new Wind Farm technology that is happening every day.
When the Kyoto treaty was ready for signing, the “United States”
balked because of “politics”, “non binding regulations” on “developing
countries” and the “conservative agendas” that were in play at the
time and the limits placed on the “release of carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere.” “Carbon Dioxide,” the main part of the “Carbon Footprint”
was just about given the “OK” because of those nations, including the
United State’s, reluctance to agree to the “Kyoto Protocols Treaty”
and refused to sign the “Kyoto Accords Treaty.” These are just
estimates and are subject to change from time to time depending on
your travel and after you retire or are on vacation and fishing
instead of touring around the Country taking in all of the sights and
adding to the “greenhouse” affect that happens every Summer in this
Country and in the Winter when we heat out homes and keep our cars
idling in the constant traffic jams that probably use up ¼ of our
“gasoline.”
I decided to look to the future instead of talking about the past. We
can’t undo what all of these nations have done to pollute the earth
and in so doing make our very existence a challenge. I do know that
some companies are now introducing new ideas with respect to Wind
Farms. They are making the blades that turn, out of “glass” and it
seems they are a lot stronger then what they were made of in the past.
New ideas with respect to the wind turbines also and it seems
that energy groups are deciding to invest in greener energy. No matter
what they come up with someone will throw up “red flags” and challenge
everything these people are trying to achieve. I think it is a
wonderful thing that is taking place now and into the future. The
“price of petroleum,( gasoline), oil and lubricants” now is getting to
the point of a threat to us all in the ability to come up with enough
money to heat our homes and light our bulbs and in our everyday needs
of energy etc.
We must decide to support these new futuristic ways of challenging and
developing “clean forms of energy” like Wind Farms different types and
better running Wind Turbines, because we have no time to spend
deciding which way we are going to go. It’s pay through the nose for
“petroleum and lubricants” or use much less of those for energizing
our “automobiles” and “public transportation.” Your “one to three or
more weekly trips” by “public transportation” alone would save an
enormous amount of “oil and petroleum products” because of the bigger
bang for each dollar by moving many people with less “gasoline and
diesel fuel” and using less to achieve more everyday. “Passenger
service” would be much more efficient and quicker and the “savings” to
you would be unbelievable and you would have so much “more money” for
food and clothes and everything you do in your daily routine. Just
think of the big changes that would naturally happen because of fewer
cars on the road when we achieved this, not only in traffic jams but
in “attitudinal changes.” But if you just let “Jack and Jill” do it
and not do your part, and that means everyone in the family has to get
in the habit of “saving energy” and you won’t be faced with those
“threatening countries,” to buy their “energy products” and skimp on
other things that are necessary in your life. Your options will be
greater and you will have “greater control” of your every day life.
In “World War 2”, every neighbor had “Victory Gardens” in all the
“neighborhoods” and they used there lawns and back yard land to “plant
vegetables” and they were very good at it and today you would not have
a problem with the development of the “hybrid seeds” and if this
country worked like it did back then you would develop a sense of
“self esteem” you wouldn’t have believed you had in you. Just ask
anyone who raises tomatoes, beans, corn, potatoes, cauliflower etc.
etc. etc. You would have a system for “gasoline rationing” that would
work like a charm if people drove one day a week to work and/or
“shared the driving” with four or five people and right there alone
you would pay 1/5th of what your paying today to drive yourself to
work. Don’t laugh at the “Old Days” they were a lot smarter with their
money than most of you out there. If you know some people in their 60s
and 70s and older they would show you a thing or two about surviving
in a situation just like we have today and they would be glad to tell
you or show you how to do it. You would be surprised how much fun it
is to “grow your own food” and help those and yourselves to pay for
those things you can’t grow like “oil and lubricants” and you would
also be surprised at how well “rationing” works and how much
frustration you will be relived of by doing this starting next week or
next month. It would be better if you called your friends near you who
work in the same city or company and set up your “car pool”. Sharing
the costs of everything will make you a lot richer not just in the
money you will save but in the joy you will have getting to know your
fellow workers and neighbors for the first time in years. It doesn’t
always work out without some problem with personalities and people who
don’t always come up with their share of the costs but if you lay the
rules down you generally will get the cooperation. Set up a
“collection system” where you collect for the rides for the week at
pay day and/or make everyone put two weeks in the kitty for the “gas
and oil” and always agree that you will chip in on maintenance and
that can be done very easily. Two weeks in advance is nothing if your
were driving alone in the past, you still are saving six days of
“wasted gas” and your pockets will be heavy with “cash” to get that
“Victory Garden” going that we talked about. As a matter of fact on
the week end you could go to a nice restaurant for a change and pay
for a great night out and still have money you saved on the “rat race”
you have been running for years. Watch your money add up just like you
were throwing it in the bank instead of sending it over to the “Middle
East” and other countries who are robbing you like the old “Robber
Barons” of long, long ago. The side affects of doing this is for every
five people in your car you have taken four cars off the road and then
four cars and then four cars, etc., etc, etc. You will take less time
to go to work, less frustration about traffic, and more time for the
“Victory Garden!” we talked about. By the way some people are better
at growing different types of vegetables than others so you make your
deal with them to give you part of theirs and so on and so on.
Then every two years you grow what they grow and they grow what you
grew and that’s crop rotation right there! Victory Gardens! You bet,
and what a “Victory!”
Don Abbott is a writer from the Massachusetts
area. Please visit our Wind Power and Wind Farm (wind energy) page
again soon, we will be posting new wind related energy resources soon.
This article covers wind generators, wind energy, wind farms as well
as wind turbines that are a major part of wind energy.
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