Nantucket's Wind Power Rip-off

[lostinblue 1,989]

Robert F Kennedy Jr on why a wind farm in his back yard would be a rip-off

Wikipedia: NIMBY or Nimby is an acronym for the phrase not in my back yard. The term (or the derivative Nimbyism) is used pejoratively to describe opposition by residents to a proposal for a new development close to them.

Nantucket's Wind Power Rip-off

Vastly cheaper forms of green energy are available.

By ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. WSJ.com 7/18/11

Someone needs to tell the politicians in Boston and Washington that Cape Wind, the long-stalled plan to cover 25 square miles of pristine Nantucket Sound with 130 massive steel windmill-turbine towers, is a rip-off. That someone is most likely to be the newly enlightened electricity ratepayers—and voters—of Massachusetts.

In the past few months it has become clearer than ever how much this giveaway of public property is going to cost them if Cape Wind is ever built. The numbers are staggering.

Vermont wants to take its nuclear plant off line and replace it with clean, green power from HydroQuebec—power available to Massachusetts utilities—at a cost of six cents per kilowatt hour (kwh). Cape Wind electricity, by a conservative estimate and based on figures they filed with the state, comes in at 25 cents per kwh.

In Massachusetts, the utility company NSTAR has fought off intense political pressure to commit to buying Cape Wind's power when and if it becomes available. CEO Tom May has repeatedly said such a contract would impose far too large a burden on his ratepayers.

Instead, and to meet the state's requirements that utilities purchase 3.5% of their power from "green" sources, NSTAR has contracted with several far less expensive land-based wind-power providers.

According to NSTAR's own filings to certify compliance with the green-power requirement, these contracts come in at $111 million below market averages over the standard contract period of 15 years. The price of Cape Wind power comes in at well over $1 billion above market averages, according to Cape Wind's own regulatory filings about its contract with National Grid, the utility company that has agreed to buy half its power.

If the sea-based wind farm off Nantucket did begin operating, it is safe to deduce that National Grid customers would be getting fleeced compared to their NSTAR neighbors. The land-based wind alternatives that have sprouted up over the last decade have given utilities far cheaper alternatives to the unbuilt Cape Wind.

Bluntly put: Whether you agree or disagree with the fishermen, homeowners and environmentalists who have fought Cape Wind for a decade, the fact is this project makes no sense for ratepayers and taxpayers. Vastly cheaper forms of energy, and not just wind, are now available.

Despite this, there are ominous signs that NSTAR, after years of fighting off pressure by the state of Massachusetts to jam its customers with higher costs, is being told to accept the higher costs after all. The state's leverage? A proposed merger of NSTAR with Northeast Utilities.

In only the latest example of how heavy-handed Cape Wind's backers are, Massachusetts has suddenly agreed to change the rules for utilities as they apply to mergers and the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions. In effect, the state administration is trying to hold hostage the proposed NSTAR-Northeast Utilities merger unless the two electric companies agree to buy Cape Wind's power.

Stopping Cape Wind is no longer merely about preventing the desecration of sacred Native American land, including land now under shallow waters in the Sound, where the turbines would also obstruct religiously significant views of the sunrise and sunset. It is no longer simply about protecting fish and fishing—which Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has moved to do for other areas of the state. Those reasons, along with protecting the safety of boats and planes while saving Cape Cod and the Islands from a devastating blow to tourism and property values, are still valid.

Stopping Cape Wind is now about preventing us from buying into a boondoggle: from investing desperately needed federal, state and ratepayer dollars in a single project, on public land, for the benefit of a private developer when better and cheaper renewable energy—from wind and water power—is abundantly available.

Mr. Kennedy is an environmental lawyer and president of the environmental group Waterkeeper Alliance.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

People don't realize that going green means spending a lot of tax payer dollars for less return. Greenies try to keep this information a secret for the fact it pops their balloon.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

People don't realize that going green means spending a lot of tax payer dollars for less return. Greenies try to keep this information a secret for the fact it pops their balloon.

Going green must be done on a massive scale and it will take some time. Hydro power is virtually all tapped out around here but it would be far better to conserve energy AND figure out how to make green power cheaper. Conservation is still far better any way you look at it.

[lostinblue 1,989]

Going green must be done on a massive scale and it will take some time. Hydro power is virtually all tapped out around here but it would be far better to conserve energy AND figure out how to make green power cheaper. Conservation is still far better any way you look at it.

green power from HydroQuebec—power available to Massachusetts utilities—at a cost of six cents per kilowatt hour (kwh). Cape Wind electricity, by a conservative estimate and based on figures they filed with the state, comes in at 25 cents per kwh.

Coal at 4 cents per kwh

Natgas fired generation, with natgas price of $5MMBtu, produces power for $0.04 kWh, and the plant has a usefull life of 40-60 years. Cap Wind will produce power at $0.22+ kWh, and has a usefull life of 20 years, if it's lucky. I'll let you you do the math of what the true economic life-cycle cost of power actually is.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

green power from HydroQuebec—power available to Massachusetts utilities—at a cost of six cents per kilowatt hour (kwh). Cape Wind electricity, by a conservative estimate and based on figures they filed with the state, comes in at 25 cents per kwh.

Coal at 4 cents per kwh

Natgas fired generation, with natgas price of $5MMBtu, produces power for $0.04 kWh, and the plant has a usefull life of 40-60 years. Cap Wind will produce power at $0.22+ kWh, and has a usefull life of 20 years, if it's lucky. I'll let you you do the math of what the true economic life-cycle cost of power actually is.

No need to do any math. Shut off the lights and you don't use any power, it's that simple. CONSERVE. That solves many of the problems associated with a shortage of power generation. Power is expensive, so I'll just use less. Going green takes time and the technology keeps evolving and becoming more efficient. Are modern coal-fired generating plants the same as ones that were built in the 1940s? Of course not! Modern solar cells are far more efficient than ones made 20 years ago. Give it time, all the other forms of power generation were given YEARS to get to their current level of efficiency. Conservation costs 0 cents per kilowatt hour.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

We get most our power from HydroQuebec, some from local hydro power. Southern Vermont gets theirs from the Nuke plant but that is scheduled to shut down next year and the gap will be made up by HydroQuebec. Good thing the Quebecois flooded over all that Nunuvut land and ran those Native Americans off so we can keep our air conditioners humming with renewable water power.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Told you. The Kennedy's killed wind power.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

People don't realize that going green means spending a lot of tax payer dollars for less return. Greenies try to keep this information a secret for the fact it pops their balloon.

Another good reaason for us to use electricity we buy from Quebec to replace that from Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. The Canadians already ran off the native people on the land and built dams to flood it over, we may as well make use of it and just pay by the KwH as we go.