Brattleboro Reformer
> August 6, 2003
>
> Rich, famous join against Cape Wind
>
> BOSTON (AP) - The historian who helped derail Disney's Civil War theme
> park a decade ago has joined the growing ranks of prominent seaside
> dwellers and visitors who are fighting to keep a wind farm out of
> Nantucket Sound.
>
> Pulitzer Prize-winner David McCullough, who has been a full-time resident
> of Martha's Vineyard for 30 years, can now be heard on 60-second radio
> ads, decrying the "scheme" to build "a sprawling industrial factory" in
> the middle of "one of the most beautiful unspoiled places in all America."
>
> Legendary newsman Walter Cronkite, a part-time Vineyarder, and Robert F.
> Kennedy Jr., of the legendary political family and Hyannis-compound fame,
> are also campaigning against the renewable energy project, which would
> erect 130 towering turbines across 24 square miles of federal water
> bordered by Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
>
> "I'm not against wind turbines," McCullough said.  "I'm against 130 of
> them over 400 feet tall right smack in the middle of one of the most
> beautiful places in America.  That's a hundred feet taller than the
> Capital dome in Washington."
>
> The project, which would be the first offshore wind farm in the United
> States, has polarized the environmental community, with supporters of
> renewable energy squaring off against protectors of the aesthetic beauty
> and natural habitat of the Sound.
>
> Gov. Mitt Romney is against the project, while his neighbor to the south,
> Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri, is for it, with his state's economic
> development officials touting its job-creation potential.
>
> Its proximity to the summertime playgrounds of the rich and famous - and
> their participation in the debate - has bred the familiar charges of
> NIMBY-ism from officials at Cape Wind Associates, the private company that
> is currently seeking a federal permit for the $100 million project.
>
> "If the government determines that this project is in the public interest,
> that ultimately is much more important than anyone's individual aesthetic
> opinion," Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers said.  "If these agencies
> determine that this project is in the public interest, than we would
> supply three quarters of the electricity that Mr. McCullough will use in
> his home from a clean, renewable resource."
>
> McCullough points out that he has no view of the Sound from his home, and
> that he has become involved in projects far from his backyard, including
> the doomed Disney project near the Manassas National Battlefield and the
> expansion of Hanscom airfield near several Massachusetts' Revolutionary
> War sites.
>
> "I feel strongly about preserving the unspoiled places in America, no
> matter where they are," McCullough said.  "That Sound, that beautiful
> place out there...is not just the backyard of those of us who are blessed
> enough to live in this part of America, but to some 5 million people who
> come here from all over the world."
>
> The wind farm has also received mixed reviews from local residents who
> have seen the project evolve into the hottest topic of the summer.
>
> "It's good to see people talking, people active, people involved," said
> Erik Albert, innkeeper at Martha's Vineyard's Oak Bluffs Inn, which is a
> five-minute walk from the Sound.  As for Cronkite and McCullough, Albert
> said, "They are valued members of the community here, and their opinions
> hold a lot of weight."