COURTESY OF AUDRA PARKER
SINKING IN
BUREAUCRACY
much we appreciate all that Save
Our Sound has done to protect
our sound. Thank you, thank you,
thank you.”
Parker, who spent summers on
the cape growing up and who now
lives in the area full time, begins
reading aloud another letter, sent
in 2011, after Interior Secretary
Ken Salazar issued a final federal
approval of the project.
“Thank you so much for all you
folks are doing to save one of the
most beautiful pieces of water in
the world,” she begins. “When the
news came down the other day, I
was devastated. Frankly, I took it
much harder than expected. It is
unfathomable to me that a group
of investors can simply swoop in
and lay claim to a national treasure. This is the greatest theft in
Massachusetts history. Cape Wind
has devastated not only the ... ”
And then Parker tears up
and stops.
“I can’t even read this,” she
said. “It always gets to me.”
The truth behind the finer
points of the long-running Cape
Wind dispute are, as one might
expect, a matter of vigorous debate. For every poll or study commissioned or endorsed by the alliance that shows Massachusetts
HUFFINGTON
03.10.13
residents oppose the project, that
property values will drop, or that
electricity rates will skyrocket,
supporters can point to countervailing analyses that show quite
the opposite.
A 2010 study of regional electricity markets, for example, suggested that Cape Wind would
actually work to lower wholesale
electricity prices in New England
over time.
The Obama administration also
has made it a high priority to encourage the diversification of the
nation’s energy portfolio through
generous subsidies for the burgeoning clean energy sector, and
Massachusetts, like many states,
now requires local utilities to obtain a certain percentage of their
electricity from renewable sources
Audra Parker,
an opponent
of the Cape
Wind project,
is the chief
executive of
the Alliance
to Save
Nantucket
Sound.