You are right, the developer has given a lot of thought to this project, and he is proposing to place it in an area where he stands to make the most profit. Admittedly, he is a good businessman. But telling the taxpaying residents of Massachusetts that Horseshoe Shoal is the only place for this project is wrong, and presents us with a false choice. Other alternative sites have been identifies, yet Jim Gordon wants to place this project in the heart of Nantucket Sound.

It is important to note that Nantucket Sound has twice been nominated as a national marine ocean sanctuary, and was formally the Cape and Islands Ocean sanctuary – protected from utility scale developments just like Cape Wind. In 1986 the Federal government took back waters that states had claimed as their own outside of the three-mile state limit. This was the case for in Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, and other states in the northeast.

Fast forward to 2007 – Nantucket Sound remains the only place in the continental United States where protected state waters surround unprotected federal waters. This presents a management problem for state and federal authorities because Nantucket Sound isn’t the outer continental shelf, but it is being managed as such. 3 million people pass through the Sound on ferry each year, thousands boat recreationally in these waters. Run your 25 foot boat 30 miles south of Yarmouth, and you’ll hit Nantucket. Run your 25 foot boat 30 miles west of North Carolina, and you are alone in the Atlantic. Each area is fundamentally different, and should be treated as such, Nantucket Sound is not the place for an offshore wind farm because it isn’t even offshore – it is in the heart of coastal waters.

In your biography, you note your work with NMFS. I’m not sure what size boats you were out on, or if you have been fishing aboard any vessels on Nantucket Sound, but the fishermen of Nantucket Sound are inshore fishermen who have it tough enough without a giant power plant taking up 25 square miles of essential fish habitat. 67.7 miles of cable, trenches 5 feet deep, 6 feet wide. The shallowest part of Horseshoe Shoal is a half foot – the smallest barge required for this project is 80 feet, and the developer claims that no dredging is required for the construction of this project! Summer flounder populations will be take a serious hit, and commercial fishermen will suffer as they will be forced to fish elsewhere. In Denmark, the government has banned all commercial fishing activities from fishing inside the turbine array.

Cape Cod was found hundreds of years ago by the Basques searching for Cod. The heritage of the landmass is bound to the local waters. Our anthropogenic activities – namely fishing – tie us to the Place that is Nantucket Sound. Nantucket Sound, like Yellowstone, or forests in Madagascar give special meaning to our lives – these Places define who we are and what we aspire to be. A project of this size and scale will undoubtedly alter the cultural heritage that defines generations of people born and raised in this Place. You might call it NIMBYism, but it should be referred to as the environmental value of Place.

Cape Wind can tout how it will curb greenhouse gas emissions, but the reality is that no power plants will come off-line, and the Cape’s dirtiest power plant will burn more dirty fuel to increase production for when the wind isn’t blowing.

I’m not against wind power, and I think Massachusetts needs to be a leader in the industry, especially with the current demand for power in the New England grid. However, Nantucket Sound is not the right place to put 130 440’ turbines and a transformer substation. We need to approach climate change responsibly, and navigate a divisive dilemma that is dividing environmentalists.