Business & Tech
Wealthy Men with Water Views Oppose Cape Wind in Ads, Writer Says
Who's behind the ad campaign saying the Cape Wind project is bad for business? Very rich men with waterfront property on the Cape and Islands, according to Cape Cod Today.
Will the Cape Wind offshore wind farm hurt the Massachusetts economy?
Recent full-page ads in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald and Cape Cod Times assailed the controversial wind-turbine project in Nantucket Sound, saying job outsourcing and higher electricity costs will make Cape Wind bad for business in the Bay State, reports State House News Service.
But in an editorial on the Cape Cod Today website, writer Walter Brooks suggests the influential businessmen who placed the ads are opposing Cape Wind as much for the sake of preserving their waterfront views as out of concern for the state's economy.
Find out what's happening in Martha's Vineyardfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The ads came from the Massachusetts Competitive Group, Brooks writes, naming its members — "a who's who of Bay State business big-wigs" including Staples CEO and Edgartown summer resident Ronald Sargent — and their multimillion-dollar Cape and Islands property holdings.
"It is starting to look as if ‘business competitiveness’ is just fronting for NIMBY and that these companies are just being used as the public face of a privileged lifestyle behind gated summer communities," writes Brooks.
Find out what's happening in Martha's Vineyardfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
"If the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership took a closer look they would see that regions of the world that pay a little more for clean energy more than make up for that in lower wholesale electricity prices (renewables suppress prices in wholesale markets), having a more diverse energy mix, greater economic development, a cleaner environment and a better quality of life."
Wind farm opponents welcomed the ads as reinforcements in the fight against the project, which has received permits but still faces financial and legal challenges, according to the State House News Service report.
Where do you stand on Cape Wind? Tell us in the comments or Post on Patch.
Stay Patched in! Follow Martha's Vineyard Patch on Twitter | Like Martha's Vineyard Patch on Facebook | Sign up for the daily email with links to the latest news | Got something to say? Start a blog and share your views.