Cape Wind: Fact, Fantasy or Fraud?

Yes, Cape Wind has done it again. This private developer really knows how to sell a project.

Cape Wind walked its Final Environmental Impact Report, a mountainous slick four color promotional document filled with double-speak and corporate smoke and mirrors, straight past the People and plopped it, along with a big wad of promised cash, right onto the desk of the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act.

APPROVED!

Did the Massachusetts Policy Act (MEPA) ever bother to read and investigate past the illustrations and one-liner hype? My guess is no. How could they? No one could read, research and comment on a 5,000 plus page document in thirty days, much less investigate all of the public comments and concerns in seven. It would take a University an entire semester to do that. But, no matter, MEPA had made up its mind way before that report hit the desk based on politics, making the gesture simply a formality.

And this isn't the first time Energy Management Inc/Cape Wind has bypassed the people. They also took their four-color slick money promising proposal for a dirty fossil fuel burning power plant past the people of Chelsea, MA, already suffering the highest hospitalized asthma and cardio-vascular disease rates in the State of MA, to the MEPA office. Approved!

Its a gold rush!

And without State and Federal regulations in place its a total 'free for all' out there with private energy developers, like Cape Wind, literally falling all over each other to claim millions of dollars in subsidies, tax breaks and public lands, before that door slams shut and the inconvenient facts are in.

What are those inconvenient facts?

Fact #1. Industrial Wind Farms will not reduce CO2 in our atmosphere, have any effect on the reduction of Global Warming nor will they reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Since wind blows intermittently, wind farms rely on fossil fuel plants as back up. Case in point, that diesel power plant proposed for the city of Chelsea, MA. Cape Wind knows the wind doesn't always blow so they are attempting to put their fossil fuel back up power plant in place which will spew sulfur, nitrogen oxide, and 37 tons of particulate matter into the atmosphere and straight into the lungs of the citizens and their children in Chelsea. For every 'clean green' wind farm there is a dirty fossil fuel or nuclear power plant backing it up.

Fact #2. Industrial Wind Farms like Cape Wind, in spite of their protest of agonizing years of Agency scrutiny and review, can not comply with State and Federal regulations. Why? The answer is simple. There aren't any. Regulations are only now being developed for off-shore wind farms and the Draft Environmental Impact Statements have not, as yet, been released.

Fact #3. Industrial Wind Farms will cause millions of bird, endangered species and bat deaths every year and this number will grow exponentially as wind farms do. Once again, the wind industry is smart. They have rushed for approval before the facts are in on the threats to wildlife based on studies and research paid for by their own industry. Of course, their findings show industrial wind farms in a favorable light. They are akin to the health studies done by the tobacco industry. But the truth follows in their wake. All over the world wind farms are killing eagles, migratory and nesting birds, endangered species and bats, just as smoking is causing cancers, emphysema and heart disease.

Fact #4. Industrial Wind Farms will have a catastrophic detrimental effect on our environment, precious open space, wildlife habitats and protected lands and seas. Industrial Wind Farms require miles of land and sea in order to be built. The developers must fell trees (which naturally suck CO2 out of the atmosphere, replacing it with life-giving oxygen), blast mountain tops, build roads, dig miles of electrical cables and destroy wildlife habitat in the process. Off shore wind projects like Cape Wind must not only clear land for its cables but they must dredge miles and miles of seabed to connect the underwater cables to their electrical platform killing and displacing all of the life that depend on it for its survival. This project, like all industrial wind farms has a huge foot print. Cape Wind will occupy 25 square miles of the Nantucket Sound. Do you know how big that is? It is the size of the Island of Manhattan, and its 130 440' tall wind turbines as large as 130 44 story tall skyscrapers, with spinning blades.

Fact #5. Industrial Wind Farms are not removed and the land and waters restored after the life of their projects or should they be abandoned by the operators. The average life of a wind farm is twenty years. To date, extensive research suggests no industrial wind farms have been removed as a result of decommissioning, they are left to simply rust and fall apart.

Fact #6. Industrial Wind Farms cause navigational and air traffic safety hazards and radar interference. Studies from the Department of Defense in the UK have shown radar interference at wind farms prompting our Department of Defense and FAA to issue its own studies.

Fact #7. Industrial Wind Farms have a detrimental effect on the health, safety, welfare, lives and livelihoods of those directly affected by them. Medical research has shown that people living near wind farms suffer debilitating illnesses directly correlated to the noise and constant flicker from wind turbine blades. Small already struggling commercial fishermen on Cape Cod are projected to lose 60% of their annual income should the Cape Wind project be built on the Horseshoe Shoals area of the Nantucket Sound.

Fact #8. Industrial Wind Farms present significant hazards to public safety. The US Coast Guard is concerned that it will be unable to perform search and rescue missions in the Nantucket Sound should Cape Wind be built. The rough waters and unpredictable weather have already cost many many people their lives. Not only is the Coast Guard concerned that it will have a diminished capacity to hoist victims into hovering helicopters but the helicopter and their pilots will now be threatened, as well, due to 130 440' tall structures with moving blades. All three airports on Cape Cod and the Islands, along with the ferries, that carry millions of passengers a year, have issued statements that Cape Wind will cause significant hazard to air and navigational safety.

Fact #9. Industrial Wind Farms when placed off shore pose oil spill threats. In order for an industrial off-shore wind farm to operate it must have an electrical service platform. These service platforms are filled with oil. Should a collision occur with an oil tanker, a fire break out in the transformer or accident due to natural forces like a hurricanes, this oil can spill into the water killing sea birds, fish and marine mammals while it spreads to the beaches, estuaries and coastal habitat.

Fact #10. Industrial Wind Farms are not our only choice for alternative energy. The Hydrogen Economy based on solar and biomass technologies is already in practice in many countries in the world and it is growing. It, unlike wind, is not intermittent and unlike wind (which must be used on the spot or it is wasted) can be stored in batteries for later use for our homes, buildings, cars and factories. It is safe, readily available, green and clean.

These are just some of the facts that the office of the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act has chosen to ignore in its gold rush for money and political correctness.

Shame on them! They are being bought off with 10 million dollars (offered by Cape Wind to the State) in trade for the safety, say, beauty, natural resources and welfare of the People of the Massachusetts.

The Nantucket Sound might not be in your back or front yard but beware, the next Industrial Wind Farm may be on its way to a sanctuary or National Treasure near you. Will you be ready to decide what is fantasy, fact or fraud? And when you do, will your elected officials back you up or will they sell you, your community and precious natural resources out to a private developer?

For more information please see: National Wind Watch, Industrial Wind Action Group, Bat Conservation International, Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, WindStop, Chelsea Collaborative, Save The Eagles, StopIllWind, Minnesotans for Sustainability, and Country Guardian

Divide and Conquer in the Environmental Movement

One of the biggest environmental travesties concerns the divide and conquer approach of Corporate America, politicians and industrial developers. Environmentalists have been pitted against environmentalists over the issue of human caused Global Warming and the solution, which appears to be one, industrial wind farms, even though there are many others in the works including the Hydrogen Economy, based on alternative energy that use solar and biomass technologies.

This divide and conquer tactic is a good one, in terms of its effectiveness. But not a good one in terms of a group of people who all have the same goal, saving the planet from pollution, environmental degradation and rampant industrial development.

The term NIMBY is thrown around so much it is hard to keep up with it. Just who is a NIMBY? There was a time when protecting your own was considered the highest of human values. After all, if we don't protect our own, who will?

But now, anyone who stands in the way of protecting their own is labeled a NIMBY. And a rich one at that.

Most of the environmentalists I know are not rich, nor are they NIMBYs. In fact, I would venture a guess that most environmentalists are of the middle class, not the rich.

We, as environmentalists, try to walk lightly on the earth, we reduce, reuse and recycle, we drive compact cars and look to replace them with electric cars in the future, we keep our thermostats down, we rarely use air conditioners, have converted to fluorescent light bulbs, use organic methods in our gardens, we buy organic foods and produce in our markets, we unplug electrical appliances that are not being used, we walk and ride bicycles rather than drive to town, we car pool, we repair rather than throw away, we protest shopping malls that attempt to build themselves in our fields and wetlands, we think globally and act locally, we give money to environmental causes we believe in, we protest factory farming, we protect wild places and wildlife, we turn out in droves to stop clear cutting and logging of our old growth forests, we volunteer our time, energy and support to give voice to the voiceless and the list goes on.

But then, controversy over human caused Global Warming and industrial wind plants enter the picture and all goes out the window. Suddenly name calling sets in, fights break out, censorship is attempted and we lose all connection to one another and fail to see our humanity and common ground.

When will we, environmentalists, simply agree to disagree and not allow ourselves to be divided by politics and industry? Because if and when that happens our power will be a force to be reckoned with. And that is exactly what politicians and industrial developers fear the most.

Eagles: Gone With The Wind?

Across the globe a new threat to eagles is quickly replacing shooting, poisoning, trapping and electrocution by power lines. The traditional Big Four has a new 'kid on the block'; Industrial Wind Farms.

Thousands of eagles are being killed by turbine blades every year all over the world and that number continues and will continue to grow as wind farms do.

The Alatmont Pass wind farm, in California, is probably the most infamous one. There, it is estimated that, over 2,300 Golden Eagles have lost their lives in the past twenty years to wind turbines. But, contrary to what the wind industry would like us to believe this is not an exception to the rule.

The Smola Wind Farm, off the coast of Norway, is responsible for killing off their entire breeding population of the endangered White-tailed (Sea) Eagle and all of their babies in less than ten months. This wind farm is brand new, considered state of the art and fitted with those modern slow moving turbine blades the industry likes to boast about, but these 'slow moving blades' are simply an optical illusion since they travel at over 200 mph at their tips.

Golden Eagles, White-tailed Eagles, Wedge-tailed Eagles, Short-toed Eagles, Booted Eagles and Bonelli's Eagles along with Griffon Vultures and scores of other raptor species are being decimated by wind farms with gruesome reports and pictures streaming in from the United States, Scotland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Australia, Spain and the United Kingdom.

But it's not just the Eagles that are dying at wind farms.

Bat and songbird mortality goes into the millions each year with the numbers rapidly growing as researchers begin to count them.

A study in New York has just filed its draft report on bird and bat deaths at a new 120 turbine wind farm. Although pre-construction studies predicted little to no impact to birds and bats this study now shows predictions of up to 6,000 bird and bat deaths a year based on body counts.

And no one knows how to stop it.

There is no more universal symbol of strength, beauty, freedom and independence than an Eagle. And there is probably no one on this planet that doesn't recognize an eagle and isn't moved by seeing one.

They speak to us. They speak to a part of ourselves that is collective in the human heart and the human soul and the human spirit.

Eagle emblems are carried into battle, adorn our halls of justice and the national flags of dozens of countries. Yet, in the name of the 'poster child' for alternative energy, fear of Global Warming and dependence on foreign oil we are wiping them out.

What will happen to our human hearts, souls and spirits when the Eagles are gone and we are left with, only, their symbols, signifying nothing.

There are alternatives to industrial wind farms that will help our planet and not kill our eagles in the process. Look into, support and push our elected officials to develop and bring on line the Hydrogen Economy based on alternative energies like Solar and Biomass.

Trees Not Turbines

At best, projects like Cape Wind might save us 10 cents on our electric bill. For that same 10 cents, I would rather plant a tree.

Trees not only remove CO2 and pollutants like dust, ash, pollen, smoke and dangerous gases from our atmosphere but they give back life giving oxygen, prevent soil erosion, beautify our communities and homes, raise our property values, save dollars on our heating and cooling bills and add precious wildlife habitat, some things Cape Wind will never do.

Fear of Global Warming, dependence on foreign oil and rising electric rates have made us feel helpless and prompted complicated, controversial, community dividing and expensive experimental solutions like the Cape Wind project.

Rather than empowering the citizens with what we can do to help, we asked to put our fate and faith in the hands of more industrial development rather than in ourselves and our ability to solve our problems.

Margaret Mead said "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has."

Trees should not be overlooked. They are nature's way of clearing our planet of pollution. And in turn they provide the oxygen we breathe.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture "One acre of forest absorbs six tons of carbon dioxide and puts out four tons of oxygen. This is enough to meet the annual needs of 18 people"

Cape Wind has claimed it will reduce CO2 emissions by 800,000 tons per year. A claim, not backed up by facts however. But, be that as it may, if every citizen in the Commonwealth of MA were to plant one tree, we would not only Reduce but we would Remove more than 800,000 tons of CO2 per year from our atmosphere along with pollutants like dust, ash, pollen, smoke and dangerous gases and do something Cape Wind can never do, add oxygen back into the atmosphere.

One mature tree planted by a house can reduce air conditioning needs and can save energy used for heating, it can absorbs 10 lbs of air pollutants, including 4 lbs of ozone and 3 lbs of particulates, it can intercepts 760 gal of rainfall in its crown, thereby reducing runoff of polluted stormwater and flooding and it can clean 330 lbs of CO2 from the atmosphere through direct absorption in the tree's wood and reduced power plant emissions due to cooling energy savings. This one tree can reduce the same amount of atmospheric CO2 as released by a typical car driven 500 miles.

Those of us who oppose Cape Wind in favor of trees are often called NIMBY's but ironically, the name-callers are often NIMBY's themselves. Two years or so ago in Boston the NIMBY's, living along the Charles River, opposed the planting of trees saying they would ruin their view.

But, in a community like Chelsea, MA where Energy Management Inc, the parent company of Cape Wind, the view is secondary to the health of its citizens. EMI has proposed a fossil fuel burning power plant that will spew more sulfur, nitrogen oxide and 37 tons of particulate matter into the atmosphere and straight into the lungs of the citizens and school children already suffering the highest hospital asthma and cardio vascular disease rates in the State.

If Cape Wind and Governor Patrick were really concerned about the health of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Global Warming and our dependence on foreign oil, they would plant trees not turbines.

Environmental Injustice

The Chelsea Collaborative is fighting back! They are fighting what appears to be an unlikely candidate, energy developer Jim Gordon of Energy Management Inc and the Cape Wind project, who is being called, by some, an environmental hero; to keep a polluting fossil fuel burning power plant out of their already poor, disadvantaged and overly polluted community.

And the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound is also fighting back. They are fighting this same developer who is determined to place 130 440' tall wind turbines and a 100' electrical platform filled with oil smack in the middle of a declared marine sanctuary critical to migratory birds, marine mammals and endangered species.

What we have here is Environmental Injustice at both ends of the spectrum.

Let's define Environmental Injustice:

"An environmental injustice exists when members of disadvantaged, ethnic, minority or other groups suffer disproportionately at the local, regional (sub-national), or national levels from environmental risks or hazards, and/or suffer disproportionately from violations of fundamental human rights as a result of environmental factors, and/or denied access to environmental investments, benefits, and/or natural resources, and/or are denied access to information; and/or participation in decision making; and/or access to justice in environment-related matters."

But, environmental injustice also includes:

'The interdependence of all species, and right to be free from ecological destruction.'

The town of Chelsea, Ma has been declared and Environmental Justice community by the EPA (*click to read what they say about the community of Chelsea and the environmental injustice they already suffer) any yet private energy developer Jim Gordon insists his addition to this community is nothing more than an answer to the growing need for more power.
But, whose power is he talking about? Certainly not the power of the people that live and work in Chelsea. This plant can operate 2,000 hours/year spewing sulfur, nitrogen oxide and 37 tons of particulate matter into the atmosphere and straight into the lungs of the citizens and school children of Chelsea, MA. In fact Gordon totally bypassed them and went straight to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) office, and therefore obtained a local zoning waiver at the state levels and silencing their voices.

"If built, this power plant will affect ALL of Chelsea. Chelsea is just under 2 square miles with more than 35,000 residents. Thirty-two percent of Chelsea’s population lives below the US average income. Chelsea has 90 hazardous waste sites per square mile. Chelsea Creek is home to:

70-80% of New England’s Heating Fuel
100% of the Jet Fuel used at Logan International Airport
Road Salt for more than 200 New England cities and town
3 of the Massachusetts Action Center’s Award Winners for Worst of the Worst Polluters
Oil Storage Tanks holding +/- 22 Billion Gallons of Oil (per year)
Oil Spills totaling 96,653 gallons, over the past 15 years (41,866 over the past 6 months)

And Chelsea residents pay the price for all of the industry. Chelsea has the highest Asthma Hospitalization Rate in the State. Chelsea has the highest Major Cardio Vascular Diseases Hospitalization Rate in the State." *Quote from the Chelsea Collaborative.

On Cape Cod, there is a different situation but the same environmental injustice is occurring there at the hands of this developer.

The Nantucket Sound was declared in the early 1970s, a Cape and Islands State Marine Sanctuary to protect Nantucket Sound from industrial development by Massachusetts Legislature. In the 1980s, state officials nominated Nantucket Sound as a National Marine Sanctuary due to its unique ecological nature, endangered species habitat for many state and federally protected species, including roseate terns, piping plovers, leatherback sea turtles, loggerhead sea turtles, Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles, and grey seals.

Yet once again, Jim Gordon of EMI bypassed the People of Massachusetts and their Cape and Islands communities by going straight to the Federal Government to place his project, Cape Wind, in the middle of the Nantucket Sound where there is a donut-hole of federal waters.
Inside this donut-hole of Federal waters Cape Wind will dredge miles of industrial power cables, killing the life in the seabed and driving off species that depend on the Nantucket Sound for their very survival. Inside this donut-hole of Federal waters Cape Wind will erect 130 440' wind turbines with blades that move at over 200mph at their tips (and a 100' tall electrical platform filled with oil waiting for a catastrophic oil spill) which will kill migratory birds, bats and endangered species just as a facility off the coast of Norway killed off an entire breeding population of endangered White-tailed (Sea) Eagles and all of their babies in less than ten months. Inside this donut-hole of Federal waters the noise of pile driving will drive away marine mammals, and kill off their food sources, like squid, which may never return.

The Principles of Environmental Justice are probably best stated by this multinational group from the People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit:

PREAMBLE
WE, THE PEOPLE OF COLOR, gathered together at this multinational People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, to begin to build a national and international movement of all peoples of color to fight the destruction and taking of our lands and communities, do hereby re-establish our spiritual interdependence to the sacredness of our Mother Earth; to respect and celebrate each of our cultures, languages and beliefs about the natural world and our roles in healing ourselves; to insure environmental justice; to promote economic alternatives which would contribute to the development of environmentally safe livelihoods; and, to secure our political, economic and cultural liberation that has been denied for over 500 years of colonization and oppression, resulting in the poisoning of our communities and land and the genocide of our peoples, do affirm and adopt these Principles of Environmental Justice:

1) Environmental Justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction.

2) Environmental Justice demands that public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias.

3) Environmental Justice mandates the right to ethical, balanced and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest of a sustainable planet for humans and other living things.

4) Environmental Justice calls for universal protection from nuclear testing, extraction, production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons and nuclear testing that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land, water, and food.

5) Environmental Justice affirms the fundamental right to political, economic, cultural and environmental self-determination of all peoples.

6) Environmental Justice demands the cessation of the production of all toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials, and that all past and current producers be held strictly accountable to the people for detoxification and the containment at the point of production.

7) Environmental Justice demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decision-making, including needs assessment, planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation.

8) Environmental Justice affirms the right of all workers to a safe and healthy work environment without being forced to choose between an unsafe livelihood and unemployment. It also affirms the right of those who work at home to be free from environmental hazards.

9) Environmental Justice protects the right of victims of environmental injustice to receive full compensation and reparations for damages as well as quality health care.

10) Environmental Justice considers governmental acts of environmental injustice a violation of international law, the Universal Declaration On Human Rights, and the United Nations Convention on Genocide.

11) Environmental Justice must recognize a special legal and natural relationship of Native Peoples to the U.S. government through treaties, agreements, compacts, and covenants affirming sovereignty and self-determination.

12) Environmental Justice affirms the need for urban and rural ecological policies to clean up and rebuild our cities and rural areas in balance with nature, honoring the cultural integrity of all our communities, and provided fair access for all to the full range of resources.

13) Environmental Justice calls for the strict enforcement of principles of informed consent, and a halt to the testing of experimental reproductive and medical procedures and vaccinations on people of color.

14) Environmental Justice opposes the destructive operations of multi-national corporations.

15) Environmental Justice opposes military occupation, repression and exploitation of lands, peoples and cultures, and other life forms.

16) Environmental Justice calls for the education of present and future generations which emphasizes social and environmental issues, based on our experience and an appreciation of our diverse cultural perspectives.

17) Environmental Justice requires that we, as individuals, make personal and consumer choices to consume as little of Mother Earth's resources and to produce as little waste as possible; and make the conscious decision to challenge and reprioritize our lifestyles to insure the health of the natural world for present and future generations.

As you will note, they do not call for more industrial development. They call for action to clean up our communities, make personal choices to consume as little of Mother Earth's resources and produce as little waste as possible and to respect the interdependence of all species and their right to be free from ecological destruction.

Jim Gordon: Cape Wind Developer Swings Both Ways

Jim Gordon's Energy Management Inc., the developer of the Cape Wind project, knows no bounds when it comes to energy development. While he and his thirty something year old company hide behind the development of America's first and largest off-shore wind farm saying it will lessen our dependence on fossil fuels, they are in the process of developing a fossil fuel dependent peaker power plant, for the poor already polluted community of Chelsea, MA. Yes when it comes to alternative energy, Jim Gordon and Energy Management Inc. swings both ways. As Dennis Duffy of EMI remarks, when asked about the apparent hypocrisy, "We're in the energy business. That's what we do."

On one side of that swinging pendulum we have the proposed Cape Wind project, touted as America's first clean and green off-shore wind farm the largest in the world, mind you, nearly twice the size of any built on the planet. On the other side, the pendulum swings to a proposed dirty fossil fuel dependent plant in Chelsea, MA.

What do both plants have in common? Absolutely nothing except when you follow the process, the loop-holes in regulation and, of course, the money they have, ironically, a lot in common. But yes they are both green; green as in the color of money.

They also have in common their circumventing of the local communities affected by them. Neither Cape Cod nor Chelsea, MA want it nor were they consulted before either project proposal. According to Gordon, "It just goes with the territory," he said. "If you believe you have a project that has merit that will adhere to the regulations and standards that govern that venue, go forward."

Loop-holes abound

So now we get to the "regulations and standards" that Gordon refers to. And there we find the loop-holes. To date, there are no regulations and standards (they are only, now, being developed by the Federal Government and are just in the draft stages) governing off-shore wind. How convenient for him and his company. As to diesel burning peaker plants, they escape most regulation and standards because there are intended for emergency use. Again, this loop-hole did not escape Gordon and EMI.

Cape Wind is attempting to take advantage of a loop-hole or shall we say donut hole in the Nantucket Sound which has been designated a marine sanctuary by the State of MA, off limits to industrial development. But right in the middle of the Sound, in the Horseshoe Shoal area, we find a donut hole of Federal waters. And that is, of course, where Gordon has decided to place his 24 square mile industrial wind power plant complete with 130 440' high turbines along with a 100' tall oil filled electrical platform thus avoiding any State regulation and taking advantage of the fact that there are no Federal regulations in place. In fact, when these regulations are in place Cape Wind will simply be 'grand-fathered in' something that, also, has not missed the calculated eye of this developer.

So what about the City of Chelsea, MA and the loop-hole there? According to an article from The Boston Independent Media Center titled Chelsea and Low Income Communities Fight Power Plant, Against Environmental Injustice "The residents started coming out in droves, basically saying that they were opposed to the power plant, contacting their state legislator and city councilors," said Rossane Bongiovanni, president of Chelsea’s City Council. "The City Council decided to take action and say, we don’t want this here, don’t send your proposal because we don’t want you in Chelsea." Yet, Energy Management Inc.—the same company heralded for their plans to stage a wind power project off Cape Cod—decided to circumvent local authorities by presenting their proposal directly to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) office, and therefore obtain a local zoning waiver at the state levels. "In essence, the city of Chelsea would have almost no say on this power plant if it wasn’t for these public hearings," said Bongiovanni.

Meanwhile, this diesel peaker power plant will spew 37 tons of particulate matter per year to the atmosphere of a community already suffering among the highest hospitalized asthma rates in the State of MA. This plant is slated to be built within 100 yards of an elementary school. Diesel peaker plants emit small particles of soot and dust that can lodge in the lungs of those living in that community and increase the cancer rate.

Who lives in that community? Minorities do. Chelsea is comprised of poor Latino, black and immigrant families who have the lowers income in the State.

Intermittent Operation

Also, in common is the intermittent operation of Cape Wind and the Diesel Power plant proposed for Cape Cod and Chelsea, MA. Wind turbines operate when the wind is blowing when it doesn't it relies on fossil fuel based power plants.
A diesel fired peaker power plant operates during times of peak use like in the heat of the summer when the air-conditioners are going full bore. Of course during that time the air quality is stagnant and that means increased pollution and difficulty breathing for asthma sufferers, the elderly and those with respiratory disease.

Environmental Injustice

Because of the burdens on a poor already polluted community Chelsea has been declared an Environmental Injustice Community, one of the only designations of its kind in MA.
Of course, when it comes to alternative energy Gordon, EMI and Cape Wind are equal environmental injustice opportunists. Their alternatives swing as far as the pendulum can swing from a so called clean energy project to a dirty one. And it swings both ways. Naturally both swing toward money in the developer's private pocket.

For more information go to:
http://www.saveoursound.org
http://boston.indymedia.org/feature/display/198491/index.php and
http://www.chelseacollab.org/index.html
http://donatracy.gather.com/