To the Editor:
A year ago, we Islanders first learned that in addition to the Cape Wind project, Deval Patrick’s energy department had chosen Nomans Land and Cuttyhunk to create another massive wind factory (166 turbines, each 50 stories high).
This summer, the Patrick administration learned that more than 1,500 (and growing) of us are not asleep; we are not going to ignore our public duty to protect our national treasure — the beauty, sanctity and environment of our Islands.
Unfortunately, some of our neighbors are afraid to speak out against this gigantic industrial complex for fear of being called NIMBY [i.e. Not In My Back Yard].
However, we who have studied the facts know the truth: The placement of wind factories so close to our shores will create far more harm than good. As John Adams said: “Facts are stubborn things.”
Calling us NIMBY does not change the fact that Secretary Ian Bowles suggested placement of those wind factories directly in our waters, which:
–ignores and/or disrespects the culture, religion. and sovereign rights of the Wampanoag nation;
–will lead to the death of numerous rare migratory birds and marine life, including whales;
–creates great dangers for the Island’s commercial and recreational fishing industry.
Why would anyone want to place a project composed of thousands of lights and tons of steel in the middle of our waters? We who live and those who visit here do not need to have “Times Square” within close proximity of our waters.
To view the future, one need only look to the experience of those who live near a wind factory placed in the St. Lawrence river. A report on the acoustic and visual impacts of the Wolfe Island Wind Project on residents two miles across the St. Lawrence River Sound measured levels in January-February 2010, when the wind farm was operating, that were three to four dBA greater than background sound levels measured in 2008, prior to construction of the wind farm.
Residents were also greatly annoyed by the change in landscape view. Among those changes were blinking lights at night — some residents comparing them with a commercial airport.
We are not NIMBY. We are for doing all we can to place alternative forms of energy in areas that minimize the risk to the environment and do not tread on the rights of the Wampanoag and those who earn their livings here. Can those who favor the project (some of whom have a financial interest in its success) make the same statement? Why have its proponents failed to state why this project must be placed so close to our shores?
I urge you to visit www.pointmass.org to learn more, and please sign up and join the thousands of us who are willing to defend for future generations the greatest national treasure on the East Coast.
Joseph Miron Burkett
Chilmark
