Wind

With Broadwater gone, what else can we say no to? Winergy has made its proposal for wind turbines off Jones Beach bigger, and has two other proposals for the area, including one at the far eastern end of Long Island Sound, near Plum Island. Here's Newsday.

Broadwater and Wind Power

With FERC essentially having approved Broadwater's proposal to put an LNG terminal in Long Island Sound, the Hartford Courant says Connecticut should "go to the mat" in the fight against it. Not that the state doesn't already intend to do that -- Richard Blumenthal said the other day he'll sue anyone he has to, including Eliot Spitzer, to stop Broadwater from being built.

Note to Blumenthal: if you need Eliot Spitzer's cooperation in stopping Broadwater, isn't it better not to threaten him? Do you think Spitzer is somehow going to be scared off by the threat of a lawsuit? Wouldn't it be better to say something like, "I've known Eliot Spitzer for years and I'm confident that he and his staff will see this project for the environmental disaster that it is)?

Note to Hartford Courant editorial writers: the cliche-metaphor "go to the mat" is from the sport of wrestling. If you go to the mat aren't you in troulbe and about to get pinned? How about a boxing cliche instead? Connecticut should go for the KO or, failing that, the TKO.

Rhode Island, meanwhile, is considering wind energy projects in four places -- two off Little Compton, one off Block Island, and one off Watch Hill, not far from the Sound. Here's The Day's story.

Wind Power and Block Island

"I think wind farms would be acceptable to many people; they certainly are to me. I believe there's been a shift of perception - we're getting used to the idea and understand the need." – Block Island First Warden Kim Gaffett, on a study that says the best place out of several good locations in Rhode Island for power-producing windmills is off Block Island’s south shore.

The south shore is a long stretch of wild beach where people surf, sunbathe in the nude, and fish. The bluffs erode boulders and sand and a grayish clay that kids use as body paint. Barn owls supposedly nest there. Houses sit on top of the bluffs, but you can’t see them, and with the noise of the wind and the surf, you feel you’re in the wilderness.

I’m a proponent of wind power. I wish the ocean off Block Island’s bluffs wasn’t a good place for them. I have a feeling though that First Warden Gaffett’s opinion about people’s acceptance of wind farms is way optimistic. Here’s what the Block Island Times reports.