Wind Project Stalled



Here's a situation where two leaders in environmental advocacy do not appear to get along. A Kennedy is at odds with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is accusing the Patrick administration of holding up Nstar’s proposed $4.6 billion merger with Northeast Utilities until the firms sign a deal to purchase electricity from the planned Cape Wind project.

“In effect, the state administration is trying to hold hostage the proposed Nstar-Northeast Utilities merger unless the two electric companies agree to buy Cape Wind’s power,” Kennedy, an environmental activist and son of slain Democratic icon Robert F. Kennedy, complained yesterday in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

Cape Wind aims to build 130 electricity-producing wind turbines offshore in Nantucket Sound and counts Gov. Deval Patrick and some environmentalists among the project’s supporters. But Kennedy and other environmentalists oppose the plan, claiming Cape Wind will tarnish Cape Cod’s coastline while charging consumers too much for electricity.

The Cape Wind effort is expected to generate electricity for sale at $0.25 per kilowatt-hour which is about double the price of competing generation sources such as coal, oil, nuclear and hydro. To be viable in the marketplace, wind generated electricity typically has to be subsidized with taxpayer dollars.

In addition to the direct costs of wind generated electricity, consumers also are subjected to seemingly-unrelated collateral costs due to unanticipated consequences of wind power.