Al Gore has called on the U.S. to "commit to producing 100% of electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon free sources within ten years." But the ten-year hard-fought battle to secure approval for Cape Wind shows that we cannot come close to meeting even a fraction of his goal if we do not appreciate the scale of energy challenge and the incredible pace of clean energy innovation and deployment required to truly reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change.

First, let's put Cape Wind in perspective. A $1 billion dollar project, America's first offshore wind farm will consist of 130 turbines that can produce roughly 1.6 billion kWh of electricity annually, enough to power three-quarters of the homes on Nantucket and surrounding islands. But on a national scale, this iconic project will only meet about 0.04% of the total (forecasted) U.S electricity demand in 2010, expected to be about 3,784 billion kWh.

Continue reading "Cape Wind: Never Again" »

Defining Sacred Compare for yourself the destruction of the sacred rainforest by oil drilling to the modest development of this region (right) by wind turbines.

After almost a decade of NIMBY opposition Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has handed a big win to Cape Wind -- what will become the country's first offshore wind farm -- and the future of offshore wind in the U.S.

Yet, environmentalists are bitterly divided over support for Cape Wind -- a 130 turbine, 430 megawatt clean energy project that is scheduled for siting about six miles offshore and could meet up to 75% of Cape Cod's power needs. The conflict between those who see Cape Wind as a step towards a clean energy future and those who consider it a "corporate giveaway to private industrial energy developers" says much about the scale of the challenges to clean energy adoption in the U.S.

The Breakthrough Institute has advocated for the project since 2005, when Robert Kennedy Jr. led a public fight to block the wind farm. Breakthrough's Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger published an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle and organized an open letter with other global warming writers, including Bill McKibben, Ross Gelbspan, and Jon Isham, calling on Kennedy to support the project. Over 150 other global warming writers and activists signed the letter. Nordhaus and Shellenberger continued their critique in a chapter of their 2007 book, Break Through, writing about Cape Wind as a cautionary tale against green NIMBYism.

Continue reading "Cape WIN: Triumph Over NIMBY" »

China recently installed its first offshore wind farm (102 MW) and reports suggest it plans to invest $100 billion in 30,000 more megawatts of offshore wind power by 2020.

"How much is China willing to invest, in terms of wind? The Beijing-based energy consultancy Azure International has predicted that the country is on track to install 514 megawatts of offshore wind over the next three to four years, a $100 billion investment in up 30,000 megawatts of wind power by 2020."

That amount of wind represents more than double China's current land-based wind capacity.

In stark contrast, America's nearly decade-old NIMBY-beleaguered Cape Wind project was dealt another setback last week when the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) recommended that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar not approve the project. Secretary Salazar is expected to make his final decision by the end of April.

By Yael Borofsky, Breakthrough Fellow

Like any savvy tourist trap that knows the President of the United States will be dropping in, Martha's Vineyard is prepared to play the gracious host to the Obama family this week. But a recent article in the National Journal highlights how local Cape Wind activists, including Breakthrough Senior Fellow Barbara Hill, the executive director of Clean Power Now, are intent on making sure President Obama addresses the offshore wind debate before he relaxes on the Cape Cod sand.

A proposed 130-turbine offshore wind farm located in the Nantucket Sound has been mired in the planning phase due to NIMBY-induced controversy since 2001. Both Clean Power Now, who is advocating for the wind farm, and its adversary, The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, are tapping grassroots support in an effort to convince the President to endorse their position.

At stake is not just the future of Cape Wind, but numerous other proposals slated for locations up and down the east coast, not to mention far-reaching impacts on the future of renewables in the United States. Cape Wind has become the designated representative of offshore wind projects as it is the farthest along in the permit process. According to Barbara Hill:

We are hoping for him [President Obama] to speak out about this issue specifically because of the national significance of this... [the project] could literally jump-start a new industry in this country. Once we get the first one out there, it's going to open up the gates.

Political opposition to the project is coming from some unexpected sources. Both democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Bill Delahunt have spoken out against Cape Wind despite its potential to be a national example of successful renewable energy deployment. Opponents like the The Alliance, who are concerned the wind farm will damage the quality of the environment (read: their scenic beach front views), would like the President to delay the decision until a new ocean zoning policy is enacted in December. Their hope is that Cape Wind will be replaced by projects proposed in other locations - not their backyards.

Continue reading "National Journal: No Waves Until Obama Decides on Cape Wind" »

Well ask and you shall receive I guess... 

Yesterday, we called on the federal Bureau of Land Management to stop being an Energy Delayer and lift a moratorium that locked up the vast reserves of solar energy located on federal lands.  Today, the BLM announced that they would lift the planned twenty-two month moratorium on land it stewards in six southwest states rich in solar energy.  The BLM had claimed that an extensive environmental impact review was necessary before solar development on federal lands could move forward and called for the moratorium on May 29th.

Today's refreshingly smart move from the federal government clears the way for over 130 solar energy development projects already submitted to the BLM to move forward and opens up the possibility of further development of this untapped and vast American energy resource.

Continue reading "Some Refreshing Common Sense! BLM Removes Solar Roadblock" »

By Ashley Lin Breakthrough Generation Fellow

The Cape Wind project was given a victory Friday, when Barnstable Superior County Judge Robert Kane ruled to dismiss four out of five counts filed in a lawsuit brought forth by the National Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound and the Town of Barnstable. This ruling represents a step forward for the project, which hopes to create America's first offshore wind farm, leading the way in renewable energy development.

Continue reading "A Win for Cape Wind" »

In 2018 we will almost certainly look back on Earth Day 2008 as the high point of the Green Bubble. We will cast our eyes over our abandoned backyard gardens and chuckle softly to ourselves about how we once thought they were the solution to skyrocketing emissions in China. We will wonder why we were more worried about future droughts caused by climate change than we were by the worst global food shortages in 30 years, which were triggering food riots at the same time that we were flipping through our special Earth Day issue of the New York Times Magazine. And we will remember how, just months later, the Green Bubble burst and images of food riots abroad and economic hardship at home finally replaced images of melting glaciers, stranded polar bears, and the lists of the 1,001 Things You Can Do to Prevent Eco-Apocalypse.

Continue reading "The Coming Bursting of the Green Bubble" »

In their Earth Day issue, Vice Magazine profiles Breakthrough Institute. At long last, Breakthrough finds a magazine interviewer who uses more profanity than its two co-founders. Little wonder it's the best Break Through book interview yet.

Continue reading "Tuesday Interview: Vice Magazine: "Breakthrough Institute Wrests Environmentalism Away From the Dumbs"" »

From the September 1, 2007, Cape Cod Times:

"A coal industry insider, Wattley has been a frequent commentator on energy issues and utilities in the national media. He has commented publicly on the Cape Wind project on several occasions."

Click here to read the whole story.