Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 326 pages
- Published by: PublicAffairs
- Edition: 1st Edition May 7, 2007
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1586483978
- ASIN: B00119R642
-
Book Dimensions:
9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
- Weighs: 1.2 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
This well-reported assessment of democracy manipulated by powerful federal, state and local insiders, and other not-in-my-backyard shenanigans surrounding plans for a wind farm five miles off Cape Cod, is certainly upfront about its bias. Williams, a former journalist-in-residence at
Duke University, and Whitcomb, editorial page editor of the
Providence Journal, jauntily champion the cause of energy entrepreneur Jim Gordon's "bold idea" to plant 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound—a project still snared in a regulatory maze as this peppery account went to press. The authors decry what they call fear-mongering by Gordon's well-funded opponents (2005 contributions: $3.3 million) and are particularly peeved by the obstructionism of Sen. Ted Kennedy, whose behind-the-scenes maneuvering is highlighted, as are the fulminations verging "on the incoherent" by environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr.—normally an outspoken opponent of coal-powered energy generation and a vigorous supporter of alternative energy sources. The Kennedys' stubborn opposition is shared by such moneyed neighbors as Listerine heiress Bunny Mellon and coal, oil and gas magnate William Koch, who are depicted as plutocratic bullies in this rambunctious, unsparing dissection of ruling-class abuse.
(May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Cape Cod is a place of celebrated beauty and blueblood history. For such powerful and wealthy families as the Kennedys and Mellons, the cape's beaches are a treasured sanctuary. But because Massachusetts' population has grown, the state's aging power grid is under enormous pressure. Enter Jim Gordon, an energy entrepreneur who believed he had the perfect solution: an offshore wind farm. His 2001 Cape Wind proposal shocked and enraged Cape Cod's elite, and so began an epic battle that pits privilege against the common good in a stunning exposure of NIMBY (not in my backyard) hypocrisy. Journalists Williams, who lives on Cape Cod, and Whitcomb, who has family ties to the area, do a bang-up job of chronicling Gordon's tenacity in the face of the brazen machinations of various politicians, especially Senator Edward Kennedy and then governor and current Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. This true-life tale of a blinding love of place, outrageously irresponsible propaganda, shameful congressional maneuvering, and egregious social injustice is half farce, half political thriller, and altogether compelling. As the fight rages on, Cape Wind serves as a harbinger of future conflicts as we reluctantly consider alternatives to oil.
Donna SeamanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound (Hardcover)
Cape Wind is a marvelous story of political hypocrisy on parade. When an energy entrepreneur proposed to build a wind farm to generate energy in Nantucket Sound, he did not bargain for the opposition of some of the rich and powerful who live and play in the vicinity. A small but powerful group of people, which include not only the Kennedy family but Mitt Romney, former governor and current candidate for President, are bound and determined not to have their view of the "pristine" waters around they summer mansions. Cape Wind would be a comedy, with its spectacle of Lear Jet liberals, who say they support clean energy in the abstract, twisting themselves into knot trying to justify opposition to clean energy just because it is in their back yard. But the book is all too true and mores the pity.
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