Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound [Hardcover]

Robert Whitcomb (Author), Wendy Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 2007

When Jim Gordon set out to build a wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod, he knew some people might object. But there was a lot of merit in creating a privately funded, clean energy source for energy-starved New England, and he felt sure most people would recognize it eventually. Instead, all Hell broke loose. Gordon had unwittingly challenged the privileges of some of America's richest and most politically connected people, and they would fight him tooth and nail, no matter what it cost, and even when it made no sense.

Cape Wind is a rollicking tale of democracy in action and plutocracy in the raw as played out among colorful and glamorous characters on one of our country's most historic and renowned pieces of coastline. As steeped in American history and local color as The Prince of Providence; as biting, revealing and fun as Philistines at the Hedgerow, it is also a cautionary tale about how money can hijack democracy while America lags behind the rest of the developed world in adopting clean energy.

Editorial Reviews

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.

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 Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1 edition (May 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586483978
• ISBN-13: 978-1586483975
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,420,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

About Wendy Williams

Thirty-year science journalist Wendy Williams first became interested in squid when she received a science journalism fellowship at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Her writing has been published in a wide diversity of newspapers and magazines, ranging from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times to Scientific American and Science.

The author of several books, Wendy has appeared on numerous radio shows, including the Diane Rehm Show, the Dennis Miller Show, Animal House and many, many others on both NPR and AM radio.

She has also been on numerous television shows going as far back as the David Susskind Show and Geraldo.

Her field of specialty is introducing complex science in language that's easily accessible to the general public. Her current book, Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid, discusses a wide range of invertebrate research and marine science using the squid as the narrative character.

The final section examines the question of the intelligence of squid, octopus and cuttlefish - a group of closely related marine animals that make excellent use of the neuron, the basic unit of thinking. In fact, for nearly a hundred years, scientists have used the squid neuron to study human neurons.
Comments on the book praise both its scientific accuracy and its always-present sense of humor.

Public appearances to present Kraken include the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Atlanta Aquarium, the National Aquarium, the Nantucket Athenaeum, and many, many more.

Her previous book, which was named one of the year's ten best environmental books by Booklist, was Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics and the Battle for America's Energy Future.

She is working on an update about Cape Wind, likely to be the nation's first offshore wind farm, and would be able to talk about that project as well as about squid, octopus and cuttlefish. She lives on Cape Cod and spends as much time around the ocean as possible.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great beach reading! June 20, 2007

By StdPudel VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I love, love, loved this book. Cape Wind is a local issue for me and my eyes widened as I read the story behind the story as described by Cape Cod resident Wendy Williams. We citizens who are sympathetic to wind energy stood by in stunned silence as the opponents of the project slandered the project and its developer Jim Gordon. Even when we knew the assertions weren't true (like New England having a power glut), they raised doubts.

From afar, the coverage of the proposed windfarm on Nantucket Sound might seem balanced. In Massachusetts, however, it's apparent that the coverage is hysterical and a little irrational. When the windfarm was first proposed and an opposition group was created, this didn't seem different from any other large project. However, the opposition to the Cape Wind project combines money and emotion in an unprecedented way.

Cape Wind, the book, is the back-story of the opposition and the web that connects privileged property owners with one another, with elected officials, and with the flaks for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. In the middle of the web is Senator Edward Kennedy, with a great track record on every environmental issue except Cape Wind. It also provides previously unreported insight into the motivation of the project's developer Jim Gordon. Gordon's motivation for persevering with the project is more than a businessman's greed. The book describes him as being incredibly dogged, and genuinely environmentally aware, as well as being an entrepreneur.

Don't come to the book expecting a textbook on windfarm development, or much specific scientific or technical detail about the project. This is a story about one stubborn guy opposed by a stubborn group.

The characters are broadly portrayed in black and white. The portrayal of developer Gordon is generous, perhaps to a fault. Jim Gordon is a smart businessperson who has a huge stake in the project's success. If the project is built and makes energy, he will, quite fairly, profit. However, to have succeeded in business as he has, and being a human being as he is, he must have a less appealing side that the author did either not uncover, or did not report on. Similarly, the opposition members are easy to dislike. Who doesn't love to hate a bunch of isolated, get-off-of-my-beach bunch of rich people? But they probably have a lighter side that also was not portrayed.

This book is recommended for anyone wanting to know more about the ins and outs of the Cape Wind project. It also puts the microscope on the seamier side of "how a bill becomes law".

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Political Hypocrisy on Parade June 12, 2007

By Mark R. Whittington VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An inside look at a corrupt system July 4, 2007

By B. McEwan VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

If you ever wondered why our elected reps in Washington either can't get things done or only do silly things, this book will explain much. It's the story of an entrepreneur who wanted to build a wind farm off Cape Cod to supply lower cost energy to New England. Unfortunately, his wind farm, which should have been a natural for so-called progressive politicians, ran afoul of some big shots like Ted Kennedy and the Mellon family because it would interfere with their sailing in Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind is the story of how the money people created obstacles and red herring issues to block the construction of the wind farm, and how the saga continues even after the rich folks were exposed by multiple journalists and more honest pols.

Former Mass governor Mitt Romney comes off badly, as does venerable ol' Teddy Kennedy, and I fervently hope that many, many voters read this book before the presidential primaries next spring. I always knew that money called the shots in our "democracy" but this book truly made me ill by offering one rather small example of how very true that really is.

I highly recommend Cape Wind to all readers who are interested in good government, and especially to Massachusetts residents who wonder why their electric bills are so high, their skies are so dirty, and their senior senator is so powerful.