Bein' Green: Major (Massachusets) Energy Bill Announced, Cape Wind Discussed

November 9, 2007

Bein' Green: Major Energy Bill Announced, Cape Wind Discussed

Today, House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi presented a major renewable energy bill today that will be debated next week. According to the Globe,

The wide-ranging bill would require the state by 2020 to quintuple - to 20 percent - the percentage of electricity it generates from renewable sources such as wind, hydroelectric, and crop-based fuels while cutting emissions of climate-affecting greenhouse gases by 20 percent.

Right after DiMasi's announcement and also in the State House, authors Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb gave a presentation to legislators about a specific way to achieve that goal--investment in wind energy. The two wrote Cape Wind, about the struggle to bring wind turbines to Nantucket Sound despite the opposition of monied interest groups, not to mention Senator Ted Kennedy.

Wendy Williams said that she neither supports or opposes Cape Wind, but she supports wind energy. Whitcomb, editorial-page editor of the Providence Journal, said that the Journal has endorsed Cape Wind. But both agreed that there's a problem. The energy grid is under stress, as Williams demonstrated by reading the book's chapter "Cold Snap:"

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