As 5,000 barrels a day of oil slick spreads across the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the Mississippi Delta's spawning grounds and Gulf Coast beaches, one wonders at the nimbyism of Cape Codders who have fought the first coastal waters wind farm in America for nine years. Doing so has certainly stained the Kennedy family's reputation for environmental advocacy. There's no such thing as a turbine spill. Poetic justice it will be if these naysayers along the coast end up submerged by fossil fuel-driven sea level rises and lose their ancient views altogether, turbines or not.
Nantucket was once famous for the whale oil trade -- the pre-petroleum liquid of choice that burned in America's lamps and lit the young nation. It's worth noting that after a century and a half, Nantucket Sound may soon return, symbolically at least, to the energy business. In the 1820's, when Nantucketers sighted tall sails they knew that fresh energy was at hand. "Greasy luck" the whalers called it.
What America needs now is fresh energy at hand. Call it windy luck. Let's welcome it to our back yard.
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