In response to objections regarding the cost of Cape Wind, CLF and 12 other organizations issued the following statement:

The news this week that National Grid has officially filed its contract proposal with Cape Wind is great news for everyone in our state who breathes the air and believes we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels in general. Any estimate of the real costs of Cape Wind must factor in the economic, environmental and public health benefits to consumers and the Commonwealth over the long-term. In addition to knowing how much the power from Cape Wind will cost, the public should also know how much it will save them. To accurately estimate the value of our investment in Cape Wind, we can’t just focus on short-term increases to electric bills – pennies per day, on average – but must consider the savings over time.

By making a 15-year commitment to supply customers with clean wind power, National Grid and Cape Wind together are taking an essential step toward bringing the nation’s first offshore wind project to life while delivering substantial economic and environmental rewards. As the contract goes through rigorous public scrutiny, we call upon the public and state decision-makers alike to ensure that it is compared to other electric power agreements on an apples-to-apples basis that fully credits the expected benefits.  These include:

▪  Because Cape Wind’s fuel is free, the long-term power purchase agreement can – and will – ensure price predictability over the long term, moving consumers off the volatile fossil fuel price roller coaster.

▪  The project’s zero fuel cost means that when the wind blows, Cape Wind will be first in line to deliver power to consumers – forcing the most expensive polluting fossil fuel-fired power plants to run less, reducing the market price for electricity and saving customers millions of dollars.

▪  The contract price, initially set at 20.7 cents per kilowatt hour, is an “all-in” price that includes not just the price of the electricity but also the transmission, renewable energy incentives that are required by law, the project’s capacity to contribute to the regional electric supply, and other environmental benefits.  It is inaccurate to compare this price to the stand-alone price of traditional electricity.

▪  Any comparison of Cape Wind’s contract price to the price we currently pay for traditional power must take into account the extraordinary environmental and public health costs of ongoing reliance on fossil fuels – including the costs of addressing the growing oil drilling catastrophe in the Gulf, increasing climate change impacts, and air pollution from coal plants that worsens lung and heart conditions.

▪  By making long-term price commitments, Cape Wind and National Grid are placing the risk of any increased development cost squarely on the shoulders of Cape Wind, not ratepayers.

▪  Cape Wind will bring significant economic development opportunities to the Commonwealth, from quality construction jobs to ongoing maintenance and operation, and will propel Massachusetts to the national forefront of offshore renewable energy development.

Yesterday, Interior Secretary Salazar gave us a glimpse of our clean energy future by announcing his approval of the Cape Wind project. CLF has worked tirelessly on this project for many years, and the decision was momentous for our organization and others in the environmental, labor and business communities who recognize Cape Wind’s enormous potential for our region and our country.

However, as Governor Patrick cautioned a room of enthusiastic Cape Wind supporters after the announcement, thoughtful people can and will disagree on projects like Cape Wind. It is both an asset and a challenge for New England that our landscape, and even our seascape, is small. Every project will impact somebody. By virtue of our physical proximity we are, quite literally, all in this together. And so, more than any other region in the country perhaps, New Englanders must have a shared vision for our energy future.

That future, as Secretary Salazar said poignantly yesterday, will be built on clean energy. We will have more wind power, off- and on-shore. We will have more solar and geothermal power, where it makes sense. We will increase energy efficiency, which makes sense everywhere. We will reduce our use of fossil fuels in general and coal in particular. We will grow our economy, create new jobs and support a high quality of life and the environment.

New England is the perfect place to start. We are good at using our landscape in thrifty ways to live well and in close connection to nature. CLF is committed to a vision of an energy future that will meet our reasonable needs, keep the lights on at reasonable cost, and cause minimal harm to the environment. It is a vision we believe that most New Englanders will embrace. As with Cape Wind, we will not stop until that vision becomes reality. Then we will show the rest of the nation and the world how it’s done.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,
John Kassel

Well worth a listen.  Sue discusses recent big news about Cape Wind. 

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Contact: Sue Reid, CLF Senior Attorney (617) 850-1740, sreid@clf.org
Karen Wood, Director of Communications (617) 850-1722, kwood@clf.org

Today marks a critical milestone for the 130-turbine Cape Wind offshore wind energy project as the project has reached an agreement with electric utility National Grid, in consultation with the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, to negotiate a long-term commitment for the purchase of the project’s power. Cape Wind is one of New England’s most promising solutions for addressing climate change and reducing the region’s dependence on polluting fossil fuels.

“By committing to ensure that Cape Wind’s emissions-free energy will be delivered to tens of thousands of Massachusetts homes and businesses, Cape Wind, National Grid and the Patrick Administration are leading the way to a clean energy future,” said CLF President John Kassel.

CLF has been working across New England for more than fifteen years to promote long-term commitments for the purchase of renewable energy, like the one that is now expected for Cape Wind. Such agreements often provide critical support for the financing of renewable energy projects while also providing stable energy prices to electric customers for years to come, taking energy bills off the fossil fuel roller coaster.

Pretty amazing turnout at the American Wind Energy Association Offshore Wind Energy Workshop in Boston.   This is a very big room – and it has a A LOT of people in it.  Apparently pre-registration was over 650 people and more were registering at the door.

One of the two keynote speakers was the Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles (pinch hitting for Governor Deval Patrick who evidently is still “under the weather“) who alluded to the newspaper reports this morning about the announcement to be made today about Cape Wind.

Update: Here is the announcement from the Governor’s office. Read CLF’s statement.