Media Nation has been rough on Gov. Deval Patrick — though no rougher than he deserves. Still, I find myself agreeing with Charley Blandy of Blue Mass Group, who says that one positive aspect of Patrick’s victory is that we no longer have a governor standing in the way of progress, such as stem-cell research and Cape Wind.
Today, a third example: Andrea Estes and Lisa Wangsness report in the Boston Globe that Patrick has ordered the state Department of Public Health to record the marriages of 26 out-of-state gay and lesbian couples, reversing an action taken by his Republican predecessor, Mitt Romney. Good for Patrick.
And don’t miss today’s “Doonesbury,” which neatly skewers Romney for his flip-flop on gay and lesbian rights.
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I wish I could agree with you that Deval’s support for Cape Wind equates with progress the way his other recent actions certainly do.Yes, I voted for him, but did so in spite of his support for private profit using public property. I liked his support for wind power but do not like the way his administration has given this particular project an inside track, short-circuiting local and federal review and allowing such nonsense as rebuilding a bird island off Marion (remind me what that has to do with Nantucket Sound?) as mitigation, and other items the public — owners of the land Cape Wind developer Jim Gordon will use — never got to see as they were negotiated behind closed doors.
The rubber stamping going happening on Beacon Hill is entirely unacceptable. The FEIR that CapeWind submitted was entirely inadequate, from fishing, to navigation, decomissioning of the project…the list goes on. The 10 million dollar “settlement” to be paid to the state is a testimate this. I didn’t know Patrick was selling his soul to Jim Gordon to balance his budget!
NiCE TRADE – 26 OUT OF STATE MARRIAGES FOR 24 SQUARE MILES OF NANTUCKET SOUND.Patrick is desperate for a win – any win. and, he’s tossing folks under the bus to hide his bad judgment.
Interesting comments so far, but…What flipped me out of the Enviro world happened back in ’79-80. At that time the bogeyman was nuclear power. We had the earnest Greenpeacers traipsing around campus with their “No Nukes” mantra rap. Listened to their spiel, thought (now congressman) John Hall from Orleans was a cool guy with the No Nukes concert. 2 months later a proposal was brought forward to put windmills up on the Lincoln Mountain range in Vermont. One necessary component of wind power always in my mind was consistent wind; thought that this was a good idea for a location. Of course, the same earnest GPers were again canvassing the campus protesting about some windmills on the ridge next to the Sugarbush and (then) Glen Ellen summit chairs.I don’t quite get this “profit” argument as a bogeyman to this project. I kind of like projects that involve large capital commitments to make financial sense (unless you want the end result to be a bunch of poles haphazardly sticking out of the Sound for several years). Making money isn’t evil (unless years of Trust Fund Guilt have completely addled your senses). You do realize that crying wolf on enviroscares too often tends to belittle whatever voice that you have among adults? Reread any Paul Elrich or Club of Rome tomes recently from the early 70s? How’d those predictions pan out?
Profit is great, but to call Jim Gordon’s use of public land and public tax subsidies to generate a profit some sort of shining example of American entrepreneurship is either naive or badly misinformed.There are lots of folks who favor wind power, favor private enterprise, and yet are still very skeptical of Cape Wind’s slopping at the public trough.