Cool - Wind Power Expansion in RI

What would you rather?


or

?

It appears Rhode Island will be building their own Cape Wind, likely off the coast of Block Island - which is a tourist destination as jam packed as any in Massachusetts. If Rhode Island wants to plow full steam ahead there, surely that's reason enough to tell the wealthy who vacation on the Cape and Islands to shove it stop their maneuvering on Cape Wind, which will be more than a mile out to see and barely viewable to the naked eye (from the few parts of the Cape where people will actually be able to see it).

Obviously, residents on Block Island, along with Rhode Island in general, get it.

The governor has said he wants proposals to include providing power to Block Island so that the 1,000 residents there can see some relief in electricity rates. They are currently paying about 40 cents per kilowatt-hour, more than four times the rate paid by mainland residents.

Cape Cod would also directly benefit from Cape Wind, since the energy produced there would mainly go to the Cape - enough to power 2/3rds of the entire region.

Just the one wind turbine project in Rhode Island will meet the state's goals alone -

The sites could each contain 56 wind turbines and could generate a total of 220 megawatts of electricity –– enough to power 220,000 homes, the study said. That’s about 1½ times the power needed to reach the 15-percent goal.

Unfortunately, while Cape Wind will produce as much energy, it won't meet the 15% goal for Massachusetts. However, there's a second, slightly smaller Wind Turbine project in the planning stages off the South Coast. Furthermore, towns across Massachusetts are adding wind turbines to their repertoire, getting this state closer to its goal every day. There's lots more work to be done, but Massachusetts will get there.