OIL WATER & WIND

Isn't it ironic that on a day nine years in the making, when the nation's first offshore wind farm was approved off the coast of Cape Cod, the urgent need for it and other forms of clean, renewable energy is being driven home by events 1500 miles to the south where the Coast Guard announced today that they have discovered an additional 5000 foot deep leak at the site of the sunken rig in the Gulf of Mexico. They now estimate that 5000 barrels or about 210,000 gallons of oil are spewing into ocean every day. This is up from initial reports of 1000 barrels and 42,000 gallons of just a few days ago.

There are few effective options for dealing with the problem as the safeguards designed to seal any potential leak are not working. In the short term anyway, it seems that we are down to firing cannons to try and scare away the wildlife and setting the sea on fire. Perhaps the emptiest oil barrel of them all, Sarah Palin can explain to us again how safe drilling is.

Very soon, the world will be presented with horrific visions of dead or dying, oil covered fish and birds, on oil slicked beaches along the gulf coastline. Very soon surrealistic visions of flaming seas against a smokey horizon will be reality as the oil is set on fire in a desperate effort to minimize the amount that reaches the coast.

So far, it is estimated that the cost in damage and mitigation efforts has reached $1 billion and counting. The sure to be considerable cost to our environment is as yet unknown.

In the face of these ill winds comes word that there are still many people and organizations who for one reason or another vow to extend the nine year battle to stop the building of the wind farm.

The farm, by the way, will be able to supply about 75% of the energy needed on Cape Cod & Nantucket. The clean energy that will be produced will be tatamount to removing 175,000. cars a year from the road, a significant plus for our air.

Most of those opposed, (Ted Kennedy was among them) do so on the grounds that the wind turbines will be an eyesore on pristine waters. Maybe so, but one thing is certain, no matter what, the water itself will remain pristine and will always look much more appealing than the images we are about to see from the Gulf where clearly, oil and water do not mix.