The below editorial appeared in the 3/31/23 edition of The Falmouth Enterprise titled “Thinking About A Mission Statement” criticizing FHMNA’s position on SouthCoast Wind’s cable intentions via Falmouth Heights.
President Dave Buzanoski will be responding with a letter to the editor this week, and should others feel compelled to comment they should feel free to do so by sending an email no longer than 450 words, with name and address, NO CAPS and no PDF files to saito@capenews.net by latest 5pm on Wed 4/12/23.
âThinking About a Mission Statementâ
The Falmouth Heights-Maravista Neighborhood Associationâs perfectly worthy mission statement includes the following goals: to protect its beaches and parks; to preserve its residential character; and to promote the âpeaceful enjoyment of our neighborhoods.â
But the question is, at what cost is the association willing to pursue these goals? Is it willing to obstruct a project that, according to the company, will displace 2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, the equivalent to removing 5 million gas-powered vehicles from the road?
As ecologist Christopher Neill pointed out in his column last month, siting energy projects is about tradeoffs: he recently cut down a shade tree to install solar panels on his roof.
Many (although not all) members of the neighborhood association oppose SouthCoast Windâs plan to land an electric cable from its offshore wind farm in Falmouth Heights. The cable will be horizontally drilled 25 to 40 feet under Falmouth Heights Beach, which will remain open to the public during construction. The cables will then surface (or nearly surface) in the grassy parkland in the center of Worcester Avenue. Laying the cable will require digging a trench in the park and cutting down some trees and hedges. Grass and shrubbery will be replanted once the trench is filled back in.
Although this industrial activity in their residential neighborhood will last no more than a few months, many residents are still strongly opposed. They see acquiescing to the project as a violation of their worthy mission statement.
But the association cannot simply point to its mission statement to justify its opposition, because that mission statement is only one of a constellation of ethical obligations within which its members operateâthey are residents of a neighborhood, town, state, country and planet. And these obligations must be balanced and weighed against each other.
Plus, itâs important to think both short-term and long-term about oneâs goals.
In our opinion, the Falmouth Heights-Maravista Neighborhood Association is overly concerned with the modest, temporary negative impacts of onboarding SouthCoastâs electric cable and not concerned enough with the threat climate change poses to its low-lying coastal neighborhood. Hurricanes are not peaceful, and they will only get more frequent and intense the longer this country (one of the worldâs biggest emitters of carbon dioxide) takes to transition to a green economy. In an effort to keep heavy machinery out of its park, the association may be hastening the day the park is underwater.
Members of the neighborhood association counter that they support clean energy and SouthCoastâs wind farm, just not a Falmouth Heightsâ landfall. But to say that you support wind power and then try to stop a wind farm cable from passing through your neighborhood renders âsupportâ a very thin concept.
Readers can turn to page 9 to see photos of Vineyard Windâs cable landfall operations off Covellâs Beach in Barnstable.
______________________________________
(N.B. from FHMNA: photos of Covellâs Beach and a Letter to the Editor from 2/31 regarding substations will be emailed to members separately.)