Below, see the full text of three Letters to the Editor published by the Falmouth Enterprise on Friday 2/10/23, pages 5-6:
Care For The Environment? By Robert E. Doyle, Mark A Thompson, Catherine & David Lyons, Joan E. Doyle (Falmouth Heights)
Electric Cable Safe by Thomas S. Crane (Woods Hole)
Get More Information (online title; print edition entitled âWants More Informationâ by Linda Bowers (East Falmouth)
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Care For The Environment? By Robert E. Doyle, Mark A Thompson, Catherine & David Lyons, Joan E. Doyle (Falmouth Heights)
Recent editorials and letters to the editor published in The Falmouth Enterprise have depicted concerned Falmouth residents and homeowners as anti-environmentalist.
In fact, many of us are opposed to the desecration of our parklands and public beaches by SouthCoast Wind. Formerly known as Mayflower Wind, SouthCoast Wind wishes to lay underground cables beneath Falmouth Heights Beach and Worcester Park.
SouthCoast Wind Energy LLC is a 50/50 joint venture of Shell New Energies US LLC and Ocean Winds North America. Shell, which is headquartered in London, recently reported one of the largest profits in corporate history: nearly $40 billion.
We, too, support wind energyâbut, historically, Shell Oil has hardly been a great steward of the environment. According to a recent complaint filed with the SEC, Shell has used less than 2 percent of its capital expenditures on renewable energies such as solar and wind.
After a year in which Shellâs profits exceeded all expectations, certainly Shell and SouthCoast Wind are able to afford a more industrialized site for landing its cable, rather than destroying public beaches and surrounding parkland.
Robert E. Doyle
Mark A. Thompson
Catherine & David Lyons
Joan E. Doyle
Falmouth Heights
Electric Cable Safe by Thomas S. Crane
I understand from recent letters that a few people have assured us that while they support wind energy, they oppose digging a sealed cable in their neighborhood. They have taken offense to an otherwise objectively reasonable NIMBY label, and gone on the offensive by claiming the other side is name calling. They have even taken on the mantle of claiming to speak for the entire Falmouth community.
But they have yet to offer a single credible study showing even a remote hazard to a buried sealed cable, nor to explain how it is that for decades there has been not a peep of a complaint about an underground cable coming up on our shore for the Vineyardâs power. And of course, the background here is that the town already has the black eye of being the only town in Massachusetts to have negative wind energy production now that our two wind generators have been taken down. So we are known around the state as the town opposed to wind energy.
How about we really have a fact-based discussion that demonstrably supports wind energy, and all of us disclose any outside financial funding, and whether your issue is merely that you live in an affected neighborhood and just donât want any temporary construction inconvenience, which understandably no one would like in their neighborhood?
Thomas S. Crane
Juniper Point Road
Woods Hole
Get More Information (online title; print edition entitled âWants More Informationâ
Town Meeting Article 16 asks Town Meeting to authorize access to conduct testing for wind energy landfall. As we know, the select board denied access to town properties for further exploration of the grounds where wind energy cables might landfall and proceed to the grid. This denial seems shortsighted. Instead of less information being available for informed decision-making, our governing boards should be striving for more information. I urge Town Meeting to approve the authorization to allow access for more testing.
The petition specifically calls for allowing offshore wind developers the right of entry to conduct soil investigations and studies to assess the feasibility of horizontal directional drilling in town-owned parcels. This right of entry to conduct physical investigation agreements will grant offshore wind developers only temporary access to conduct physical investigations and studies.
In my work experience as an environmental planner writing environmental impact statements, we were required to analyze short- and long-term adverse impacts versus long-term benefits from the project, and to look at reasonable alternatives to mitigate adverse impacts. How can local and state decision makers and agencies that review these wind energy projects come to a well-informed decision without the analysis of impacts that access to town properties would provide? We need to know whether the adverse impacts are short-term, construction-length impacts for which mitigation can be provided, or whether there are long-term adverse impacts. Then, and only then, can a decision be made on whether any negative impacts outweigh the benefits to society as a whole from wind energy. I am in favor of this analysis.
These agreements for access will allow the town to better assess the feasibility of an interconnection with offshore renewable energy projects that would facilitate the decarbonization of the Massachusetts electric grid and assist the commonwealth in achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 consistent with state climate law and the climate emergency declared by the Town of Falmouth in 2020.
Linda Bowers
Club Valley Drive
East Falmouth