Cape Wind | Testimony on MMS DEIS Boston
Testimony before the U.S. Minerals Management Service, March 13, 2008
My name is John Rogers, and I work on clean energy issues in the Northeast for the Union of Concerned Scientists, the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world.
Scientists now say that we must achieve 80 percent or more reductions in global warming pollution by the middle of this century. This will require a complete transformation of our energy system. Obviously, the energy we don’t have to use is the easiest, cheapest and most environmentally sound way to reduce global warming pollution. That’s why we need to work hard to improve the energy efficiency of our appliances and homes.
Yet the crisis of climate change is so large that efficiency alone can’t solve it. We will still need to rely significantly on clean, renewable sources of electricity generation, such as wind, biomass, and solar to reach that scientific goal of 80 percent reductions by 2050. The longer we wait, the less room for error we have, which is why we need to get renewable electricity projects up and running as soon as possible.
Given that reality, we at the Union of Concerned Scientists offer the following comments:
We agree with the findings of the DEIS that this project will reduce our use of fossil fuels. All grid-connected renewable electricity projects do.
First, the Union of Concerned Scientists commends MMS for considering the so-called “no-action alternatives,” in other words considering where electricity would come from in the absence of Cape Wind. Union of Concerned Scientists thinks MMS should go even further and make the DEIS even more explicit about the impacts of those alternatives. In other words, if not Cape Wind, then what? And are the impacts of those alternatives less than those that Cape Wind present? I’m particularly thinking of the global warming pollution from coal- and oil-fired power plants, such as those in Somerset, Sandwich, and Salem. In the United States, annual carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants are greater than the emissions from all cars, trucks, planes, trains, and other forms of transportation combined. In other words, coal plant are the single biggest source of global warming pollution in this country.
Second, the Union of Concerned Scientists urges MMS to take a second look at its assumptions about the role this project will have in reducing global warming pollution in the region. By UCS’s calculations, which I will submit with our written testimony, Cape Wind’s global warming reductions will be much more significant than suggested in the DEIS.
All of our energy choices have consequences. We should not accept new projects blindly, but consider them with rigorous scientific review, in the context of a warming planet. The efforts reflected in the DEIS show that this project would likely be a responsible part of our region’s response to the enormous climate crisis we’re currently facing. In battling global warming, the energy choices we make today, right here in this room as we discuss Cape Wind, will define the future our children and our children’s children will inherit.
Thank you again. We at UCS look forward to seeing the final EIS very soon.
