Chuck Nelson passes out Friends of the Mountains brochures to attendees of the Cape Wind project public hearing. Chuck urged support of clean, renewable wind power to help save our land, people and communities from the destruction caused by mountaintop removal.

What do communities near Nantucket Sound and in the coalfields of central Appalachia have in common? Sadly, both are deeply divided about energy generation. While OVEC and other groups have worked for a decade to end mountaintop removal in West Virginia, the Hyannis, Massachusetts advocacy group Clean Power Now has promoted the Cape Wind project for seven years, despite rich and powerful opponents.

As the first-ever off-shore wind farm in the United States, Cape Wind would generate clean, renewable energy from 130 wind turbines in a 25-square-mile area in Nantucket Sound. In more than a symbolic way, the solution to "our" mountaintop removal problem lies in "their" backyard.

In early March, the US Interior Department’s Mineral Management Service held public hearings on the draft environmental impact study for the Cape Wind project. Findings show that impacts on wildlife, tourism, fishing and navigation would be negligible. One "negative" impact was clear – the wind turbines would be seen! Many who oppose the wind farm own homes on the Cape or the Islands and are concerned about their view.

An Appalachian coalfield delegation joined with local supporters from Clean Power Now rallying outside holding signs and chanting over the opposition group. We held large mountaintop removal photos and passed out flyers to inform our New England neighbors about the steep price citizens living with mountaintop removal are paying to produce electricity. Some people ignored us or averted their eyes; others offered sympathy. And some people were just downright mean-spirited.

	An Appalachian delegation traveled to Cape Cod to speak in support of the long-planned Cape Wind Project in Nantucket Sound. From left to right: Coleen Unroe (KFTC), Carl Shoupe (KFTC), John Messer (Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards), Chuck Nelson (OVEC) and Janet Keating (OVEC).

After local politicians, "regular" folks – like many locals and OVEC’s Chuck Nelson, Carl Shoupe of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, and John Messer of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards – were permitted to speak.

Chuck testified: "I’m here representing our people of Appalachia where we supply most of the coal that generates half of this nation’s energy. I believe that the Cape Wind Project is the direction our country needs to be moving towards. You know I used to like the view from my backyard, but it’s been blown up. The coal industry uses 25 hundred tons of explosives each day on mountaintop removal sites around our houses…"

On the previous day, Chuck met with an editor from the Boston Globe to explain how the Cape Wind project could bolster the much-needed transition to a clean energy future and decrease our nation’s dependence on coal.

Wind energy produced 5 miles offshore in Nantucket Sound wouldn’t create toxic sludge lakes or spew mercury into the air that winds up in mothers’ breast milk. Neither would the clean, renewable wind energy obliterate life-sustaining headwater streams, choke communities with coal dust, or cause increased flooding.

And although coal accounts for just 15 percent of New England’s electricity (according to the Boston Globe), the Cape Wind project could generate three quarters of Cape Cod’s demand.

While the Cape Wind faces some powerful opposition, a poll released by the Civil Society Institute indicates that of the 1,203 state residents polled, 87 percent – including 77 percent on the Cape and Islands – said they "are more likely to support Cape Wind" after learning of the Environmental Impact Statement, which labeled 109 of 118 categories of potential impact as "negligible" or "minor."

A curious connection between the coal industry and the Cape Wind Project exists, according to Barbara Hill, Executive Director of Clean Power Now, and the Bangor (Maine) Daily News.

William I. Koch, a founder and owner of the Oxbow Group, that includes the subsidiary Oxbow Mining LLC (which produces 6 million tons of coal annually at its Colorado mine), has spent more than $1 million of his own money supporting the opposition group – the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. (Sounds like he’s taken a page from Massey CEO Don Blankenship’s playbook!)

Attending this hearing on the Cape Wind project was a great learning experience for all of us and we deeply appreciated the great hospitality of our host group, Clean Power Now – especially Ms. Hill.

Let’s hope that change is in the wind, especially for Nantucket Sound.