One of the best reads of the summer is “Cape Wind” by magazine reporter Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb, editorial page editor of the Providence Journal.
Subtitled, “Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound,” it’s a fascinating tale about the bruising fight waged over energy entrepreneur Jim Gordon’s to build an array of wind turbines off Cape Cod.
Among the more interesting aspects of the story is the juxtaposition of roles played by Sen. Ted Kennedy, the liberal lion from Massachusetts and hero of the environmental movement, and Charles Bass, the former Republican congressman from New Hampshire.
Kennedy is portrayed as a master of hypocrisy, railing against America’s dependence of fossil fuels while at the same time doing everything in his power to scuttle the Cape Wind project for fear it might spoil the view from his Hyannisport compound.
Bass, on the other hand, who was turned out by the anti-war forces in his district last year, is depicted as the brave GOP liberal willing to take on everyone from then House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to Kennedy.
Bass’s signature achievement in the narrative was leading the successful fight to remove language from a federal energy bill that would have allowed Gov. Mitt Romney, an avowed Cape Wind opponent, to veto the project outright.
Like Kennedy, Romney gets some rought treatment from the authors as does U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Malden, who is depicted as being completely subservient to his state’s senior senator.
The issue of a gubernatorial veto became moot of course when Deval Patrick, an avowed Cape Wind support, was elected the Bay State’s governor in 2006. But the kind words the book has for Bass could have come in handy last year’s election which he lost to Concord attorney Paul Hodes.
