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Wind-Power Politics
NY Times ^ | September 14, 2008 | MARK SVENVOLD

Posted on 09/14/2008 9:32:25 PM PDT by neverdem

“The moment I read that paper,” the wind entrepreneur Peter Mandelstam recalled, “I knew in my gut where my next wind project would be.”

I was having lunch with Mandelstam last fall to discuss offshore wind in general and how he and his tiny company, Bluewater Wind, came to focus on Delaware as a likely place for a nascent and beleaguered offshore wind industry to establish itself. Mandelstam had been running late all morning. I knew this because I received a half-dozen messages on my cellphone from members of his staff, who relayed his oncoming approach like air-traffic controllers guiding a wayward trans-Atlantic flight into Kennedy. This was the Bluewater touch — crisp, informative, ever-helpful, a supercharged, Eagle Scout attentiveness that was part corporate style, part calculated public-relations approach. It would pay off tremendously in his company’s barnstorming campaign of Delaware town meetings and radio appearances to capture what he had reason to believe would be the first offshore-wind project in the country’s history.

These features were, unsurprisingly, manifestations of Mandelstam himself, who arrived in a suit and tie, a wry smile, his wiry hair parted in the middle and tamped down like someone who had made a smooth transition from a Don Martin cartoon. Mandelstam, a 47-year-old native New Yorker who is capable of quoting Central European poets and oddball meteorological factoids with ease, had long committed himself — and the tiny company he formed in 1999 — to building utility-scale wind-power plants offshore, a decision that, to many wind-industry observers, seemed to fly in the face of common sense. Offshore marine construction was wildly, painfully expensive — like standing in a cold shower and ripping up stacks of thousand-dollar bills. The very laws for permitting and siting such projects had yet to be enacted. Indeed, the recent past...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: energy; environment; enviroprofiteering; power; renewableenergy; windpower

1 posted on 09/14/2008 9:32:29 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: Uncledave; Gabz; Delacon

Renewable energy & Delmarva ping


2 posted on 09/14/2008 9:39:22 PM PDT by neverdem (I'm praying for a Divine Intervention.)
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To: neverdem

Seems like an enterprising conservative lawyer will be able to make a killing on law-suits against wind-farms, based on environmental problems such as: Killing rare birds, water pollution (minced birds falling into waterways), noise pollution near residential areas, etc.


3 posted on 09/14/2008 11:11:22 PM PDT by Mogollon ($5/gal Gas....Kick the Jacka$$es Out!)
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To: neverdem

Thanks for the ping.


4 posted on 09/15/2008 11:33:43 AM PDT by Delacon ("The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." H. L. Mencken)
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To: neverdem

How old is this article above?

According to a quick Google search, Bluewater was bought out over a year and one half ago:

http://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUSN2845878120070928


5 posted on 09/15/2008 11:58:01 AM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Old Professer
How old is this article above?

It's from the Sunday NY Times' Magazine from yesterday. What does that have to do with the politics?

6 posted on 09/15/2008 1:01:17 PM PDT by neverdem (I'm praying for a Divine Intervention.)
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To: Old Professer
How old is this article above?

It's from the Sunday NY Times' Magazine from yesterday. What does that have to do with the politics?

7 posted on 09/15/2008 1:01:46 PM PDT by neverdem (I'm praying for a Divine Intervention.)
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To: neverdem

If his company was bought out by an Australian company, it would seem that the repeated use of entrepreneur would be a bit disingenuous


8 posted on 09/15/2008 1:21:00 PM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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