Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound, by Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb (Public Affairs, May 2007)

Environmentalists love to promote wind and solar power, both of which are cleaner than the existing mix that powers our coal-dominated power grid. But wind and solar farms take up lots of space. Where should we put them?

This is the conflict at the heart of Wendy Williams’ and Robert Whitcomb’s Cape Wind, billed as a story of “money, celebrity, class, politics, and the battle for America’s energy future on Nantucket Sound.” Jim Gordon, the hero, is a scrappy entrepreneur who wants to build a wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts. He is the grandson of a Russian immigrant who had worked as a slaughterhouse butcher until he was disabled by a falling meat hook, and is remarkably stubborn: The authors trace his resolve back to an epic game of tetherball, played against a much older counselor at summer camp. That tenacity would help Gordon make millions in the energy business over the years.

In 2001, Gordon decided that Nantucket Sound would be ideal for a wind farm. The wind blows hard there, particularly during the winter, when New England needs more power. He invested $20 million of his own money in the project. He tried to go through the standard permit process, and got a positive study from the Army Corps of Engineers. Though wind turbines can be tough on birds, the wildlife impact at his proposed site wouldn’t be bad, various reports documented, and the turbines would generate enough power to lessen reliance on polluting power plants. Both Greenpeace and local labor unions, which were excited about high-paying offshore construction jobs, pledged support.

If all the stories on this usually dry topic featured tales of meat hook accidents and characters with comic names, more Americans might pay attention.

The problem? Nantucket Sound is home to the beachfront property of some of America’s wealthiest people. Many of them, including Sen. Ted Kennedy, like the concept of renewable energy in theory. But all politics is local, and the prospect of sailing routes and waterfront views disrupted by turbines is much less attractive than the high principle of wind power. Immediately after proposing the “Cape Wind” project, Gordon found himself battling locals through a well-endowed Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound (fundraisers were instructed to turn down “token” $5,000 donations), and battling certain powerful senators in Washington. Kennedy’s allies kept slipping language into unrelated bills to block construction. Cape Wind has yet to be built.

That makes for a slightly unsatisfying end to the story—a frequent reality of narrative non-fiction and the world it describes. Williams and Whitcomb want Cape Wind to read like a novel, but the only thing that saves it from being a total melodrama is that the events described actually happened. Members of the Nantucket elite really do have names like “Bunny.” A barge carrying oil to supply the Cape Cod power plant—which powers the mansions of Nantucket Sound—actually did crash and spill oil on a poorer town’s beaches. To increase the suspense, the authors end chapters with over-the-top phrases: “many people began to believe that the funders of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound—and the politicians following their lead—were playing with fire.” They are shocked—shocked!—that “While wrapping themselves in the mantle of democracy, the Nantucket Sound affluent were behaving as though they owned the government.” Coming from a pair of seasoned journalists (Whitcomb, for instance, is the editorial page editor of The Providence Journal), this is puzzlingly naïve. And Jim Gordon strides so heroically across Cape Wind’s pages—like something out of an Ayn Rand tome—that I wondered if he’d commissioned the book himself.

In all, though, Cape Wind is a fun read, and a fun way to learn about renewable energy. If all the stories on this usually dry topic featured tales of meat hook accidents and characters with comic names, more Americans might pay attention. Cape Wind’s opening scene, of author David McCullough screaming at a Martha’s Vineyard town meeting that Nantucket Sound is “hallowed ground,” is worth the price of admission. You want McCullough and Kennedy to get their comeuppance. According to Jim Gordon’s Cape Wind website, the project has recently cleared state hurdles, and a critical federal review will take place over in the next few months. So there’s every reason to hope that Cape Wind’s authors will get to write a happy afterword for the paperback version.

Laura Vanderkam is a writer in New York. Her story about the politics of ethanol appears in the current issue of The American.