The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

A couple of interesting pieces coming in on Alternative Power Digest on Yahoo groups:

Subject: GE's giant's shadow

GE's giant's shadow

National ads use wind energy to project a new image
for the old-line company - and perhaps the local wind
farm debate

By ETHAN ZINDLER
STAFF WRITER
Under ominous skies, a scraggly crew of medieval
oarsmen struggles to row a galley across the ocean.

Suddenly, an apparition.

A vessel carrying a happy and relaxed group of
medieval partyers cruises by. The sun is now visible.
Strains of steel drum music fill the air.

Lo and behold, the boat is traveling under sail.

Trailing off the back is a water-skier who turns,
flashes a smile, and gives the miserable wretches back
on the rowboat a thumbs-up.

"Imagine what a pleasant surprise it must have been
when man first harvested the power of wind," a
narrator says. "At GE, we still believe in wind as a
pure, natural source of power. GE wind energy. For a
cleaner, more fuel-efficient world."

An image of GE wind turbines in action appears briefly
followed by the company's new motto: "GE, imagination
at work."

Dubbed "Galley," the commercial, aired nationally, is
one of the first in GE's new $100 million, multimedia
campaign to promote the company's role in a number of
high-technology fields.

A spokesman for GE declined to provide details about
how much the company has spent on airing the
television ad in the Boston market, other than to say
the size of the buy was no larger than in similar
sized media markets across the country. The spot is
not intended to influence public policy debates over
specific wind farm projects, he said.

But by throwing its hat into the wind-energy ring in
such a public manner, GE has injected the long
fledgling industry with a dose of credibility. And
that could bolster the prospects for proposed wind
farms in various locations along the Eastern Seaboard,
including here on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound.

Wind power advocates, including those for Cape Wind
Associates, the local company hoping to develop the
130-turbine Nantucket Sound project, say they couldn't
be more pleased. Having a company of GE's stature and
reputation is a significant feather in their cap.
Advertisements that reinforce the validity of wind
power can only boost their efforts regionally.

But opponents of the Nantucket Sound wind farm say
GE's advertising won't have any significant impact on
the local debate. The issue for Cape Codders, they
say, is not wind power's viability but whether the
region's natural resources are protected from
opportunistic developers.

Not just window dressing
GE did not enter the wind power game last year just to
make environmentally friendly commercials. Its Wind
Energy division has generated more than $1 billion in
wind-related revenues so far and has contracts worth
$2 billion more. Should the Nantucket Sound project
receive regulatory approval, GE has a preliminary
contract to build the wind turbines and towers in a
contract worth $495 million, perhaps more.

Currently, the proposed $750 million project is
undergoing environmental review by various regional,
state and federal agencies. Proponents say it would
produce enough electricity to meet 75 percent of the
Cape's power needs.

For a company that produces everything from credit
cards to "Must See TV" (on its NBC network), casting
wind power as the star of its new ad campaign is an
interesting gambit - especially since sales of
wind-related products and services accounted for less
than 1 percent of its $132 billion revenues in 2002.
In fact, GE only entered the wind power game last year
when it purchased Enron's wind assets.

But the current television commercials and
accompanying print and Internet ads do not highlight
the GE of old, which boasted of being able to "bring
good things to life" such as light bulbs and
dishwashers.

"The goals of the campaign are to portray GE's
technological leadership in a number of areas," said a
company spokesman, Gary Sheffer. "(Wind power)
exemplifies one of the world-class technology
businesses that represents GE."

Is the wind spot meant to sway public opinion here,
where the debate has raged over allowing wind farms in
federal waters?

"None of this is meant to influence the debate on any
specific project," said Sheffer.

John Lister, chairman of the brand-consulting firm
Lister Butler in New York, agrees.

"Even the windfall of $400 million is a drop in the
bucket for GE," he said, referring to the revenues the
company would generate should the Nantucket Sound
project come to fruition.

But the ad, coupled with GE's entry into the wind
energy field, could affect the public's perception of
wind energy, Lister said.

"If GE makes a solid commitment to this and moves
ahead successfully it will, in fact, do wonders for
the wind power business," he said.

That buoys veteran wind-power advocates such as Bob
Thresher, director of the federal government's
National Wind Technology Center in Golden, Colo.

"The biggest hurdle (facing wind power) in 30 years
has been the perception that it's a bunch of hippies
trying to change the world," said Thresher who has
working been in the field for that long. "It's not,
it's a business."

"To see GE say, 'yeah this technology is ready to be
implemented' is absolutely great."

But one of the Cape's leading wind farm opponents
discounts the impact GE's advertisements or presence
in the wind energy field will have on the Nantucket
Sound project or others that have been proposed for
the region.

"Wind power is credible and the more that large
companies like GE get involved the more viability wind
power has," acknowledges Isaac Rosen, executive
director of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.

But he says that's beside the point to Cape Codders
who are more concerned about "the utter gold rush
that's taking place along our coast."

"What generally congeals people on this issue is not
wind power but how we regulate our public resources,"
he said.

Rosen also questions whether GE's wind ad is an
accurate portrayal of the company, given its
environmental track record.

"There's a reason why they're not spending $100
million advertising the pollution that they've
caused," he said.

Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
ruled that GE must pay to dredge 150,000 pounds of
harmful PCBs from a 40-mile stretch of the Hudson
River in New York. The company expects to spend
between $120 million and $170 million on environmental
remediation projects annually for the next two years,
according to its 2002 annual report.

Via an e-mail, GE's Sheffer dismissed Rosen's
criticism.

"It's unfortunate that Mr. Rosen finds it necessary to
engage in these kinds of attacks rather than limiting
his comments to the relative merits of the project,"
he said.

"We have an excellent environmental compliance program
and record. We also meet our responsibilities to
address environmental contamination that occurred
decades before the advent of modern environmental
laws."

One local homeowner bound to be affected by the
construction of a wind farm on Horseshoe Shoal is GE's
former CEO Jack Welch, who has owned a Nantucket
vacation home for more than a decade. A spokesperson
for Welch said it is his policy not to comment on
ongoing projects where GE is involved.

Cape project could help GE
Last year, Cape Wind Associates signed a preliminary
agreement with GE's Power Systems division. Under the
deal, GE would build the wind turbines and towers that
support them.

Construction of both would take place somewhere in
southern New England but not on the Cape because the
region does not have a deep enough port, according to
Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Cape Wind Associates.
The project would create 600 to 1,000 construction
jobs. GE could get the contract to oversee
installation.

Neither Cape Wind nor GE is willing to attach a dollar
figure to the current deal to build the materials for
the turbines, but if previous offshore projects in
Europe are any guide, it could range between 48 and 66
percent of the project's overall cost. Cape Wind
estimates total cost at $750 million, meaning GE's
contract could be valued between $360 million and $495
million.

But Glenn Watley, an advisor to the Alliance to
Protect Nantucket Sound, a nonprofit group that has
taken the lead in opposing the Nantucket Sound
project, said the overall cost will be closer to $823
million. That could put the price tag on GE's contract
closer to $540 million.

Furthermore, publicity generated by GE's involvement
with the nation's first offshore wind farm could be
substantial.

Mere debate over the project has garnered national
media attention in The New York Times Magazine and
elsewhere. Should it get the go-ahead, all eyes will
be on the Cape.

Indeed, GE's association with the project might
deliver the "Imagination at Work" message more
powerfully than any spot Madison Avenue could dream
up.

"I think all large companies ... are looking for ways
to say they're out front, they're ahead of the game,"
said Lister. "This certainly would be a feather in
their cap if they can pull it off without having to
put barbed wire around every installation."

Despite all GE has to gain if the local project is
approved, there is no clear indication that the wind
advertisements are aimed at swaying public opinion or
public policy leaders who have not taken firm
positions on the issue - although the ads do run
during "Meet the Press" and "The McLaughlin Group,"
two popular programs with the Washington, D.C., crowd.

(Published: July 13, 2003)


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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 15:30:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: Green Bean
Subject: Wind farm panel OK'd in Mass. Senate

July 12, 2003

Wind farm panel OK'd in Senate

By DAVID KIBBE
TIMES BOSTON BUREAU
BOSTON - The state Senate this week approved a study
commission on wind farms, marking the Legislature's
first debate in a controversy that has roiled the Cape
and islands.

The legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Robert
O'Leary, D-Barnstable, passed the Senate
overwhelmingly on Thursday. But the issue triggered a
confrontation between O'Leary and a ranking Senate
Republican which could be the first salvo in a Beacon
Hill fight over the merits of offshore wind farms.

The bill largely duplicates action already taken on
Beacon Hill in the contentious battle over proposed
wind farms.

O'Leary's legislation would require Gov. Mitt Romney
to appoint a study commission on wind farms -
something the governor did earlier this summer when he
named a task force on ocean management.

Developers Cape Wind Associates are seeking to build
130 wind turbines on a 24-quare-mile area of Nantucket
Sound. The development would be the first offshore
wind farm in the U.S.

Part of the wind farm debate has centered on the lack
of regulatory oversight, particularly at the federal
level.

Since Cape Wind's proposal was first aired, several
other developers have proposed wind farms of varying
sizes.

O'Leary, a Cape Wind skeptic, viewed the study
commission as a precursor to zoning of state waters.
He said it would not affect the Cape Wind proposal,
because it would be located in federal waters outside
of state jurisdiction.

"It's not about snob zoning," O'Leary said when his
bill was introduced on the Senate floor. "It's about
environmental protection, and it's about a very
complicated and difficult issue that has truly divided
my community, and I concede that. There are good
people on both sides, people who don't live along the
coastline, who don't have big 'McMansions,' who have
real deep concerns about the impact of that project on
the Cape."

Although passing 30 to 6, the legislation triggered an
intense debate on wind farms between O'Leary and
Senate Minority Leader Brian Lees, R-East Longmeadow.

Lees accused O'Leary of trying to use the legislation
to delay the Cape Wind proposal in Nantucket Sound.

Lees branded it a "NIMBY" issue - Not in My Back Yard
- and accused wind farm opponents of being snobs. Lees
contrasted the wind farm controversy to the creation
of the Quabbin Reservoir.

In an aside, he implied that U.S. Sen. John Kerry had
hedged his position on the wind farm to rake in more
money from the Cape and islands.

"This is as NIMBY a thing as I have ever seen," Lees
said. "There are four communities in western
Massachusetts that are underwater today to provide
(drinking) water for Boston. But you're afraid that a
little view from a $5 million house may be impinged by
some wind farm way, way out. Give me a break.

"We need ways of finding efficient energy. We need
ways of finding clean energy."

State Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, also objected to
the bill, saying it duplicated Romney's ocean task
force.