Gov. Deval Patrick Gives Vineyard Cold Shoulder On Oceans Plan Meeting

Gov. Deval Patrick has been accused of snubbing attempts by a delegation of Vineyard community leaders to meet with him and share their concerns about the impact of the state’s draft oceans plan on the Island.

The delegation, which includes representatives of every Island board of selectmen, the Dukes County Commission, Martha’s Vineyard Commission and the Wampanoag tribe, has been trying without success for almost three weeks to get a meeting with the governor.

Instead, the governor’s office offered them time with the chief architect of the plan, the Secretary of the Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Ian Bowles. But as of yesterday, he also had not agreed to a meeting, according to West Tisbury selectman and Island delegation member Richard Knabel.

The delegation’s purpose in seeking the meeting is twofold: to ask for more time for a considered response to the plan’s provision for up to 166 large wind turbines within a few miles of Vineyard shores, near Cuttyhunk and Noman’s Land, and to restore full review powers to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission over development in Island waters.

The public comment period on the oceans plan expires just over three weeks from today, and the final plan is due to be released by year’s end. And as it now stands, the MVC’s power to regulate development is trumped by that of the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) and by that of the secretary, Mr. Bowles or his successors.

The secretary’s power has never been used in the 35 years since the commission was established, but Mr. Bowles cited it pointedly in an interview with the Gazette last week — and his comment has been seen by some Island leaders as a threat.

They believe the ultimate power over developments in Vineyard waters should rest with the MVC.

But getting anyone in a position of power in Boston to listen to their concerns has proved difficult, despite the Island delegation’s efforts to marshal state Rep. Timothy Madden and Sen. Robert O’Leary to the cause.

“I don’t know where the difficulty is, in all honesty,” said Mr. Knabel.

“I was asked by the all-Island selectmen to coordinate a meeting with the governor about the oceans plan,” he said on Wednesday.

“It’s now been two and a half weeks of trying.”

He said the only message he had received back was one from the governor’s office, directing him to Secretary Bowles, something Mr. Knabel said he thought a reasonable first step “since he owns the oceans plan and is the governor’s point man.”

But Mr. Knabel said it was becoming clear the governor wanted the delegation to deal with Secretary Bowles instead of him.

“And we want to see the governor regardless of whether or not we see Bowles. It seems they are trying to preempt the meeting with the governor,” he said, adding:

“I’ve learned from several sources that this governor is extremely inaccessible, even to legislators. They have a lot of difficulty getting in to see him even though he’s of their [Democratic] party.” Mr. Knabel continued:

“I talked to [former Islands’ state representative] Eric Turkington this morning and he said the feeling in the state house, while he was still there was that Governor Romney was actually better about seeing legislators and other people than Governor Patrick is.

“So that’s essentially where it is with the governor. As for Bowles, we have not heard anything back.

When the Gazette contacted Governor Patrick’s office yesterday, it was told all inquiries about the matter should be directed to Secretary Bowles’s office.

But Catherine Williams, assistant press secretary for Mr. Bowles, said she was unaware that the Island delegation was seeking a meeting.

“We haven’t received a specific formal request,” Ms. Williams said.

But she said the secretary was prepared to see the delegation before the comment period on the ocean plan closes on Nov. 23.

Last night, Mr. Madden sought to resolve the confusion about meetings.

He said he and Senator O’Leary had met several time with Mr. Bowles over the past couple of weeks, most recently on Wednesday, and he was certainly aware the Island delegation wanted to sit down with him.

“I think part of the problem here could be that we’re not talking to Bowles’s staffers, we’re talking to Bowles himself.

“We’re trying to work through this, and we’re pretty dug in, the senator and myself. The Vineyard Commission has to have the final say-so.

“I think the secretary is trying to be accommodating and is, I think, trying to work in good faith with us to get to where we need to be.

“So there will be a meeting, but we have not set a date. Our goal is that when we — the secretary, Rob and I — meet with the delegation, we have something to show this group, that might answer some of their concerns,” Mr. Madden said.

As for the governor, Mr. Madden said when he first approached his office two or three weeks ago, he was told he was “booked up through October, and they would get back to us.”

Mr. Madden said he was still hopeful that the meeting would happen, and he advised the delegation to send a letter to the governor’s office.

Meanwhile, the approval process for the other wind turbine project near the Vineyard — Cape Wind — continues to drag on, with the most recent delay caused by consideration of the traditional beliefs of native Americans.

The Wampanoag tribes of Aquinnah and Mashpee are seeking to have all of Nantucket Sound declared traditional cultural property and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The claim is based in large part on the effect turbines would have on the view. An unobstructed view of the sunrise is culturally important to the tribes. They also claim their forebears hunted on land now submerged under Nantucket Sound, but which was dry land thousands of years ago, when sea levels were lower, at the end of the last Ice Age .

While a listing would not necessarily stop the project, it would make the permitting process even more time consuming. Even if a listing is ultimately denied, which is seen as likely by the project proponents and others versed in the legalities of the issue, it has the potential to delay approval, which was expected to happen quickly following a favorable environmental impact report earlier this year.

Indeed, it has already caused several additional months’ delay.

But Cape Wind developers remain hopeful it will be sooner.

“I believe a decision by the state historic preservation office is due by mid-November,” said spokesman Mark Rodgers. “It’s my understanding that MMS does not view Nantucket Sound as eligible for consideration for a traditional cultural property, and our view is that the requirements for traditional cultural property make it pretty clear Nantucket Sound is not eligible.

“So we’re hopeful that the state office reaches the same conclusion.”

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Reader Feedback

Friday, October 30, 2009 6:18am

The energy industries now constitute the largest single enterprise known to mankind. Moreover, they are indivisible from automobile, farming, shipping, air freight, and banking interests, as well as from the governments dependent on oil revenues for their very existence. With annual sales in excess of one trillion dollars and daily sales of more than two billion dollars, the oil industry alone supports the economies of the Middle East and large segments of the economies of Russia, Mexico, Venezuela, Nigeria, Indonesia, Norway, and Great Britain. Begin to enforce restriction on the consumption of oil and coal, and the effects on the global economy—unemployment, depression, social breakdown, and war—might lay waste to what we have come to call civilization. It is no wonder that for the last fifteen or so years many of the world's politicians and most of the world's news media have been promoting the perception that the worries about the weather are overwrought.

- tahiti , vineyard haven

Sunday, November 1, 2009 7:49am

Wampanoag Tribes and Cape Wind


This letter is to address the editorial by a Boston newspaper on October 27.2009 which opposes the claim that the Wampanoag tribe should have Nantucket Sound placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Wampanoags say that their spiritual greetings of the sun require unobstructed views and commercial wind turbines could disturb the ancestral burying grounds.

The editorial fails to help readers understand this complicated story of the North American Indians. The North American Indians have rights secured under Indian treaties and agreements with the United States. They have the right to ask for the divine blessing of the Creator. How would we all feel if the news poked fun of a religion that thought God was really three divine people? The Indians were the first people.They have a right to be heard.

We need to look outside Boston to the South. For example the town I live in is said to be an old Indian term meaning "a place of rest." The town seal has a larger than life bow-carrying Indian overlooking a ship being built on the shore. The SouthCoast,Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and the Islands have such names as Moshup Trail. These names were handed down over 400 years. here is an excerpt from a Wampanoag story about Moshup the Giant:


"One day Moshup told the Indians that a new breed of man, with fairer skin than they would soon be coming to their land. He warned the Indians not to let them on their shore, for if they did, the Indians would live no more.

Then Moshup quietly slipped away into the choppy waters off the bay. Soon after, the pale faced men came ashore, and landed near the place where Moshup once lay. The Indians greeted them with friendship and let them stay, and Moshup has not been seen since that day."

Mattapoisett

- Bill Carson , Mattapoisett

Sunday, November 1, 2009 1:25pm

The idea that man is not the cause of global change can be seen as denial in the same way that when a child is asked if he did something bad by his mother, he will deny it. It is a human trait. But as humans, we like to take credit for the good things that we do. So let us imagine for a moment that humans followed a different path. Let us say that Native Americans were allowed to keep their land and their way of life and that the European settlers did not displace them. If their land and their way of life had been respected and they had evolved over a period of a thousand or two or three thousand years then what would the planet be like then? Assuming that land ownership did not come into existence, for they did not have that legal designation, and assuming that hunting and fishing and paying homage to the Great Spirit continued to flourish, then perhaps a land of plenty with natural limitations to population growth would have taken root. Imagine a world with no smog, no factories, where children played, people were healthy by natural means and the world was a paradise. Well, this is a fairy tale. That is for sure. But what if it actually did happen; even if only in the imagination. Then would not the tribes take credit for what goodness was all around them? Would it not be human nature to take credit for preserving the land, the animals, and the bountiful fishing grounds?

The opposite is also true. We have populated the earth with so many humans and so much human need for land and property and things that in order to satisfy all of these things that we consider our birthright we are reluctant to accept responsibility for whatever harm we cause on the way to acquiring what we want. And so when someone forcefully and seemingly with ‘evidence’ suggests that we did not despoil the land and water, that pollution does not have global implications, that warming of the planet is only natural and that we are not responsible for any of it; we want to believe it. It is easy to believe. We want to, we need to. If we do not believe it we are put in the unfortunate position of having to take responsibility for our actions. By denying it we can put off any unpleasant changes to our lives that might reduce our consumption of goods, or tweak our conscience….

- tahiti , vineyard haven

Monday, November 2, 2009 12:51pm

Tahiti couldn't be more wrong. The arrogance of thinking that humans somehow are more powerful than nature is staggering. Also the stupidity that somehow human population growth has had a negative impact on our quality of life is just plain mind boggling. How many of use would prefer the life expectancy of our ancestors thousands of years ago? Does Tahiti realize that without humankinds mastery of tools and technology there would be no arts? The Earth is a living being which has allowed us to prosper within it's control, not the other way around.

- thinker , west tisbury

Monday, November 2, 2009 1:19pm

Tahiti

From the tone of your responses you don't like big oil. I guess you don't drive? Do you walk and your ride your bike everywhere? You must not use any electricity and all your clothes are made of hemp.

Meanwhile your Savoir Barry Obama and his wife are flying air force one all around the globe campaigning every day for his next election. Are you worried about his carbon emissions?

- AJS , Westfield, NJ

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 5:44am

The man-made global warming claim has been a humanity-hating, guilt-inducing, tax-increasing, revenue-collecting proposition from the get-go. Every day there is more evidence that the earth is actually cooling.

- denier , edgartown

Thursday, November 5, 2009 11:36am

Really, Denier? The earth is cooling? What's your source for that claim? The National Review? Fox News? Come on.

- Amazing , OB

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