A fascinating internal debate is whirling within the green community: Are the environmental tradeoffs worth the clean-energy benefits of wind power? The scuffle hinges on a massive 130-turbine wind installation proposed off the coast of Cape Cod, in the shallow waters of Nantucket Sound. The Cape Wind project has been the target of high-profile opposition from the influential eco-warrior Robert F. Kennedy Jr..

He contends that the project will blight coveted ocean views, stymie the local fishing industry, and pose environmental dangers to migrating birds. Kennedy ran an opinion piece in the New York Times in Mid December detailing his opposition to the project.

That, in turn, prompted a group of some 150 environmentalists, including global warming authors and activists Bill McKibben, Ross Gelbspan and youth-crusader Billy Parish, to write a public letter to Kennedy, asking him to reverse his opposition to the project given the crucial role it will play in solving the climate crisis. “We are, simply put, in a state of ecological emergency,” it read. “Constructing windmills six miles from Cape Cod, where they will be visible as half-inch dots on the horizon, is the least that we can do.”

Photo credit: National Renewable Energy Laboratory