Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Explains Why He's Opposed To Cape Wind (VIDEO)

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has always been a outspoken environmentalist, making bold statements against the coal industry and the perils of global warming. And while he is a strong proponent of renewable energy, Kennedy is just as passionately an opponent of the recently-approved Cape Wind project. He outlined his opposition to the project moving forward in a New York Times op-ed back in 2005.

The project was approved in April, and Kennedy is still just as staunchly opposed, arguing that it will put hundreds of commercial fishermen on the South Cape out of work, Kennedy said in an interview with Plum TV.

"I've worked with the commercial fishermen for 25 years on environmental issues, and they came to me when this was first proposed," Kennedy said. "And they said, 'Bobby, we've stood shoulder to shoulder with you on every environmental issue for the past 20 years, and now you environmentalists are going to steal our livelihoods by putting your wind farms in the middle of our most abundant fishery?'"

WATCH Kennedy explain his opposition:

Comments

[rcpmac]

05:17 PM on 05/16/2010

This is nonsense! If anything the turbine platforms will have a reef effect which increases aquaculture. This is NIMBYism couched as environmentalism. You too bobby will have to sacrifice some to green our energy supply

[adamhide]

12:28 PM on 05/17/2010

"If anything the turbine platforms will have a reef effect which increases aquaculture."

"And by the way, on that oil rig — and I’m sure you’ve probably heard this story — you look down, and there’s fish everywhere! There’s fish everywhere! Yeah, the fish love to be around those rigs. So not only can it be helpful for energy, it can be helpful for some pretty good meals as well." --John McCain on Oil Rigs in 2008.

No footprint is the best footprint...use footprints that are already there and load them up with solar cells...

Funny thing no one has even mentioned what a mess it's going to be getting this power from the turbines to the grid. Large power lines further fragmenting the environment that you are already putting spinning blades in one of the largest migration routes in the world.

We need to get off of oil, but we don't need another energy mess with out really thinking about it and the best way to approach it...

[Pleneras]

07:39 AM on 05/13/2010

Sorry but with the disaster in the gulf we are going to have to stop fishing for a good while. We take out more than what the sea produces. It's time to change your diet. Too many people in this world. During the last 200 years the populations has tripled. What do you expect to do fish more out of the sea? How can you if supple does not meet demand. Time to eat your veggies!

[jonfoxrun]

11:42 PM on 05/12/2010

Thank you, Robert. You're a good man who speaks the truth.

An unspeakable price will be paid by the Wampanoag, whose sacred grounds and waters will be over-run with heavy machinery digging, dredging, and trenching -- then 130 wind turbines and an electrical service platform housing tens of thousands of gallons of fuel, hydraulic fluid, and greases. There is no dollar amount to remedy ecocide and ethnocide.

[Sandy Glick]

04:53 PM on 05/12/2010

NIMBY?

[booklover25]

10:49 PM on 05/14/2010

It's important that Cape Wind will be the first offshore wind farm in America because it will encourage more offshore wind to be developed and the water off the coast has some of the most sustained winds in the country. Offshore wind power's enormous potential to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels (including foreign oil) offsets any aesthetic issues associated with it. I'm extremely disappointed with RF Kennedy, Jr.'s stance on the issue because I've admired his environmental activism in the past. I doubt fishermen will be impacted by these wind turbines. But I imagine he and his neighbors don't want to see these turbines on the horizon.