Monday evening, June 21, at 6:00 the Dept. of Public Utilities (DPU) is holding a hearing at the Nantucket High School regarding the rates negotiated between Cape Wind and National Grid. The DPU needs to approve this. This will affect all rate payers on Nantucket Island because it is National Grid who currently supplies power to the island.
Currently Nantucket power users pay 8.1 cents per kilowatt hour vs. the agreed upon rate between Cape Wind and National Grid of 20.7 cents per kilowatt hour.
Please comment here on the blog or come to the meeting to express your opinion and encourage other home and business owners on Nantucket who pay electric bills to attend as well.
An aside: currently there are other sources wanting to sell National Grid "green power" at a more reasonable cost.
• This meeting is only to discuss rates.
• It is the only opportunity Nantucketers will have to express to the DPU the economic impact of the rate increase on their properties and businesses.
Bartlett Farm on Nantucket installed a 100' windmill some time ago to run their property. This past winter it broke. As of writing this email today, June 20th 2010 it is still broken what will happen with maintenanceon Nantucket Sound. Here is some info on the Bartlett Farm Windmill
Green energy is incredibly important and resources need to be explored, especially considering the horrific tragedy that is happening because of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, but the costs along with the ideals of the well intentions need to be considered.