Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Energy, Class, Politics, and the Battle for Our Energy Future

When Jim Gordon set out to build a wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod, he knew some people might object. But there was a lot of merit in creating a privately funded, clean energy source for energy-starved New England, and he felt sure most people would recognize it eventually. Instead, all Hell broke loose. Gordon had unwittingly challenged the privileges of some of America's richest and most politically connected people, and they would fight him tooth and nail, no matter what it cost, and even when it made no sense.

Cape Wind is a rollicking tale of democracy in action and plutocracy in the raw as played out among colorful and glamorous characters on one of our country's most historic and renowned pieces of coastline. As steeped in American history and local color as The Prince of Providence; as biting, revealing and fun as Philistines at the Hedgerow, it is also a cautionary tale about how money can hijack democracy while America lags behind the rest of the developed world in adopting clean energy.

Wendy Williams has written for many major publications, including Scientific American, the Christian Science Monitor, the Boston Globe, the Providence Journal, and the Baltimore Sun. She has been journalist-in-residence at Duke University and at the Hasting Center; a fellow at the Center for environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado and at the Marine Biological Laboratory. The author of several books, she lives on Cape Cod.

Robert Whitcomb is a vice president and editorial page editor of the Providence Journal. Before that he served as the financial editor of the International Herald Tribune; and as editor and writer for the Wall Street Journal.