Cape Spin! An American Power Struggle

Late in Robbie Gemmel and John Kirby's riotous feature, a rough cut of Cape Spin previews, and someone complains that a serious issue is made to look like a carnival. Well...duhhhh! It seemed to be a bright, "green" idea in 2001 when energy tycoon Jim Gordon proposed a vast wind-power array in the Cape Cod shallows near Nantucket Sound, where the influential Kennedy Democrat dynasty are champions of the environment. But the idea instead stirred vigorous opposition, most visibly from those selfsame Kennedys and other super-rich, irate that the ocean wind towers would spoil their "quality of life" (aka garden-party vistas and yachting). Conservatives here gleefully note the classic "limousine liberalism" (although Mitt Romney is paraphrased here, calling wind farms "ugly" and suitable only for poorer areas). Meanwhile, Greenpeace and other eco-activists fight for Gordon's "Cape Wind" scheme. Soon fishermen, labor unions, Native Americans, the Audubon Society, journalists, singers, engineers, global-warming alarmists, Appalachians, people dressed as animals or sheiks—seemingly every pressure group except GLAAD and the New Black Panthers—enter the fray, not necessarily taking the positions you would expect. And, more than once, opinion-leaders are secretly tainted by corporate ties and lobbying. An enjoyable (and depressing) look at local democracy turning into a special-interest circus, Cape Spin is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)