Google Leads Wind Power 'Superhighway' | Atlantic Wind Connection

While Republicans stand on the steps of Washington D.C. saying we can’t afford to build for the future and should embrace coal, Google isn’t waiting for blowhard politicos to figure out the tax breaks on a non-existing green strategy. The US Congress can’t agree that environmental destruction and energy vulnerability is even a problem for the 21st century.

Thank goodness someone is ready to take action to get America moving again. We may be God’s country, but our inability to read the environmental tea leaves just might offend the big guy upstairs.

Google has announced its investment in “a superhighway for clean energy”.

We just signed an agreement to invest in the development of a backbone transmission project off the Mid-Atlantic coast that offers a solid financial return while helping to accelerate offshore wind development—so it’s both good business and good for the environment. The new project can enable the creation of thousands of jobs, improve consumer access to clean energy sources and increase the reliability of the Mid-Atlantic region’s existing power grid. via Google blog

Japan’s Marubeni Corp is an investor in the project and also Good Energies. The project will run from from Virginia to New Jersey and is estimated to cost about $5 billion.

Recognizing the obstacles that dogged the Cape Wind project, first proposed in 2001, the proposed cable will installed under the seabed at a distance of 15 miles to 20 miles (24 km to 32 km) offshore in federal waters, making the turbines all but invisible from the coasts.

The most liberal greens also suffer from ‘not in my back yard’, and  developers believe this strategy will head off those objections. 

We have no word on whether Tea Party, Conservative Republicans and a few Democrats will try to limit the power of the federal government to act on the initiative, arguing that President Obama and the federal government have no right to govern coastal waters.

We will see much of this legislation hanging up the federal government, so they can do no further damage to America, if the Republicans win big next month.

The Atlantic Wind Connection would deal with only four property owners, compared to hundreds involved in land-based transmission technology. The New York Times reports that the project will begin building in 2013. Google and Good Energies have each agreed to take a 37.5 percent equity stake in the project. Marubeni has a 15 percent share.

In an effort to be fair, we have checked FOX News for their take on the story, 11:36 am, Oct. 12, 2010 in both Planet Earth and Business and Technology. They have nothing to report.