BRIDGEWATER — From the Cape Cod Cafe just off Route 18 to a town manager who calls Falmouth home, Bridgewater already shares several connections with the Cape.
Now the town and the Cape could be linked in another way: power bought from the controversial wind farm Cape Wind Associates LLC wants to build in Nantucket Sound.
If the state Department of Public Utilities (DPU) signs off on a deal proposed by National Grid to buy half the electricity from the project, residents and businesses in Bridgewater would be among the customers across the utility's service area who would pay a premium price for energy from the company's 130 wind turbines.
Last night at Bridgewater State College, DPU officials held the first of three public hearings scheduled across the state on the power agreement, drawing almost 100 attendees to Boyden Hall's Horace Mann Auditorium.
National Grid's deputy general counsel, Ronald Gerwatowski, told DPU officials that Cape Wind is needed, especially given the limited number of large renewable energy projects expected to come online in the next decade and the demands New England states are making of utilities to get their power from renewable sources.
"What we have seen is a huge gap, a renewable resources gap," he said. "Without large scale projects, it appears to be insurmountable."
Many Cape Wind supporters, including representatives of the maritime trades and other unions, praised the project for the jobs it would create and called it a far better alternative to oil drilling and potential disasters such as the ongoing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
Another Cape Wind supporter read from a letter written by several state lawmakers urging the DPU to expedite its review of the energy deal and approve it.
Cape Wind's opponents, who have long blasted the wind farm as a danger to wildlife and the public, argued the project would include oil in turbines that could damage the environment if something went wrong. They also said the additional burden on ratepayers compared to the cost of traditional sources of energy such as oil and natural gas will be too much for consumers already feeling the effects of a stagnant economy.
For an average Massachusetts residential electricity customer who uses 618 kilowatt hours a month, the cost of Cape Wind's power would add about $2 to a monthly bill in the first year of the project's operation, according to National Grid.
Wearing a "Stop the Steel Forest" T-shirt, Robert Bussiere, co-founder of a Cape-based group called windstop.org, said he would not use the power from the project because Cape Cod is not served by National Grid. But he said people on Nantucket and in other parts of the state are upset about the higher rates they would pay for Cape Wind electricity.
"There are other alternatives like energy conservation, like using tidal power," he said. "I don't believe that an industrial-grade wind power is the way to go."
Bridgewater residents and business owners who spoke to a Times reporter before yesterday's hearing said the premium cost of Cape Wind electricity would be acceptable if it led to more stable prices in the long term and less dependency on oil.
"That would be worth it, as long as the fee is minimal," said Frank Doyle, as he waited for an order at Cape Cod Cafe on Winter Street.
Doyle, who is a National Grid customer and said he did not feel strongly one way or the other about climate change, argued that the stable rates Cape Wind could provide over the long term make the project desirable.
"It's supposed to be good for the environment," said Scott Bena, owner of Yankee Clipper Barber Shop on Broad Street.
Bena said he pays about $50 a month to keep the lights on in his small shop and about $200 for his home, and he wouldn't mind paying a few dollars more a month for energy from Cape Wind.
"I got no beef with it," he said. "Put it on my roof."
Town Manager Troy Clarkson, who is a former Falmouth selectman, said Bridgewater buys some of its electricity from National Grid and is consolidating power purchases by all of its municipal departments.
"We have a firm commitment to renewable energy," Clarkson said of town leaders, but he stopped short of endorsing the cost of Cape Wind.
