Blowin’ in the wind by Dennis Keeney, Middleton Community UCC March 20, 2026
Bob Dylans’s great 1962 ballad has a prophetic phrase
“Yes and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind”
As we wage another war over oil, it is clear to me that alternate sources of energy are critical to World peace. The answers are there; the World just needs to embrace them.
As one looks east off the shore of Nantucket, Massachusetts, huge turbines slowly churn, bringing clean renewable energy to up to 400,000 MA homes. These majestic machines, beloved by many, hated by Trump, almost did not get the opportunity to provide cheap carbon free electricity. The Trump administration tried desperately to stop the construction of Vineyard Wind, the country’s first large-scale offshore wind project. But the courts prevailed and Vineyard Wind installed the final blade on the last turbine in early March.
Betty and I have been especially interested in this project. Our granddaughter, Carson McNatt, is an engineer on the project. A little bragging: she has a Bachelors and Masters from Rochester Institute of Technology in Environmental Engineering. It took her a few months to find the perfect job, in the meantime she biked solo across the US, taking time off to be with the family at our annual summer Door County reunion. To get the job, she had to pass an emergency evacuation test from a sinking helicopter!
These offshore wind turbines are huge. The blades are 350 feet long, more than the length of a football field. They stand 850 ft above the ocean (the Washington Monument is 555 feet). The Vineyards project has 62 turbines: each spaced about a mile apart on a grid. The project has already sent power to Massachusetts users. Vineyard Wind is the only large generator on Cape Cod so it provides increased grid reliability for the region. The ocean wind blows stronger in the nighttime hours, which works out well for utilities that can get renewable energy from solar cells during the day, a real win-win situation.
There are several other wind projects on the East Coast that are in limbo, thanks to Trump administration obstructions, but with the success of Vineyard Winds, the future looks much “greener.” Way to go Carson!