The stories about Cape Wind are coming faster and faster as a key December 31 deadline approaches. The first story was in CommonWealth, which reported that the proposed wind farm could miss out on a federal investment tax credit and lose a $200 million investor if construction of the wind farm didn’t start by the end of the year.
Then the Associated Press followed with a story reporting that Cape Wind officials were declining comment on the looming deadline, although they were insisting that the project would move forward. That report was picked up by the Boston Globe, the Boston Business Journal, and publications across the country.
Now comes a story by National Geographic that covers much of the same ground but places the struggle over Cape Wind in an international context. The story says offshore wind projects across the world are facing headwinds because of the rising cost of the power.
In England, rising subsidies for wind power are stirring opposition, in particular from that old windbag Donald Trump.Trump is suing the government of Scotland over its approval of an 11-turbine wind farm in Aberdeen Bay, where he is building a coastal golf resort.
In Germany, the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel is preparing to slow the pace of offshore wind development because of rising electricity prices. National Geographic reports that household electricity prices average 55 cents per kilowatt hour in Germany and 28 cents in the United Kingdom.
Cape Wind has signed contracts to deliver power in the 20-cent range, but opponents of the project say that price is still too high. They note that local utilities recently signed contracts for onshore wind power at about 8 cents a kilowatt hour. The clock is ticking.
–BRUCE MOHL
NELSON MANDELA
Nelson Mandela is being remembered in a flood of tributes probably greater than those that have been accorded to any other figure of our time. Locally, the Globe looks back at his 1990 visit to Boston, a city with a charged racial history that was also the first US municipality to impose sanctions on banks and companies doing business with South Africa’s apartheid government. The Times obituary is penned by the paper’s former editor Bill Keller, who interviewed Mandela in 2007 for this moment. The Washington Post obituaryincludes, poignantly, the byline of reporter Lynne Duke, a veteran black reporter and author of a book about her time covering Mandela and Africa, who died earlier this year. The Fix offers up what Mandela can teach politicians; another Post column calls him “the ultimate public servant.” Along with the lengthy tributes are also coming more nuanced — and mixed — assessments of his legacy, including these in the New York Times and The New Republic. For data to back of all of that up, here it is. Ray Flynn pens a tribute for the Herald. Slate posts the speech Mandela delivered after his 1990 release from prison. Dan Kennedy pulls together some links for videos about Mandela’s life and death.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
The Braintree Town Council is looking for a new meeting site after six years in the Town Hall auditorium, which was supposed to be a temporary setting when the town was transitioning to its new form of government.
The Wall Street Journal’s A-Hed column visits Watertown’s plumbing museum, a repository for historic toilets.
CASINOS
The developers of the proposed slots parlor in Raynham assured the Gaming Commission their projections of 1,400 construction jobs and nearly 1,800 permanent jobs when the facility is fully operational are “realistic.”
Holyoke is making a play for “surrounding community” casino mitigation even though the city does not abut Springfield.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
The Guardian reports on what it says is a coordinated conservative attack on education, health, and tax issues across the country. A conservative group called the State Policy Network is allegedly coordinating the effort through nonprofit think tanks in 34 states. Two think tanks in Boston, the Pioneer Institute and the Beacon Hill Institute, are listed as part of the effort, working on projects dealing with privatization and greenhouse gas regulation.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren joins NECN’s Jim Braude to talk about why her liberal causes aren’t gaining traction in Washington.
Scot Lehigh says Pope Francis has offered a lesson in Economics 101 that Republicans continue to flunk.
Congress is close to a two-year budget deal that would put off any threat of a government shutdown until after the 2014 midterms.
Swing voters in Ohio are angry at everybody.
Paul Krugman takes on President Obama’s income inequality speech.
ELECTIONS
Social conservatives are causing early heartburn for the Baker/Polito Republican dream team, decrying LG candidate Karyn Polito’s switch from gay marriage opponent to supporter and threatening to abandon the GOP ticket. David Bernstein rounds up the early gubernatorial fundraising numbers.
The MetroWest Daily News applauds the fact that Elizabeth Warren is still not running for president.
WBUR reports that Democrat Katherine Clark is a lock to win the congressional seat formerly held by now-Sen. Ed Markey. Clark has raised $1.1 million compared to $38,000 by her opponent, Frank Addivinola.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
The national unemployment rate hits a 5-year low, Time reports.
Partners HealthCare will consolidate administrative offices by relocating 4,500 employees to the new Assembly Row development in Somerville, an announcement that has stirred outrage from outgoing Boston Mayor Tom Menino.
Dunkin’ Donuts is backing a bill on Beacon Hill that would alter the definition of manager and broaden the pool of employees who could share in tips left by customers.
Greater Boston explores the slow-growing trend of at-home funerals.
A new study finds that many nonprofits with government contracts and grants have to tap reserves to make ends meet because of late payments from the government.
EDUCATION
The Somerset School Committee, trying to close the remainder of a budget gap, voted to forego its members’ stipends for the rest of the fiscal year.
The Westfield State University CFO resigns in the wake of the Dobelle scandal.
HEALTH CARE
Paul Levy bemoans the state of health care reporting in the media, claiming many are missing key stories such as the state of robotic surgery business.
TRANSPORTATION
Metrowest, with the possible exception of Framingham, gets excited about South Station expansion.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Back to the future: New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Bl asio taps former Boston, Los Angeles, and New York City police commissioner William Bratton to head the NYPD again. Here is the Associated Press report .
It turns out President Obama lived for a few weeks with his wayward Kenyan uncle, Onyango Obama , in his Cambridge apartment in the 1980s. Two years ago the White House released a statement suggesting the two had never met.
MEDIA
CommonWealth has the Inside Track (pun intended) on the meeting between Boston Herald publisher Pat Purcell and the Globe ’s new owner, John Henry.
There are indications that China is preparing to expel reporters for the New York Times and Bloomberg, Global Post reports.
