BOSTON, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- A National Grid wind power project proposed in Massachusetts would raise electric bills up to 2.3 percent, an attorney from the electric company said.
National Grid attorney Ron Gerwatowski said rates for Massachusetts commercial and industrial customers would rise 1.9 percent to 2.3 percent with the 468 megawatt capacity Cape Wind project proposed for an Atlantic Ocean address off the island of Nantucket.
"There's an environmental policy being advanced on behalf of all our customers," a Boston Herald report Monday quoted Gerwatowski as saying.
But many are concerned about the new rates that would result from a project Gov. Deval Patrick spokesman Robert Keough said would have costs shared across the state and was for "the public good."
"As they say, there are lies, damned lies and statistics. This is a very expensive project," energy analyst Robert McCullough said.
A small retail business would pay an additional $1,200 a year for power coming from Cape Wind while a large company, such as paper mill Erving Paper would pay an additional $114,000 a year, the Herald said.
The owner of Erving Paper, Morris Housen, said he used to "look at Cape Wind and think, 'Oh, wind power, that's great.'
"I don't say that anymore. Cape Wind is going to cost us significantly more," Housen said.
Electricity from Cape Wind is expected to cost 18.7 per kilowatt hour in its first year of operation, 2013. By comparison, TransCanada Energy, owner of wind turbines in Maine, recently said it would sell wind-generated electricity to National Grid for less than 11 cents per kilowatt hour, the Herald reported.
