Jim Gordon May Have an Answer to our Energy Problems

Jim Gordon has a vision. It moves him so much that he abandoned his chair about an hour ago and paces the corridors and rooms of his Boston offices. He stops at a map of Cape Cod and taps his finger in the middle of Nantucket Sound. He wants you to understand why it's the perfect site for America's first offshore wind farm. "Nobody will ever embargo it, nobody will ever manipulate it," Gordon says. "This is our own domestic resource we're blessed to have off of the coast here. We're hoping Cape Wind can inspire other communities to look at their indigenous energy resources."

Here, near the coastline where the Pilgrims first beheld the New World, this former fossil fuel power plant tycoon wants to pioneer a new era in renewable energy. His $1 billion Cape Wind project would be America's first offshore wind farm, with 130 turbines, each higher than a 40-story building, turning the inexhaustible ocean breezes into enough clean energy to supply three quarters of the electricity needs of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket -- all with zero emissions of air pollution, no wastewater discharge, and probably even a reduction in electricity rates for customers.

For all of those reasons, wind is one of the fastest growing sources of renewable energy. And yet, the industry has remained landlocked in the U.S. Gordon is risking his personal fortune and reputation to lead it offshore -- and if he succeeds, he is likely to have far-reaching effects on the future of renewables. But that success is far from guaranteed because there's one major item in the negative column: the storms that come from shore. For six years, Gordon has weathered a political tsunami of opposition because he wants to erect one of the world's largest collections of wind turbines smack dab in the middle of one of the East Coast's most prominent summer playgrounds. He's been lambasted by Ted Kennedy on the Senate floor, sued, targeted by political dirty tricks, lampooned in cartoons, sued again, and pilloried as a killer of birds, a despoiler of the environment, and a greedy developer. Wait, isn't he supposed to be the environmentalist? His opponents even tried to blow him out of the water with an act of Congress. By all odds, Gordon should be sunk by now. Yet here he stands, after repelling more shots than Old Ironsides, the famous warship anchored a few miles away in Boston Harbor. Gordon has already sunk $25 million into this project, watched his costs double and still hasn't got his permits, financing, or agreements from utilities to buy the power.

But he does have his vision. Today is the kind of hot summer day when fossil fuel peaking plants are fired up to meet the demand. Offshore, the winds are blowing and -- this part drives Gordon crazy -- nobody is capturing them. And here's Jimmy, tapping his finger on Nantucket Sound. Gordon, 53, speaks in a thick Boston accent so the word milieu comes out as "mill-yer." His manner is deliberate, even plodding -- his wife describes him as the tortoise that beats the hare -- yet there's a boulder-rolling-down-the-hill momentum that gathers behind him as he becomes electrified by his own vision. His eyes become ablaze behind his round glasses and he jangles coins in the pockets of his linen pants as he paces. Here comes Hurricane Katrina again. "The most urgent environmental problem facing the Cape and Islands is that it's a low lying coastal community, like New Orleans," says Gordon, hand sweeping over the map like a giant tidal wave. "There's the threat of climate change, with more intense and frequent storms, rising sea levels that are already, according to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, eroding precious beaches on the Cape and Islands. Insurance companies are pulling out of the Cape and Islands. Look, how many billions of dollars of damage was done in New Orleans?"

Understand?

"We have got to do projects like Cape Wind," he concludes. "We have got to start transitioning away from fossil fuels to a more sustainable energy and environmental future."

Can You Sell?

Jim Gordon is traveling back to his past. He's behind the wheel of his Audi Quattro, empty child seat in the back, pulling out of a garage in his Beacon Hill neighborhood. He glides past Boston Commons and the brownstone mansions of Commonwealth Avenue. He's in rewind mode, passing the landmarks of his life, and explaining how he got to wind. "For some people, the whole thing is to put as much money on the scoreboard as possible," says Gordon. "I think if you don't obsess about that, and put yourself to work on some good and worthy things, it comes back to you in many ways."