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3Qs with Peter Mandelstam, BlueWater Wind

Prominent supporters of renewable energy make strange bedfellows.  What other cause could unite a former Texas oil tycoon, an Oakland-based community activist, and the billionaire mayor of New York?

Each is driven by a unique hierarchy of goals, including weaning the U.S. from dependence on foreign oil, reigniting the country’s manufacturing sector, creating fair-wage jobs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and, in at least one case, ensuring a long-lasting political career.

Peter Mandelstam, the founder and president of BlueWater Wind, a company that develops offshore wind farms in the Northeast, came to the green movement through what might be termed “environmental altruism” — the desire to heal the wrongs done to the planet.  He founded the Solar Technology Institute, a nonprofit that worked to get solar panels installed in developing countries.  But in the mid 1990s, he began to consider the economics of renewable resources.  He didn’t foresee the cost savings associated with solar power to reach the potential scale of wind.

“I was interested in improving the lives of the greatest number of people,” he said.

“In 1998, the entire wind industry was producing just 11 megawatts of electricity.  Last year, it was more than 5,200.  It’s gone from a tiny, fringe, alternative source to a mainstream utility of scale.  It’s the very thing I wanted to happen.  I’m proud that the work we do [at BlueWater Wind] is part of this larger movement.”

Today, BlueWater provides “tens of thousands” of coastal residents with access to clean, renewable power, at a cost that doesn’t fluctuate.  Mr. Mandelstam is a leading figure in the wind industry.  He regularly appears before Congress to advocate for tax benefits for wind power, and to remind law-makers that while the rising price of energy matters, it’s the “capital ‘C’ Costs” of energy sources that we must also take into account: energy security, the assault on the planet, and public health problems associated with environmental issues, like high rates of asthma.

As an environmental activist, businessman, and policy advocate, Mr. Mandelstam exemplifies 21st century climate leadership.

1. What was your environmental epiphany?

I remember the date of the article — September 11, 1989 — it was in The New Yorker.  Bill McKibben, “The End of Nature.”  It was the most unique modern-day philosophical meditation on the environment, comparable to Silent Spring [a 1962 book by Rachel Carson] and Thoreau.  It changed my life.  I realized the Earth is in deep trouble and I started working in the environmental field.

2. Who or what are you inspired by right now in the green movement?

All of my life, I’ve been inspired by Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, political leaders who understood every voice counts and who built movements based on concerted action.  I’m inspired by 19th century naturalists, Thoreau and Emerson.  And in the modern environmental movement, Bill McKibbens got me started.  And Al Gore is inspiring.  I recently reread Earth in the Balance and was again impressed by how ahead of his time he was. Recently, at a small event, I had 5 or 6 minutes with him.  I told him I’d reread the book and I mentioned the problems he had warned we’d be facing — more intense storms, energy security. He smiled — he knew I really had read it.  I give him credit for being right and being early.

3. What are three ways you actively reduce your carbon footprint and one way you don’t?

I drive a Prius and take mass transportation to work.  I buy 100% wind energy to power the office.  I’m a vegetarian.  And as for what I don’t do — I take airplanes for long distances, though for my frequent trips to Delaware [where BlueWater is developing a 450 MW wind farm project], I travel by train.

Photo of Mr. Mandelstam via NPR.

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October 12, 2008

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