Cape Spin: An American Power Struggle

Sunday January 22, 2012 AT 10:00 PM ET/PT on CBC News Network

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Cape Spin! An American Power Struggle is the surreal, fascinating, tragicomic tale of the battle over what would be the largest clean energy project in the United States. The money flies as the spin doctors set to work, maneuvering to win over the media, state and federal politicians and public opinion.

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Opponents protesting at MMS hearing
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Proposed in 2001, Cape Wind would be North America’s first offshore wind farm – built in the famed waters around wealthy Cape Cod. 
Along the way, strange alliances form for and against.  Long-time green warriors fight for a massive ocean-based industrial facility; fossil fuel interests ally with fisherman; local conservationists war with global environmentalists; Republicans and Democrats waltz across the party lines. And the local Native American tribes... offer a series of surprises. Kennedys, Kochs, and everyday folks continue – to this day – to battle the developer, Jim Gordon, and local and international green groups over the future of American power.

Featuring Senator Ted Kennedy, environmentalist Robert Kennedy, Jr., Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, fossil-fuel magnate Bill Koch, former Greenpeace USA president, John Passacantando, US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Providence Journal Editor Robert Whitcomb, the long-time Cape Wind beat reporters from the Boston Globe, Cape Cod Times and NPR, community leaders, everyday citizens and the major players from both sides, Cape Spin is the definitive account of the tumultuous decade-long-and-counting struggle over America's most controversial energy project. It is essential  viewing for anyone fascinated by Power, in all senses of the word.

And while the action centers in one of America's wealthiest communities – Cape Cod and the islands off the coast of Massachusetts – the lessons in green realpolitik can be applied all over the U.S. and the world as the Cape Spin! saga is repeated again and again in the years to come.

Five years in the making, Cape Spin! was shot in the trenches with cameras embedded deep inside the battle lines. Because of its commitment to impartial storytelling, full access to all sides, satiric soundtrack, and "electric" storytelling technique, Cape Spin  “proves that environmental films can be seriously funny crowd pleasers and about much more than just the environment."