We interviewed former gubernatorial candidate, businessman, and man-about-the-state Christy Mihos. Mihos has taken an active role against Cape Wind, the proposal to install wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, and he has offered an alternate proposal to install wind turbines at his chain of convenience stores. We told him up front that we were pro-Cape Wind, but we've run a lot of pro-Cape Wind posts, and we wanted to give him equal time to talk about his perspective. Later in the interview, we also discuss his recovery from cancer.

What is your position toward Cape Wind?

I serve as co-chairman with Bill Koch on the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, and I have some very definite issues with the project. I always go back to my old quote: "If you like the Big Dig, you'll love Cape Wind."

Describe for us your proposal for putting the turbines up at Christy's of Cape Cod (Mihos' convenience stores).

We have a number of our stores on the Cape that are well located so they can pick up wind. Knots on the wind down here would be 15 knots basically, almost year-round, whether it comes from the southwest in the summertime or the northwest in the wintertime. They're perfectly situated. So what we decided was, at our own expense, without government subsidies, is that we are going to take each location on top of the gasoline canopies, which are held up by anywhere from 6 to 8 steel columns that are approximately 12 inches by 12 inches and go 4 feet into the ground. And they're anchored by 4 feet of concrete. We're going to affix to them a wind turbine. Of all names, it's called a Swift turbine. [Note: Acting governor Jane Swift fired Mihos from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority in 2001, so we can see why he would find this amusing.] We are seeking to power up a significant portion of the utility costs that we pay each and every month. We have four turbines per store - that's 8 to 10 thousand kilowatt hours annually.

Right now, our average cost per store is anywhere from 35 to 45 thousand dollars annually in utility charges. So we think that we can get a decent payback and utilize an alternative energy source, but we're looking to do that on land, at our own expense. We are going through a process of applying to each town because each town has promulgated its own regulations. We're going through that diligently with the towns. We've already received three towns, they've given us the go-ahead. We picked up two permits. It's a long process, but we're willing to take it.

So this is full speed ahead. You're going to do this whether or not Cape Wind flies?

Absolutely. I am pro-wind. And this is a wonderful way to do it, as a private businessperson on property that we own and control. It makes sense certainly. I'm not looking to you or anybody for taxpayer funding or anything. I'm not looking to take 25 square miles of Nantucket Sound, the people's land. You know, I'm looking to do it because it makes good business sense to me.

More interview after the jump! Image of Christy Mihos from Wikipedia.

When would your turbines be up? When is the target date?

In about 10 days, we take delivery of the first four that are going to be put at a site at West Yarmouth that has great wind - summer, fall, winter, spring.

Soon, then? In a few months?

Sure. In three weeks, we hope to have the first installed, and we'll go three weeks after that with another one. These permits fall in line and are approved at the local level. We'll keep working at it.

Government permits work that fast? That's impressive!

You know what it is? The towns have promulgated their own regulations. We're willing to comply with what the towns say, unlike Cape Wind, where nothing is promulgated as yet. They're looking to create their own rules. Ours is very different. We have to wait for the towns to promulgate their own rules and standards, and we're certainly willing to go with that.

So West Yarmouth just happened to be the first [town to approve Mihos' turbine plan]?

It did. And the town is certainly pro-wind, but the town is anti-Cape Wind because there is no direct benefit to anyone other than a private developer who is going to get 1.1 billion dollars in taxpayer subsidies in a noncompetitive bid situation.

Why is it a noncompetitive bid situation? Are there any other competitors to Jim Gordon [the business leader backing the Cape Wind proposal]?

There's no bid process at all. This particular individual has lawyered up and got his lobbyists and all, and they are in a process now with the federal government to try to win control of 25 square miles of the people's land. There is no competitive bidding process, and that's why I liken it to the Big Dig. Whether you're Bechtel Parsons Brinkerhoff or you're Cape Wind, if there's no competitive process, it all inures to the benefit of one. Unfortunately, it is not something that inures to the benefit of the taxpayer.

What did you think of the Daily Show segment?

It was pretty funny, and that is what it was meant to be, tongue-in-cheek. I watched it and laughed like everybody else. It's sort of prophetic in just the way the Big Dig has come out in that you see it happening, and you can't believe it. But I thought that it took some nice swipes at everybody, and it is what it is.

One of the points that they made in their segment and a point that is in Cape Wind is the theme of visual pollution on the part of the opponents. Is that part of it for you? Or are you mainly concerned with the impact on the taxpayer? What is your personal, main concern about Cape Wind?

Who's going to even see it out there? Who cares about seeing it or what it looks like? My issue is, and I said it many times when I was running for governor, is, if this belonged to the people, if the people were going to get the direct benefit of it and not a private developer, if the state and federal government didn't have to hand out 1.1 billion dollars in taxpayer subsidies and the people were to control it, I would be for it. But assuming all the other risks were abated, the safety risks and the environmental risks of having 40,000 gallons of transformer oil in the middle of Nantucket Sound, some of the avian issues are very near and dear to people, and the fact that there are going to be 100 miles of cable laid out on a prime fishing site and a prime recreational site in Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound. Who cares about what it looks like? It is the fact that, to me, seeing the ugly underbelly of the Big Dig, this is a taxpayer ripoff like I've never seen. It's been elevated to a level of a politically correct type of thing, like we're going to solve global warming and our reliance on foreign oil with Cape Wind. That is just a fallacy, and they're playing on it big-time. The other issue is, the only way they can fight back at any opponent of the project is to get personal. The Wendy Williams book … these personal attacks, each and every day. The people living on the ocean as opposed to the people living inland? Well, anytime it's gone to any vote on any one of the towns here in Cape Cod, it's been voted against. Even the new poll they were heralding last week, 61 people in the Cape were polled. The people see it here as a threat to the economy because it's a tourism economy. And even the Cape Wind developer last weekend at a debate in Brewster said on a direct question that it would bring 50 jobs to the Cape. Fifty jobs to Cape Cod to monitor and run Cape Wind. The Beacon Hill Institute basically said in an independent study that it would cause us to lose about 25,000 tourist-based jobs here in the Cape, and right now, that's the biggest industry down here, so we are looking to protect what the Cape is.

Can anyone go boating in Horseshoe Shoal? That's not blocked off to the people?

Horseshoe Shoal is one of the most fished areas on the Cape, in Nantucket Sound. It's a prime fishing area, it's a prime recreational boating area. To some, it's as close as they're going to get to Disneyworld or Disneyland. It's inexpensive. It's 5 to 15 miles off the coast here, and it's a beautiful place. For this particular developer, the allure is it's so shallow, so Cape Wind's costs would be that much less, bringing the cables in from Horseshoe Shoal into the town of Barnstable. Barnstable filed suit against Cape Wind a couple days ago. They don't want it. They don't want it because they see it as a threat to their economy, to the job force, to the real-estate values, to the town, to the fishing industry that we depend on down here.

You're pretty popular with Bostonist. Last year's gubernatorial debates were way more fun because of you! (Seriously, readers, if you did not see Mihos taking on Kerry Healey in the debates, you missed out.)

I had a great time. I can always go to my deathbed saying I ran in the finals for the governor of my home state. It was so worthwhile - I highly recommend it. There's nothing negative about it; it's only positive. I had a great time, and I hope you were entertained and that you found it a little bit different.

It was! Are you planning on running for governor again?

My wife has a lot to say about that, and my family does, too. We'll see.

How is your health? [Mihos recently underwent treatment for prostate cancer and skin cancer.]

Last week, I got my final pathology tests and my blood tests back, and I'm a double cancer survivor as of last week. I lucked out. What a great place to live in Massachusetts, where you can get the best healthcare in the best hospitals with the best doctors. I call it the "gift of cancer," when you sort of sit back, you get it, it takes a few months to go through the surgeries and everything. It was an experience I'll never forget. It changes you.

How so?

There's not any more gray in life. Everything is in black and white. You don't want to waste your time on things that are not meaningful, that are not important, because you get hit in the head with a brick by a couple of doctors telling you that you have cancer and they've gotta go get it now. Life becomes much dearer and more sweet, so you don't want to waste it on things that don't matter.