As the long battle over a proposed wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts inches towards a conclusion, project supporters won an important, albeit, symbolic victory on November 4th, as Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly voiced their approval of what would be the country's first offshore wind farm.

Eighty seven percent of voters in eleven Massachusetts towns in the south shore voted Yes on Question 4, a non-binding question that read:

"Should the state representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of legislation that would support the development of Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound and other possible future onshore and offshore wind power developments in Massachusetts?"

73,397 of the 84,417 voters who answered this question answered Yes.

The results of Question 4 are consistent with independent public opinion surveys carried out by the Civil Society Institute in March that found 86% statewide support for Cape Wind.

Question 4 on Cape Wind was included in the ballots of Massachusetts voters in the towns of: Braintree, Holbrook, Randolph, Cohasett, Hingham, Hull, Marshfield, Scituate, Hanover, Norwell and Rockland.

Several citizens organizations active in those communities worked together to collect the necessary signatures and compose the language of the ballot question, according to a release from Cape Wind.

The 130-turbine project still awaits final decisions from the state Energy Facilities Siting Board on a bundle of state permits and a final report from the Minerals Management Service on its federal environmental impact statement. Final regulatory decisions are expected to be delivered by the end of the year.

Image: Christopher Owen Jones via flickr under a Creative Commons License