Cape Wind, the proposed offshore wind farm near Cape Cod, Massachusetts has won final regulatory approval from the Obama administration.
In what might signal the end of a nine-year long battle for the first offshore wind farm in the United States, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today announced the approval of the 468-megawatt Cape Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts. The decision came at the end of a regulatory and legal process that involved virtually every local, state and federal governing body imaginable, will likely still face legal challenges from opponents including the deep-pocketed Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.
The most recent regulatory hurdle came at the hands of the Wampanoag Indian Tribe, which claimed that Horseshoe Shoal, where the project will be located, is the site of ancient burial grounds and a site of important cultural significance for the Tribe.
Salazar said steps would be taken to "minimize and mitigate" the impact of the project that would "help protect the historical, cultural, and environmental resources of Nantucket Sound."
When completed, the project will have the potential to generate 75 percent of the Cape & islands energy needs -- not only in the winter months when the wind resource is strongest, but as was was shown last year, Cape Wind will also be an integral part of smoothing out peak Summer demand.
"This will be the first of many projects up and down the Atlantic coast," Salazar said at a joint State House news conference with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
Unsurprisingly, Cape Wind supporters were elated with the decision.
“A new offshore wind industry in America is launched today with this decision," said Pam Solo, president, Civil Society Institute. "This is an enormous accomplishment and is as much a victory for citizen participation as it is for clean energy.”
Clean Power Now Executive Director Barbara Hill said Salazar's announcement represented a "landmark decision" that would establish the "region as a national model of sustainability and a clean energy future.”
Despite the fact that 87% of Massachusetts voters support Cape Wind, the country's newest Senator, Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts, went on record criticizing Salazar's decision, calling it "misguided" -- a move he may come to regret if his prognostications do not come to fruition.
"With unemployment hovering near ten percent in Massachusetts, the Cape Wind project will jeopardize industries that are vital to the Cape's economy, such as tourism and fishing, and will also impact aviation safety and the rights of the Native American tribes in the area," Brown said in a statement.
Cape Wind will hold a press conference at 2:15 pm (EDT) to announce the project details and the plan moving forward.
Photo credit: Geograph Ireland under Creative Commons License
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And just think! This is a perpetual, or renewable resource! This site can produce at this rate as long as maintenance goes on! We are richer in America by this! Guess what, his site will not fill the waters with oil from poorly designed well-heads either! The local industries have little to fear and much to gain by this, a first step for America towards the convulsive paradigm shift from a foreign liquid energy based economy to a domestic perpetual, or renewable electric energy based economy! America! Hang onto your hats the revolution has begun! Solar, Wave, Wind, Hydro, Tidal, and Geothermal resources are in vogue, and the oil boys are on the run! Look at the ruination they are causing in the Gulf as we speak! Not a win -win for America at all, but an opportunity for big oil to use its bean-counters and lawyers to use the courts to get out of this jamb! Exxon Valdez victims, Canadian natives, are still in the never-never land of the courts awaiting less than ten cents on the dollar for damages twenty years ago! Corporate lawyers screwed them but good! The Corporatists have beaten them down to a broke, disappointed, clump, of big-time court losers over the years! Watch the same corporatist tactics on the gulf – small fishers, ruined and waiting in court until old age to get very little back after expensive lawyers fees they cannot afford – many will give up, broke, and disappointed in Democracy altogether! Watch this happen! Mark my words! America, screwed again by Big Oil Corporatists – they are too big even for Obama to fight and they will have their way! Meanwhile, the Wind turbines spin eternally with the wind, creating real wealth with every turn – slowly supporting a nation in need of cheap energy without hurting anything, way to go. America!
I think you post is presumptuous at best and ill-informed at worst. The endless corruption, greed, and lies that have been at play since the proposal of the Cape Wind project are appalling. The negative environmental impacts that will stem from this offshore wind farm far outweigh the positives.
I’m all for positive alternative energy but this project is also placing a three story transformer in our ocean that, as transformers have a frequent tendency to do, will blow up and spread harmful toxins, such as oil, into our oceans anyway. It poses a significant danger to the migratory patterns of marine life that are already crippled by increasingly intensifying radar installations on naval vessels.
Additionally, this project also poses a grave danger to the local fishing industry. As I’m quite confident that you are unaware or too naive to know, fishermen operate their boats using a technique called “TROLLING,” of which I am sure you are unfamiliar. This technique is employed when the operator of the boat fishes off the back of the boat without steering. This, if you could so deduce, places the fisherman in harms way because these PRIVATELY HELD wind turbines, each standing higher than the empire state building, pose a significant GROUNDING risk in both fair weather and in the fog.
Lastly, and if this retort is not sufficient please let me know and i will sufficiently counter again, but if you believe BP has been far from trustworthy in their spill, look more closely at what this private investor has done to get HIS project passed. Bribes, bribes and more bribes to help him retain federal PROTECTED WATERS so that he would not have to PAY for the land (our ocean) and have free rein over the natural resources that I, and apparently you do not, hold dear.
Not only that but what happens when your energy bills go up ten cents per kilowatt hour due to this installation, o wait, your probably in the midwest and far from these harmful ramifications much like our beloved president.
But if you’ve enjoyed my entry and possibly learned something of this matter I am happy to continue discussing it further with you. Again, believe in alternative energies, just not harmful, criminal actions at the expense of the environment.
“Anti-uncle B”-
1. The fishing practice you write of is actually “trawling” (not trolling) and it is probably the most destructive form of commercial fishing ever devised by humans (short of dynamite). If you are concerned about marine life, your primary concern should be working to stop this environmentally-devastating commercial fishing practice.
2. Do you have any evidence to the claim that Cape Wind bribed state or federal officials to win approval for the project? If so, I’d love to see these.
3. Yes, electricity rates will go up in Massachusetts. But, as you are probably aware, electricity rates are already rising faster there than the national average. Massachusetts already has some of the highest electricity rates in the country, mostly because producers have to important expensive fossil fuels. The idea behind the state’s surcharge added to the cost of renewable energy is that in the long term it will drive the cost of renewables down and potentially stabilize electricity prices.
Surely the gulf of mexico would be better suited for an offshore turbine farm?, the lubrication costs and impact on the enviroment would be minimal as everything flying will be dead soon anyway.
I am for renewable energy and certainly am all for ending a dependence on foreign oil but the ones who are for this are either profiting from it or do not live on the shoreline and do not have to live with it themselves. Its always easy to cheer lead when you don’t even know all the facts or have to live with the consequences.
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