Backers and opponents of Cape Wind, the large renewable energy project eyed for Nantucket Sound, each took solace in remarks Wednesday by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who met with project stakeholders in Washington and said his office wouldn’t make a decision on whether to permit the project until March 1.
“I have not reached a decision on which way we will go,” Salazar said during a conference call, adding, “We will bring this process to conclusion. Nine years after an application process for permits from the United States government, to have it continue to face a future of uncertainty is bad for everyone involved.”
Salazar described the meeting with stakeholders as a “formal consultation” that will kick off a public comment period expected to last through Feb. 12. At the meeting backers and opponents of the project offered “mitigation” ideas that could make the process acceptable to both sides, but differences remain.
Opponents of the project have proposed an alternative site for the project, south of Tuckernuck Island, which is adjacent to Nantucket. The alternate site is about three miles off Tuckernuck, in an offshore area between the south-facing shores of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.
Critics of the project were heartened by news last week that National Park Services declared Nantucket Sound is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, a determination that the opponents say should prompt the denial or relocation of the wind turbine project.
The National Park Service said its keeper of the register had determined the sound’s eligibility based on its significance as a “traditional cultural property and as an historic and archeological property” based on its associations with the ancient and historic period Native American exploration and settlement of Cape Cod and the Islands, and with events central to the Wampanoag Tribe.
In November, the state’s historic preservation officer, Brona Simon, declared Nantucket Sound as a historically significant area due to its association with Native American exploration and its connection to the Wampanoag Tribe. Simon’s ruling added additional regulatory hurdles for the developer. Salazar’s office described Simon’s findings as a “well documented opinion.” His office says recent samplings in the Sound have detected “new and highly significant additional evidence” of ancient terrestrial soils, including preserved wood and seeds, “dating to the Early and Middle Archaic periods.”
Audra Parker, president of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, said Salazar identified two potential outcomes: a memorandum of understanding that she said might include an alternative project location or a termination of the process with Salazar either approving or denying the Cape Wind project.
“It was more of a listening session I’d have to say,” said Parker. “He was very committed to respecting the tribes, very interested in what they had to say.”
During the conference call, Salazar said an alternate site would likely force developers to restart their federal application, a daunting prospect that state energy officials understood to mean that Salazar wants to work with the project in its current location. But in a line harnessed by project opponents, Salazar also downplayed Cape Wind’s importance as a bellwether of the future of wind energy along the East Coast, saying his department is adding megawatts of renewable energy “by the hundreds” each month. Even if Cape Wind is unsuccessful, he said, other projects were bound to emerge.
Project opponents with the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound say the alternate site has been vetted and could host a wind farm similar to Cape Wind, which would feature 130 turbines, “but with far fewer adverse impacts.” The organization also says the project could be eligible for tax exempt public bonds to offset “marginal increases to construction costs at the new location.” The group says the compromise has been endorsed by federally recognized tribes seeking to have Nantucket Sound listed in the National Register of Historic Places based on its cultural significance, an effort strongly opposed by the Patrick administration.
The alliance says compromise site supporters include Sen. Paul Kirk, Congressman William Delahunt, state Sen. Robert O'Leary, state Reps. Jeff Perry and Demetrius Atsalis, and former Rep. Eric Turkington, as well as local towns and regional ferry operators, marine trade organizations, airport officials in Barnstable, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, commercial and recreational fishing organizations, the Cape and Islands Chamber of Commerce and local environmental groups.
Cape Wind developer Jim Gordon told reporters in a conference call that he’s sought to work reasonably with project opponents, offering a slew of measures aimed at making the project more acceptable. Among the measures, he said, were offers to reduce the number of wind turbines to 130 from 170, change the color of the turbine paint to make them harder to see from the shore, to set aside funds for historic preservation in the area, and to reconfigure the turbines to make them more ecologically sensitive.
Environmental League of Massachusetts executive director George Bachrach added that he believed local Indian tribes had been “used” by Cape Wind opponents. “All of us are dismayed they allowed themselves to be used in this fashion to attempt to delay a project that is so necessary [for energy independence],” Bachrach said.
Project backers also worried that the defeat of Cape Wind would ward off other potential renewable energy investors as the industry flourishes elsewhere.
MassAudubon, a prominent environmental advocacy organization, weighed in Wednesday afternoon, saying Cape Wind would be a boon for global renewable energy markets.
“Cape Wind should begin to open up global markets for offshore renewable energy in this country and smooth the way for other offshore proposals in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes,” said Jack Clarke, Mass Audubon’s director of public policy and government relations. “Wind resources in these three regions alone are capable of providing 900,000 megawatts of electricity – an amount equivalent to the nation’s current total installed capacity.”
Gov. Deval Patrick has been pushing throughout his term for the advancement of the wind farm on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound.
Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles said that even if America’s energy future doesn’t hinge on Cape Wind, the long fought-over project has “has taken on a symbolic value that’s beyond its importance in terms of megawatts generated.”
“It is the only commercial wind project that has the potential to be built in President Obama’s first term,” Bowles told the News Service. “It would be in construction next year.”
Projects in Delaware, Rhode Island and New Jersey, he said, haven’t begun federal review processes yet. He said Salazar’s focus on Cape Wind is “very auspicious for the project.”
