Beth Daley and Martin Finucane
The Boston Globe
4/28/2010
In a groundbreaking decision that some say will usher in a new era of clean energy, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said today he had approved the nation’s first offshore wind farm, the controversial Cape Wind project off of Cape Cod.
“This will be the first of many projects up and down the Atlantic coast,” Salazar said at a joint State House news conference with Governor Deval Patrick. The decision comes after nine years of battles over the proposal.
A map of the wind farm area.
“America needs offshore wind power and with this project, Massachusetts will lead the nation,” Patrick said.
The decision had been delayed for almost a year because of two Wampanoag Native American tribes’ complaints that the 130 turbines, which would stand more than 400 feet above the ocean surface, would disturb spiritual sun greetings and possibly ancestral artifacts and burial grounds on the seabed. The ocean floor was once exposed land before the sea level rose thousands of years ago.
Salazar said he had ordered modifications to “minimize and mitigate” the impact of the project that would “help protect the historical, cultural, and environmental resources of Nantucket Sound.” He said his approval would require the project developer, Cape Wind Associates, to conduct additional marine archaeological surveys and take other steps to reduce the project’s visual impact.
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