Federal agency finds little fault with Cape Wind plan
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Cape Wind Associates' wind turbine plan for Nantucket Sound got a major lift with the release of a Minerals Management Service report that said the project would have negligible to minor impacts on the environment.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement issued by the federal agency on Jan. 14 at 11 a.m., said in its executive summary that most of the impacts of the wind turbines on the environment, and the region in general, would be negligible, minor and, in some cases, moderate.

It's been seven years since Cape Wind Associates announced its aim to plant 130 3.6-megawatt turbines on Horseshoe Shoal. Cape Wind hopes to begin construction in 2009 and to have the wind farm online as early as 2010.

The wind farm, Cape Wind attests, will generate a maximum of 468 megawatts of electricity for Cape and islands ratepayers, with an average of 182.6 megawatts, while removing 880,000 tons of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere per year and loosening dependence on fossil fuels. The Minerals Management Service appears to believe that Cape Wind's project is on the right track.

Among the 27 resource categories that the MMS said would be affected - including noise, air quality, water quality, marine mammals, fisheries, recreation and tourism, air traffic, and communication - almost all were rated with negligible or minor operational impact. However, operation impact categories covering marine birds, visual resources, competing water uses and vessel traffic received the negligible to moderate, minor to moderate and moderate ratings. Cape Wind President Jim Gordon was understandably elated with the MMS findings.

"We have had an opportunity to look at this report this morning and we are extremely pleased that this report shows that Cape Wind will not produce adverse negative impacts on the environment, on tourism, property values, sea or air navigation," Gordon said at a press conference held on Monday afternoon at Cape Wind's office in Boston. "On the other hand, after seven years of effort and reports from the Army Corps of Engineers, which is a 4,000-page report sitting on this table, and the Massachusetts Final Environmental Impact Report, as well as the Massachusetts Energy Facility Siting Board, we do know that Cape Wind will produce significant public interest benefits in terms of cleaner, healthier environment, increased energy independence, new green color jobs, as well as being, according to the National Resource Defense Council, the largest single greenhouse gas reduction initiative in the United States."

Opponents of the project, namely the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound and its CEO, Glenn Wattle, found many holes to poke in the MMS report, including environmental and economic concerns. Wattley said the report's conclusions are inconsistent with what is actually in the DEIS.

"We see many different conclusions," said Wattley. "The one that is a big issue is economics. This report shows the project at twice the market [cost of wholesale electricity], so this whole question of how much will our electric bills be going up, Cape Wind still hasn't answered that question. They keep avoiding that question.

"The Alliance will continue to hire experts and analyze the issue. The public needs to know that even though the wind is free, Cape Wind electricity is very expensive."

Nantucketers will get their chance to tell the MMS what they think at one of four regional hearings scheduled for March 11 at 5 p.m. at the Nantucket High School Auditorium. To download or read the DEIS, check out the following Web

site: www.mms.gov. I