No more delays for Cape Wind

My only comment after reading today's New York Times editorial on Cape Wind is an enthusiastic "Amen". (GW)

Wind Power

New York Times
Editorial
January 9, 2010

Ken Salazar, the interior secretary, has decided that nine years of wrangling over a proposed wind farm off the Massachusetts coast must come to an end — even if it requires his personal intervention. This is the best news this controversial, yet important, project has received in a long time.

Having endured endless state and federal reviews and ferocious opposition from local homeowners who don’t like the idea of 130 wind turbines interrupting their views of Nantucket Sound, Cape Wind had moved closer to final approval. Then came complaints from two American Indian tribes in Massachusetts that the turbines would interfere with their spiritual greeting of the sunrise and disturb ancestral burial grounds, now underwater.

The tribes asked that all of Nantucket Sound be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the National Park Service agreed that they had a case.

On Monday, a clearly exasperated Mr. Salazar gave the contending parties — the developers, the tribes, the agencies and the State of Massachusetts, which supports the project — a March 1 deadline to resolve their differences. He said if they could not, he would make the decision himself.

Mr. Salazar has not tipped his hand, but he is a big fan of alternative energy sources, and it would be astonishing if he did not allow this worthy project to succeed. It is the only offshore wind farm with any chance of completion in the next several years, and getting it under way would send a signal to the world of America’s resolve to combat global warming and reduce its oil dependency by developing alternative fuels.

Cape Wind and its 130 turbines would be located in what may be the most propitious offshore site in the country: shallow water protected from heavy waves; strong, steady winds; and proximity to consumers and industries that would benefit from its power. We hope the administration can persuade the various sides to quickly reach a compromise that preserves the core of the project. If not, Mr. Salazar can and should decide on his own to allow Cape Wind to proceed.