Bookmark and Share

  • Offshore energy projects have a range of potential impacts on the coastal resource areas, including the shoreline, the sea itself, and the seabed, and on economically important species that depend on these habitats. Learn More
  • From the bottom up, the construction and operation of Cape Wind's 25 square mile industrial plant threatens benthic, marine, and avian species. In addition to the lengthy and destructive construction process that would include dredging and jet plowing. Learn More
  • "The ocean and bays that surround us are perhaps our town's most important and defining natural resource and it is these unspoiled waters that are the very essence of Cape Cod. Learn More.
  • There are many ways you can voice your opinion on this issue. Request a lawn sign or stickers comments@saveoursound.org, or write a comment on an online news story. Learn More

 

       GET EMAIL UPDATES


The End Is Near for Cape Wind - Help Us Finish the Fight!

       After A Decade of Victories our goal in 2016 is to:

  • Terminate Cape Wind's lease to 46 square miles of Nantucket Sound through legal action. The lease runs to the year 2041!

  • Designate Nantucket Sound as a protected area and safeguard traditional uses like fishing and recreation but prohibit industrial development. Read More  


View from Hyannis Port

 

Recent News and Statements from Save Our Sound

BREAKING NEWS
Cape Cod Times - Letter to the Editor: Keep Up the Fight Against Cape Wind

Alliance Seeking Donations to Terminate Lease: Read More 

Cape Wind Drops Appeal: Cape Wind dropped their appeal of the state’s decision to deny their transmission line permits. This development allows us to now concentrate our efforts on eliminating Cape Wind’s federal lease to 46 square miles of Nantucket Sound, setting the stage for permanent protection of this unique and precious natural resource. We need your continued support to win! Link to State House News Service

Isn't Cape Wind Dead?

Cape Wind is not dead.  The private developer:

  • Still holds a federal lease to 46 square miles of Nantucket Sound, giving them authority to build the project or transfer the rights to another developer through the year 2041.
  • Has a proven track record of tenacity in protecting the $100 million they have invested trying to build 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound.
  • May benefit from a new political landscape as a result of the upcoming presidential election.
  • Can leverage a renewed emphasis on offshore wind development. Just this month, the Secretaries of Interior and Energy visited Massachusetts to announce an aggressive program to deploy 86,000 megawatts of offshore wind in U.S. waters by 2050.  

But with your support, the Alliance can finish the fight.

We are the only organization in place with the experience to both defeat Cape Wind and achieve
long-term protection for Nantucket Sound. Right now, Cape Wind is reeling from a series of major setbacks.  Today, we have the opportunity and the team in place to win.  With sufficient resources, we can terminate the lease through legal, regulatory, and legislative action to ensure we are never facing a revived project. We cannot secure the future of Nantucket Sound until we permanently defeat Cape Wind and attain protected status for these vulnerable waters.

Massachusetts House and Senate Energy Bill
The Alliance congratulates the Massachusetts House and Senate for passing an energy bill that supports only those offshore wind projects sited in locations where fishing, navigation, cultural, and environmental conflicts are minimized and where development rights were secured through competitive bidding.  While the energy bill calls for Massachusetts utilities to buy up to 1600 megawatts of offshore wind energy, it precludes projects in near-shore locations within 10 miles of an inhabited area. Statement from the Alliance

U.S. Court of Appeals - Victory for the Environment
July 5, 2016: "The U.S. Court of Appeals decision today is a victory for the fishermen, pilots, boaters, Native Americans, environmentalists, homeowners, towns, and businesses, which have fought to protect Nantucket Sound against Cape Wind for 15 years." 

"However, the Court today did not terminate Cape Wind's lease to 46 square miles of Nantucket Sound.  So long as that 28-year lease can be revived, Cape Wind's developers will continue to press ahead with attempts to either build their massive 130 turbine project or sell that lease to another potential developer."

Read the entire Statement from Audra Parker, Alliance President and CEO

Played this summer on local radio stations:

Don’t believe it.

Below the surface, Cape Wind continues to maneuver. Fighting on every front to bring their giant project back to life.

As the Boston Globe recently wrote, Cape Wind doesn’t give up easily. This destructive and expensive project is not dead.

The fact remains that Cape Wind holds a long-term lease to 46 square miles of Nantucket Sound. And only with your support can we keep battling to terminate the lease and protect the Sound so that it is never again threatened by industrial development.

Cape Wind is still out there.

Your support right now is critical. Because once Nantucket Sound is gone, it’s gone forever.

Listen Here: SOS 

Jobs: Cape Wind would not produce anything like the jobs its supporters promise, at least not in the U.S.

Cape Wind will only create 50 permanent jobs and at an outrageous $4.3 billion package of federal and state incentives, these permanent year round jobs would come at a taxpayer cost of $86 million per job! (Read what happened in Germany.)

Adverse Economic Impacts of Cape Wind

  • Cape Wind would result in a high net cost to the public due to duplicative subsidies and tax credits, increased electric costs, and negative impacts to tourism, jobs, and property values. 

  • The project would impose billions of dollars in additional electricity costs for businesses, households, and municipalities throughout Massachusetts.

  • Scores of commercial fishermen, who earn the majority of their income in the area of the proposed site, believe this project would displace commercial fishing and permanently threaten their livelihoods.

  • The decline in tourism would lead to the loss of up to 2,500 jobs, a reduction in tourist spending of $57 - $123 million, a related drop in output of $94 - $203 million, a drop in earnings of $28 - $61 million, & a $1.35 billion decline in property values. (Statistics provided by Beacon Hill Institute of Suffolk University) 

  • Projected Price of Electricity by Source: MA utilities will be purchasing green wind power from New Hampshire and Maine facilities at an average price of less than 8 cents per kWh vs. Cape Wind’s price of 19 cents per kWh rising to over 30 cents in the final year. No utility, business or consumer should be forced to underwrite a private developer at more than three times the cost of readily available green energy from other sources. Alliance Press Release, September 23, 2013

  • Go here for more information on cost, including a chart of Projected Energy Rates by Source.

The Endangered Species Act

Cape Wind would be a threat to endangered birds and marine life in Nantucket Sound.

July 5, 2016: U.S. Court of Appeals concluded that in issuing a
long-term lease to Cape Wind, the U.S. Dept of Interior violated both the National Environmental Policy Acts and the Endangered Species Act. As a result Cape Wind must supplement their Environmental Impact Staement. In addition, Cape Wind would need a permit under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Alliance Statement


The Cost to Birds: Read More 

                 

Fox News/ Associated Press, May 4, 2016: New Administration Rule Would Permit Thousands of Eagle Deaths at Wind Farms

Renewable Energy News: Bird Protections Create Legal Hurdles for Cape Wind (2016)      

    Piping Plovers and Roseate Terns at Risk in Nantucket Sound: Letter from Defenders of Wildlife to  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's "Determination of Reasonable and Prudent Measures" for Cape Wind, requiring the temporary and seasonal shut down of turbines during periods of highest threat to Roseate Terns and Piping Plovers.


The Cost to Endangered Right Whales
& Humpback Whales

Expanded Rules to Protect Right Whales: Proposal would enlarge critical habitat area. (February 2015)

Group Sues Federal Government - April 2014: A coalition of environmental and animal protection groups sued the federal government to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. Link to Press Release  
 

May 2016: Humpback Whale Feeding in Nantucket Sound off
Seagull Beach in West Yarmouth

 

June 2015: Humpback Whale puts on a show in Nantucket Sound

  
Photo by Blaise Flegg  Link to Video 


December 2014: Advisory issued after right whales sited in local waters

 


The Cost to Sharks, Leatherback Turtles, etc.
 

Leatherback turtle being rescued in Nantucket Sound

 
     

Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound         
YEAR IN REVIEW - 2015


Simulated View from the Centerville/Osterville Bridge
 

Challenges for Cape Wind

  • The developer of Cape Wind terminated contracts to buy land and facilities in Falmouth.

  • National Grid and NStar/Eversource (Northeast Utilities) terminated their contracts. Alliance Statement

  • The Quonset, Rhode Island lease was canceled.

  • The lease on New Bedford docks was canceled.

  • Cape Wind was suspended from participating in New England’s wholesale electricity markets by ISO New England. 

  • Significant legal appeals

  • Federal agencies violated Endangered Species Act and must go back to the drawing board to evaluate the impacts and protection measures for birds and right whales. Alliance Press Release, March 14, 2014

  • Cape Wind's "conditional" loan guarantees. Link

  • Cape Wind's pre-construction requirements are incomplete: seafloor survey work; avian baseline studies; authorization from National Marine Fisheries; numerous permits outlined in the Construction & Operation Plan.

  • Cape Wind's Determination of No Hazard to aviation safety expired.

  • Massachusetts EFSB denied Cape Wind's request for extension of vital permits.

  • U.S Court of Appeals concluded that Cape Wind must go back to the drawing board & supplement their Environmental Impact Statement, revisit measures to reduce mortality and injuries to endangered species, and procure a permit under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act before proceeding with the project.

  • MA Energy Bill bars Cape Wind from bidding on the offshore wind contracts.

  • Timeline of Cape Wind's Mounting Problems

       
  Google Earth : Cape Wind Project in
        Nantucket Sound          

        

Threat to Groundwater

December 2014 - The Town of Barnstable will be appealing the state’s approval of Cape Wind’s installation of new equipment at a switching station in Barnstable that would increase the amount of dielectric oil by 1,534 gallons. The town asked Cape Wind to install an oil containment system, similar to one at another NStar transformer in West Barnstable. “They refuse to do that here,” McLaughlin said, adding that if one gallon of oil makes it into the groundwater it has the potential to contaminate five million gallons of water. Cape Cod Times
 
     

Opposition to Cape Wind
Continues to Grow

Cape Cod Times Editorial Cheers and Jeers, September 2015: What about protecting Nantucket Sound?

The Latest Poll - 2015: A recent poll in the Cape Cod Times: Two to one are happy Cape Wind seems doomed.

UNH Survey - 2013: Support for Cape Wind is collapsing in MA, according to a survey conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. 

SOS Supporters - 2013: Alliance reports strong fundraising as Cape Wind opposition continues to grow as deadlines loom: Press Release

The Business Community - 2013: View ads in major newspapers sponsored by MACP (MA Competitive Partnership) & AIM (Associated Industries of MA).

  • June 13th in DC papers: Politico, The Hill, Roll Call. "Some Facts About The Cape Wind Project You May Not Know"
     
  • May 22nd: Cape Cod Times, Globe, Herald
     
  • New England Ratepayers Association mailed this informational postcard to 30,000 homes in MA:  "Don't let middle class taxpayers foot the bill for a risky, expensive, and unnecessary project." 

Recent Media

The News Services are not affiliated with
the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound  

Maritime Executive: Fishermen Object to New York Wind Farm Lease Sale

Cape Cod Times - Letter to the Editor: No Time to Breathe Easy Over Cape Wind's Plans

State House News Service: Cape Wind Drops Appeal in Transmission Facility Case

Cape Cod Times: Cape Wind Reverses, Drops Appeal

Cape Cod Times: NOAA Addresses Impact of Man-Made Noise on Marine Animals

Cape Cod Times Letter to the Editor: Facts Do Not Support Wind Turbine Project

Cape Cod Times: Local Legacy on Offshore Wind Mixed for Obama;  "The compromise bill calls for big utilities to buy up to 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind energy. Fortunately, the language of the law prohibits the controversial Cape Wind project from competing for those contracts."

University of Delaware: The Power of Offshore Wind; Atmospheric conditions around the Cape Wind site are predominantly turbulent, or unstable.

Vineyard Gazette: State Energy Bill Seen as Boost for Offshore Wind, Setback for Cape Wind

reNews: Cape Wind Considers Options

Lexology: MA Legislature Passes Clean Energy Legislation; Cape Wind barred from bidding on the offshore wind contracts

Boston Globe: Lawmakers Reach Late-Night Compromise on Energy Bill

E&E: Embattled Offshore Project Violated NEPA, ESA

Bloomberg BNA: U.S. Appeals Court Issues Cape Wind a New Blow

reNews: New Setback for Cape Wind

WWLP/State House News: Both Sides Claim Victory After Latest Ruling on
Cape Wind

Cape Cod Times: Appellate Court Rules on Cape Wind Case

CommonWealth Magazine - Cod Cast: The Politics of Energy, Cape Wind

Cape Cod Times - Cheers and Jeers: Keep Cape Wind out of Nantucket Sound

Fox News/ Associated Press: New Administration Rule Would Permit Thousands of Eagle Deaths at Wind Farms

reNews: Feds Face Cape Wind Wrath

Boston Globe/ State House News: Cape Wind Appeals State Board's Denial

Cape Cod Times: State Board Denies Extension for Cape Wind (Cape Wind vows to press on.)


Cape Cod.com: Cape Wind Project Dealt Another Blow; Future Uncertain

Boston Globe Magazine: Offshore Wind May Finally Take off with Big Projects, None Named Cape Wind

CommonWealth Magazine: Cape Wind Mounting Comeback; Jim Gordon says he's ready to compete

WGBH - Jim Braude Show: Will Cape Wind Finally Have Its Day? (Interview with Jim Gordon)

Boston Globe: Cape Wind Developer Jim Gordon Not Giving Up

North American Wind Power: Not Dead Yet: Cape Wind Refutes Claims of Its Demise

Boston Globe: Cape Wind Seeks More Time to Restart Stalled Wind Farm

Boston Globe: What Really Toppled Cape Wind's Plans for Nantucket Sound

2015: YouTube Video of Audra Parker's Cape Wind Update. What's Next?
Watch Here

Link to pertinent documents and contracts 

Cape Wind Final Decision by MA Energy Facilities Siting Board to deny Cape Wind's request for permit extensions

Link to Audra on radio talk shows

 

 
     

 Listen