Cape Wind is not a done deal
Monday, April 30, 2007
By: Audra Parker

Cape Cod Times - My View

The states recent determination that Cape Winds environmental impact report is adequate and the subsequent media coverage of this project milestone would have us think that the construction barges that will transport the 130 turbines and the pile drivers that will drill these 18 foot diameter behemoths 85 feet into the seabed are on their way. Headlines like State Approves Cape Wind Plan and Cape Wind backers enter final lap leave the public thinking that Cape Wind is a reality. But these sound bites dont convey the true status of this project or the fact that a federal agency, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), and not the state, has the final word on this project.

In fact, MMS is only at the beginning of its review of Cape Wind. A draft environmental impact statement is still to come with a long road ahead from there to a final decision. MMS just announced that this review, is taking longer than expected in an effort to conduct it in an appropriately deliberate and diligent manner. By contrast, the state made a rush to judgment on Cape Wind taking just 30 days to review Cape Winds massive environmental report, and as little as 7 days to study all of the publics comments on it before reaching a decision.

While Cape Wind complains that their project is being scrutinized more than any other energy plant and that opponents are merely being obstructionist, the federal review process has raised critical issues, especially for a project that is the first of its kind in the nation, is being proposed in a heavily conflicted and environmentally sensitive location, and was first proposed in a regulatory vacuum. Questions that werent even on the table in the beginning of the process are now being addressed. Would the 130 turbines cause radar interference for the many vessels navigating Nantucket Sound? What would be the effect of 40,000 gallons of transformer oil rapidly hitting our beaches in the event of a spill from Cape Winds transformer substation? Is South of Tuckernuck Island, an area to the southwest of Nantucket, a better location for a wind plant?

On the state side, the recent decision represents but the start of a series of state reviews. Cape Wind needs to get a consistency determination from the MA Office of Coastal Zone Management; a MA Highways permit; a water quality certificate and either a license or a variance under the Chapter 91 waterways licensing program from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). This latter program, based on a legal principle that dates back nearly 2000 years, holds that the air, the sea and the shore belong not to any one person, but rather to the public at large. And Cape Wind, recognizing that getting a variance under this law is a more daunting task than a license, has already challenged DEPs initial determination that they require a variance.

At the local level, Cape Wind needs a host of authorizations as well, including approval from the Cape Cod Commission and from both Barnstables and Yarmouths conservation commissions.

At this point, Cape Wind has only one conditional permit, for the transmission cable, from the MA Energy Facilities Siting Board, and a certificate of adequacy from the state on its environmental report. So for those wondering how close this project is to becoming a reality, consider the myriad local, state and federal permits that govern this project, and MMS recent announcement of a longer and more thorough federal process one that will ultimately determine this projects fate. On top of this gauntlet of reviews, there is still the fact that Cape Wind needs to secure financing for this $1 billion capital investment.

Cape Wind has to obtain each and every one of the twenty-some-odd local, state and federal permits that govern this project. Those who recognize that Nantucket Sound is simply the wrong location for such a project because fishermens livelihoods would be at risk, residents and tourists that travel through Nantucket Sound would be in danger, and the very heart of the Cape and Islands would be irreversibly changed, still have many opportunities to make their voices heard. One permit denial by any one of the reviewing agencies preserves Nantucket Sound as it was intended to be when it was first designated a state ocean sanctuary in 1970. One permit denial also leaves the door open to find an appropriate site for an offshore wind project that would actually help grow this important industry rather than bog it down with a controversial and irresponsibly sited project.