Gov. Deval Patrick and his energy and environment secretary, Ian Bowles, were beaming earlier today as they stood behind US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and they had good reason to be happy. Salazar appeared at a jammed State House press conference to announce the federal government’s final approval of Cape Wind, the 130-turbine renewal energy project slated for Nantucket Sound that would be the nation’s first offshore wind farm.
It’s been a nine-year slog for the project’s developer, Jim Gordon, who remained undeterred by a set of legal challenges and opposition from some of the state’s most powerful leaders. But since he took office in 2007, Patrick, who regularly touted his support for the project in his campaign, has been equally resolute in declaring the project a crucial flagship of his ambitious renewable energy agenda for the state, despite opposition from the late US Sen. Ted Kennedy and other prominent Democrats.
“America needs offshore wind power, and with this project, Massachusetts will lead the nation,” Patrick said at today’s announcement.
President Obama felt greatly indebted to Kennedy, who endorsed him during the primary campaign when Obama’s fortunes were far from certain and who cheered him as the party nominee in a rousing speech at Democratic National Convention in Denver. Though Obama has been a big booster of renewable energy, there had been some nervousness among Cape Wind supporters that Kennedy’s steadfast opposition to the project might hold some sway with the administration, even after Kennedy’s death last August.
The final potential federal roadblock to the project was a recommendation earlier this month by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation that the project not be approved. The federal panel cited the project’s potential harm to sightlines from historic shoreline sites and potential damage to American Indian archeological sites on the seabed, which thousands of years ago was exposed, habitable land. Last week, Patrick and five other East Coast governors sent Salazar a letter warning that rejecting Cape Wind on such grounds would “establish a precedent that would make it difficult, if not impossible, to site offshore wind projects anywhere along the Eastern seaboard.”
In his announcement today, Salazar agreed with them — and helped put a huge feather in Patrick’s clean-energy cap.
Click here to read the US Department of Interior press release on today’s announcement.
Click here to read Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s letter to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.
Note: For some idea about how long this battle has been going on, read CW’s 2003 story on how the Cape Cod Times covered the wind farm issue.
