[OR_Archaeology] The latest on Cape Wind project and Sec. Salazar

[Susan White]

BOSTON (AP) – The secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior
says representatives of two Native American tribes and a developer have
failed to agree on a wind farm off Cape Cod by Monday’s deadline,
leaving the future of the initiative in the hands of an Obama
administration that’s pledged to make the U.S. “the world’s
leading exporter of clean energy.”

In a statement, Secretary Ken Salazar said that he was sending the
proposal on Cape Wind to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation,
which has 45 days to allow the public to express its views on the
project.

Salazar said he will then take comments from the council into
consideration before deciding whether to approve the wind farm.

“The time has come to bring the reviews and analysis of the Cape Wind
Project to a conclusion,” Salazar said. “The parties, the public and
the permit applicants deserve resolution and certainty.”

Salazar is expected to make a decision on the project in April.

Cape Wind developers have proposed building 130 turbines, each more
than 400 feet tall, in Nantucket Sound. Supporters of the proposal say
the $1 billion wind project would provide cheaper energy, reduce
pollution and create green jobs.

But the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Cape Cod and the Aquinnah Wampanoag
Tribe of Martha’s Vineyard say the project will interfere with sacred
rituals and desecrate tribal burial sites.

The Wampanoag added that the project would interfere with sacred
rituals that require an unblocked view of the horizon.

The Native American tribes and other opponents say the project is a
threat to aviation, bird life and commercial fishing interests and
should be moved to a site outside Nantucket Sound that Cape Wind says
isn’t feasible.

Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers said the developer “made a generous
offer” to the two tribes but no agreement was reached by Monday,
Salazar’s deadline. He declined to give details of the offer.

The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s chairman, Cedric Cromwell, and the
Aquinnah tribe’s historic preservation officer, Bettina Washington,
did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment Monday.

In January, the National Park Service agreed with tribal claims that
Nantucket Sound was eligible for a listing on the National Register of
Historic Places, meaning it’s deemed worthy of preservation.

Last month, Salazar toured the Nantucket Sound site and watched a
crimson sunrise on a Mashpee beach near where the Wampanoag conduct
rituals.

Obama has never mentioned the project while talking publicly about
renewable energy, despite his enthusiasm for the topic and the fact Cape
Wind would be the nation’s first offshore wind farm.

Some Cape Wind advocates have chalked up Obama’s silence to respect
for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, an early and influential Obama backer.
Kennedy battled the project fiercely, writing Obama of his opposition
the month before he died in August from brain cancer.

To add to the uncertainty, Salazar has called it “a good project.”
But two Obama appointees to agencies connected to the project’s review
have links to its chief opposition, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket
Sound.