[OR_Archaeology] Breaking News: Salazar Greenlights the Cape Wind Project

[Susan White]

Subject: BREAKING NEWS: Salazar Greenlights Cape Wind Project

POWER: Interior greenlights Cape Cod turbine farm (04/28/2010)
Noelle Straub, E&E reporter

After nine years of controversy, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today approved construction of the 130-turbine Cape Wind farm off Massachusetts.

"Cape Wind will be the United States' first offshore wind farm," Salazar said. "This will be the first of many projects up and down the Atlantic Coast."

Traveling to Boston to announce his decision, Salazar said his department will require several modifications to the project to help protect the environment and cultural resources in the area. Acknowledging the intense battle that has been waged over the wind farm, Salazar said his decision was not an easy one and that he considered "many difficult questions."

But he greenlighted the project because of the expected 1,000 construction jobs and up to 468 megawatts of power it will supply, roughly the equivalent of a medium-sized coal-fired power plant, Salazar said.

Noting that the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, a federal advisory panel, earlier this month recommended not to approve the project, Salazar said that after "extended review and reflection" on the issue, he decided the wind farm as modified can move forward while preserving historic qualities in the area.

The project will be reduced from 170 to 130 turbines, and the developer now will be required to conduct marine archaeological surveys aimed at limiting the effects on submerged resources and to take specific steps to make the turbines less visible from the shore, including the coloring and lighting used for the turbines.

"These and other common-sense measures will allow us to strike the right balance," Salazar said.

Saying that "there are people who will be unhappy with this decision," Salazar disputed the argument that the project would harm the traditional uses and history of the area. He said the sound has long been a working landscape and is home to fishing, boating, bridges, cell towers and other development and that done right, the project fits with the tradition of sustainable development.

Noting the sunken oil platform leaking thousands of gallons into the Gulf of Mexico right now, Salazar said the country must move away from dependency on fossil fuels. Cape Wind will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 700,000 tons annually, he added.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) said construction on the project is expected to begin within a year. "This decision affirms that on balance, Cape Wind is good for our environment and good for our energy needs," he said.

Cape Wind, the Boston company planning to build the project, said a month ago that it has signed an agreement to buy 130 wind turbines for the project from Siemens Energy Inc. The project site is about 5.2 miles from the mainland shoreline, 13.8 miles from Nantucket Island and 9 miles from Martha's Vineyard.

Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune called the decision a "huge victory for clean energy" and expressed hope it will set the stage for streamlined but thorough reviews of future offshore wind projects.

"This project has undergone comprehensive and detailed environmental review, and we are confident that it can be developed responsibly, with minimal impacts to the marine environment," Brune said. "The developer and the state government have worked tirelessly to ensure that this project is built in the most responsible location possible, and we applaud them for that."

The controversial project has long caused a split among lawmakers. The late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) strongly opposed the Cape Wind project, and last week, Massachusetts GOP Sen. Scott Brown and Democratic Rep. Bill Delahunt wrote to Salazar asking him to forge a "consensus decision" rather than issue a final verdict on his own.

But Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) yesterday expressed support for the project. "I favor a wind project somewhere in Massachusetts, and I've said again and again, if the process decides that this is the one that it's to be, I support moving forward," Kerry said.

And a bipartisan group of six Northeastern governors wrote in favor of the project, saying a denial would make it "difficult, if not impossible" to site wind farms on the East Coast because most would be within view of historic properties.

Lawsuits coming

The Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe earlier this week said it has hired an attorney "to fully prepare for administrative and judicial relief should the project move forward." The tribe said it had identified more than 14 legal shortcomings under the National Historic Preservation Act alone and cited eight other laws it may argue also were violated. Pursuing legal action would protect the tribe's own rights but also would help "avoid future devastation to tribal historic sites throughout Indian Country," the tribe said.

The tribe noted that the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation earlier this month recommended that Salazar not approve the project because its effects on historic properties would be "pervasive, destructive, and, in the instance of seabed construction, permanent," and unable to be adequately mitigated.

But Salazar said he expects the project will be able to withstand scrutiny. "There is no question that the review of the project, in my mind, has been thorough. It has been examined at all levels on all sides," he said.

Vermont Law School professor Pat Parenteau also predicted legal challenges will be difficult for a project that has gone through nine years of reviews. "I think trying to find a fatal flaw in the record is going to be exceedingly difficult," he said.

A law firm has already filed notice of its intent to challenge the project under the Endangered Species Act, likely on behalf of smaller wildlife or animal-rights groups, Parenteau said. But after examining the law as it relates to the Cape Wind project, Parenteau said he felt the evidence of impacts on endangered sea birds was "sketchy" and said he thinks the suit will be "an uphill fight."

Parenteau also said challenges could come in the wake of the National Park Service's finding that the sound is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. NPS had been weighing the claims from two American Indian tribes that Nantucket Sound is vital to their cultural and religious practices (E&ENews PM<http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2010/01/04/archive/1>, Jan. 4).

But the National Historic Preservation Act only requires mitigation and does not stop projects, Parenteau said. "I think as long as the record reflects care and attention to the historic properties and at least has protocols on how to proceed with the project to protect artifacts and other things that are discovered, I think the project will probably survive a legal challenge on that ground," he said.

The Minerals Management Service issued a positive final environmental impact statement for the project in January 2009, publishing it on the final business day of the previous administration. The Interior inspector general in February found that the department under President George W. Bush "unnecessarily rushed" its review of the proposed Cape Wind offshore wind farm in order to finish before the end of his administration (Greenwire<http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2010/02/04/archive/9>, Feb. 4).

Click here<http://www.eenews.net/features/documents/2010/04/28/document_gw_02.pdf> to read Salazar's response to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

Reporter Darren Samuelsohn contributed.