Cape & Islands News

Citing Global Warming Environmentalists urge immediate approval of Cape Wind Environmental Impact Repor

Environmentalists and clean energy groups today urged the state’s Secretary of Environment and Energy, Ian Bowles, to immediately approve the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) for the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound. In their public comments on the FEIR, the twelve groups said that the “global crisis of climate change” demands that the state “embrace clean renewable energy generation” like Cape Wind’s 130- turbine wind energy project.

The group's statement claimed that Cape Wind will help the state meet mandatory renewable energy targets saying "if built, the Cape Wind Project will help meet these clean energy goals set by the Commonwealth by contributing a significant amount of clean energy to the regional power grid,” in their letter.

Group notes state's authority end s 3 miles offshore

The groups also expressed confidence in the scope of Cape Wind’s extensive environmental analysis and noted the state’s jurisdiction extends only three miles from its coastline, covering just electrical transmission lines, not the platforms or turbines (which lay in federal waters). Secretary Bowles must make a decision by Thursday March 29.

The groups signing onto the letter include;

• Conservation Law Foundation,
  
• Cape & Islands Self- Reliance,
  
• Clean Power Now,
  
• Clean Water Action,
  
• Earth Policy Institute,
  
• Environment Massachusetts,
  
• Environmental League of Massachusetts,
  
• Greenpeace,
  
• HealthLink,
  
• Massachusetts Climate Action Network,
  
• MassEnergy and
  
• George Woodwell, Director Emeritus of the Woods Hole Research Center.

To download the comments click here (PDF)