Cape & Islands News

Congressman: Delay Cape Wind; Says hearings are possible

Oberstar, whose committee oversees Coast Guard, balks at timing of report
Cape Wind, environmental groups, tradesmen blast move

By James Kinsella
The chairman of the U.S. House committee that oversees the Coast Guard has asked that service to delay issuing a recommendation on the proposed Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound.

U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minnesota, further said he is considering holding hearings on the issue, "given that any action taken on this project will set a precedent for all future offshore renewable energy projects."

Oberstar's request threatens yet another delay in the final federal decision on Cape Wind, which would be built in U.S. waters south of Cape Cod. The project initially was proposed more than seven years ago.

Cape Wind supporters say the 11th hour move recalls a behind-the-scenes effort several years ago by former (and now criminally convicted) U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, and U.S. Rep. Don Young, both Republicans, to move legislation that effectively would have barred the wind farm's construction.

Project supporters say the 11th hour move recalls a behind-the-scenes effort several years ago by former (and now criminally convicted) U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, and U.S. Rep. Don Young, both Republicans, to move legislation that effectively would have barred Cape Wind's construction.

The conservative Republicans had odd bedfellows in liberal Democrats U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who lives in Hyannis Port and routinely sails in Nantucket Sound, and U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, whose district includes the Cape and Islands. Both legislators have worked to stop the Cape Wind project.

But Glenn Wattley, chief executive officer of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, said Oberstar's letter is motivated by a desire to ensure adequate public comment on a maritime safety issue.

"It's offensive to consider this a political thing," Wattley said Thursday evening.

In a letter dated Tuesday to Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the Coast Guard, Oberstar referred to an independent study commissioned by the Coast Guard on what effect, if any, the wind turbine farm would have on navigation in Nantucket Sound.

"I have learned that the commander of Sector Southeast New England briefed interested stakeholders on the results of the study on Friday, Dec. 5, with comments due by Monday, Dec. 8," Oberstar wrote.

"But the Sector had yet to receive the completed study, and has not release(d) the study for public review, as I requested in my previous communications with you and the Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Mr. [Dirk] Kempthorne, on Sept. 24, 2008," the congressman wrote.

"Further, I understand that the sector commander intends to make his recommendations by next Monday, Dec. 15.

"I am again requesting that the Coast Guard delay any recommendation to the Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service..."
      - U.S. Rep. James Oberstar

"I am again requesting that the Coast Guard delay any recommendation to the Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service until such time as 1) the report is completed, 2) the report is publicly available to all interested parties, and 3) that the public has a minimum of 60 days to review and comment on the study," Oberstar wrote.

Cape Wind Associates LLC of Boston has proposed building a 130-turbine wind farm on Horseshoe Shoal south of Cape Cod. The company estimates the project could meet 75 percent of the energy demand on the Cape, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

In October, the Coast Guard convened a workshop to examine what effect the wind turbine farm might have on navigation. At the conclusion of that workshop, the captain of the port for southeastern New England, Raymond Perry, announced the Coast Guard would commission a $100,000 independent study of the issue.

Perry told workshop participants a second workshop likely would be held on the study's results, probably in the latter part of December.

But the federal Minerals Management Service, charged with making the final federal ruling on whether to allow Cape Wind to go forward, let the Coast Guard know that it wanted a quicker recommendation on the issue, so as the MMS could issue its overall recommendation more quickly.

So the Coast Guard dropped the second workshop and moved up the proposed date of its decision - to the chagrin of project opponents such as the not-for-profit Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.

Wattley has said the public wasn't getting a chance to comment on safety issues posed by the project.

"It goes without saying that the Coast Guard situation was totally inappropriate, asking the public to comment on a report they didn't have available to share."
    - Glenn Wattley, Alliance to         Protect Nantucket Sound

"It goes without saying that the Coast Guard situation was totally inappropriate, asking the public to comment on a report they didn't have available to share," he said.

Oberstar, Wattley said, previously had asked the Coast Guard to allow the public to have plenty of time — or at least 60 days — for comment. That Oberstar had repeated that request, Wattley said, doesn't surprise him.

In an interview last Friday, Dec. 5, Wattley said the Alliance hoped to enlist the assistance of Oberstar to gain more time for public comment.

Oberstar has done so - to the chagrin of Cape Wind Associates and a coalition of clean energy and environmental groups backing the Nantucket Sound project.

"Cape Wind's proposal to bring clean energy and green jobs to our region and power 75 percent of the Cape and Islands' electricity demand has been reviewed for over seven years by 17 federal and state agencies," said Mark Rodgers, communications director for Cape Wind, in a statement released today, Thursday, Dec. 11.

"This clean energy project has undergone a tougher, more detailed review and analysis
than any coal, oil or gas power plant in New England," Rodgers stated.

"If the project is delayed, the people of Massachusetts and the nation will have to keep
waiting for Cape Wind's significant benefits of hundreds of green-sector jobs, cleaner air, less reliance on foreign energy, action on climate change and one of the best examples of what our clean energy future can be.

"It is important the experts at public agencies like the Coast Guard and MMS be allowed to do their jobs and complete their review without being subjected to political pressure on behalf of narrow interests that seek to subvert the public interest," Rodgers concluded.

Barbara Hill, executive director of Clean Power Now, am 11,000 member, non-profit organization that backs the wind farm, blasted the Minnesota congressman.

"This move by Oberstar is ridiculous government bureaucracy," Hill said this afternoon.

"When [the project opponents] don't like the results of environmental results or studies, they want to change the process," she said.

"When [the project opponents] don't like the results of environmental results or studies, they want to change the process."
- Barbara Hill, CPN 

The Maritime Trades Council also chimed in today, calling for permitting decisions on Cape Wind to be made and new clean energy maritime jobs be created to improve the economy.

"Cape Wind has been exhaustively studied for seven years, it's time for our skilled maritime professionals to get to work building America's first offshore wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts," stated Gerard Dhooge, president of the Boston & New England Maritime Trades Council, AFL-CIO.

"The U.S. Coast Guard has made it clear that Cape Wind would be safe for navigation," Dhooge stated. "We need to let them provide their analysis to the Minerals Management Service so the final permitting decisions can be made.

"Efforts by project opponents to further delay this process must not be allowed to succeed, we need these jobs and we need to become more energy independent by tapping into the vast clean energy resources in our maritime environment," Dhooge added.

The council represents more than 60,000 unionized maritime workers throughout the region. Membership includes professional merchant mariners, industrial workers, longshoremen, and a number of building and construction trades unions.

Wattley called Oberstar's request "excellent."

"They can't sweep this under the rug and say it's not an important issue," Wattley said Thursday evening.