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Globe Editorial excoriates Kennedy and Delahunt; New Interior Dept. head a friend to Cape Wind

An Ahab for Cape Wind

The New England economy could also use the 600 to 1,000 jobs the project will create

Senator Edward Kennedy's Ahab-like efforts to kill the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound have taken a new twist. Having failed three years ago to get Congress to give veto power over the project to then-Governor Mitt Romney, an opponent of the wind turbines, the senator is now pursuing a delaying tactic. An aide to Kennedy conferred with staff of the House committee chairman with responsibility for the Coast Guard, who got that service to put off release of a recommendation on the project that is expected be favorable to the wind developers. Representative William Delahunt also worked to postpone the Coast Guard action.

Kennedy and Delahunt persist in a stance on Cape Wind that undercuts their claims to environmental stewardship

Just as log-rolling in Congress is bipartisan, with members from one party backing boondoggles from across the aisle, so is log-jam building. In 2006, Kennedy sought the help of Alaska Republican Ted Stevens to kill Cape Wind, with Republican Romney as the hatchet man. In the current delay effort, he has had the help of Democratic Representative James Oberstar of Minnesota, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee...

No coal- or gas-fired power facility has ever received such a thorough review.

The sooner Minerals Management gives its final approval, the sooner the region will benefit from its largest renewable energy source. The New England economy could also use the 600 to 1,000 jobs the project will create during the two-year installation. Leaders in so many other areas, Kennedy and Delahunt persist in a stance on Cape Wind that undercuts their claims to environmental stewardship... Globe.
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A Conservationist for the Interior Dept.

"Ken Salazar's solid record as a supporter of renewable energy suggests he is well prepared for one of the fundamental challenges facing the Department of Interior: the need for solid stewardship of federal lands while allowing those lands to be part of the climate solution by hosting massive new renewable energy developments."
   - Seth Kaplan, a vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation.

President-elect Barack Obama has rounded out his energy and environment team by tapping Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado to head the Department of the Interior... Mr. Salazar will become the latest in a long line of Westerners to fill the post, which oversees agencies including the National Park Service to the Bureau of Indian Affairs...

Mr. Salazar has supported a goal of getting 25 percent of the nation’s energy from renewable sources by 2025.  Nathanael Greene of the Natural Resources Defense Council predicted that Mr. Salazar would be a boon for Cape Wind, the controversial Massachusetts offshore wind farm. (The N.R.D.C. supports its construction.) “On that issue, to all accounts he gets it and will treat the project fairly,” he said in an e-mail, noting that the main hurdle remaining is the release a final environmental impact statement despite recent delays. The Department of the Interior oversees the Minerals Management Service, which is due to release the environmental report... NY Times.