Cape & Islands News

Salazar on Cape on Ground Hog Day for Sunrise Greeting Ceremony

Secretary of the Interior to visit Mashpee's South Beach at 6am on Tuesday
Aquinnah visit to follow. Local environmental groups to honor tribe's privacy

By Walter Brooks

There is seldom if ever a clear view of the horizon from any beach in Mashpee which does not have an obstruction. The obstructions start with Monomoy Island to the east, Nantucket to the southeast including the proposed Tuckernuck site for a wind farm, and Martha's Vineyard to the south. The view is also continuously cluttered with ferries, sailboats and fishing vessels as the rising sun moves across these areas from solstice to solstice and back again each year.

As we reported on Tuesday, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has scheduled a trip to Boston for this coming Tuesday "to resolve a dispute over the country's first offshore wind project."

Mr. Salazar added that the Cape Wind project was "important for this country", but won't determine the direction of offshore wind development in total.

Although the secretary's office has not finalized his schedule, informed sources in Mashpee tell us that Mr. Salazar will be there as early as 6am.

That's the hour of sunrise at this time of year.

Tuesday is also Ground Hog Day

Dawn is allegedly the time when our local tribe gathers on a beach to have their "Sunrise Greeting Ceremony."

When asked, Cape Wind sources said they had not been invited to attend the meetings here. A second Indian-Salazar meeting is also scheduled in Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard.

Remarking that next Tuesday is Ground Hog Day a local chamber of commerce official commented, "I suppose if Salazar sees his shadow that means we'll have eight more years of phony delays for Cape Wind."

Local environmental activists have informed cc2day that they will honor the tribe's desire for privacy during the secretary's visit. Several added that they have a deep respect and regard for Mr. Salazar and know he will "cross every T and dot every I before making a wise decision."

"I suppose if Salazar sees his shadow that means we'll have eight more years of phony delays for Cape Wind."

Tug of warriors?

It has also been reported that there is dissension among Mashpee tribal leaders about who should be the master of ceremony for the Interior Secretary's visit.

Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell feels it is his right and responsibility, while the Tribal Historic Preservation Authority and Medicine Man in training George "Chucky" Green believes it to be his show because he initiated the letter to the Massachusetts Historical Commission which started the whole sideshow rolling several months ago.

Behind all this looms the heavy and well-endowed hand of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound on whose stationery Mr. Green's letter was written. The Alliance is reputed to have spent over $20 million to date to stop the wind farm. The group's top financial supporter is Osterville billionaire Bill Koch. The group's co-chairman is Yarmouth's Christy Mihos who is a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor this election.

Praying to what?

The two separate studies for the Cape Wind project, first by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and later by the Interior Department, of the area for the proposed wind farm, Horseshoe Shoal, included studies for Indian artifacts.

The Massachusetts Underwater Archeological Board reported that none were found there.

The Mashpee tribe are what were called "Praying Indians" because they converted from their native beliefs to Christianity for which they were given the area known as Mashpee by the early Cape Cod colonists. The tribe also served with the colonists against the Wampanoags and other Indian tribes during the infamous "King Philip's War", said to be the bloodiest in U.S. history.

U.S. considers Georges Bank seismic testing

The U.S. government is opening the door to seismic testing on the continental shelf off the Atlantic Coast, a step that could lead to offshore drilling on the U.S. side of Georges Bank for the first time in 30 years... Nova Scotia is watching the developments in Washington closely.
    A moratorium on testing and drilling on the Canadian side of Georges Bank - a rich fishing ground southwest of the province - expires on Dec. 31, 2012. Several scientific studies are underway to help federal and provincial politicians decide whether to lift the ban... CBC.

Oil rigs and 2 islands block the view too

Salazar said in our earlier story that the Interior Department would on today initiate a 45-day public comment period on the environmental impacts of allowing seismic operations in the Atlantic. Six companies have applied to conduct seismic operations in the coastal waters and another three have indicated interest in doing so.

"We do not know a lot about the Atlantic," Salazar told the Platts Energy Podium. "That's because for 30 years there has been no geophysical information that's been developed in connection with the resources out in the Atlantic."

600-1,000 new jobs at stake

As an interesting sidebar, Governor Deval Patrick spoke at the Cape Wind Contractors Meeting Thursday in Boston on the importance of the jobs that will be created by Cape Wind and in making Massachusetts a global leader in offshore clean energy.

Companies from all over the world gathered to hear details on a timeline and on critical project components. An influx of international contractors, subcontractors and suppliers will bring new jobs to Massachusetts. The Governor's office said that his continued commitment to job creation and clean energy expansion has helped attract major companies to the project, and that Green technology is the job market of the future, and Massachusetts is a great place to do business.

Economic analysis of Cape Wind anticipates that the project will create 600-1,000 direct and indirect jobs.