Cape & Islands News

SJC affirms DPU-Cape Wind power contract approval

Supreme Judicial Court decisions clear path for Nation’s First Offshore Wind project
Justice Botsford says DPU review was “thorough’’ and “considered’’

In the wake of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s rulings today upholding the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities’ approval of a long-term power purchase agreement between the Cape Windoffshore wind project and electric utility National Grid, Cape Wind President Jim Gordon said, “We’re hoping that within about a year we’ll be able to start construction to finally make homegrown renewable energy.”

Gordon continued, “This project has been under development for over 10 years and is taking far too long.” He noted that Europe and Asia are “installing thousands of wind turbines off their coastlines as a way of meeting their environmental and economic challenges.”

Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) issued the following statement from Sue Reid, VP and director, CLF Massachusetts:

“Conservation Law Foundation welcomes today’s decisions by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reaffirming the DPU’s finding that Cape Wind is imperative to meeting the Commonwealth’s clean energy objectives and that its costs are reasonable in light of all the benefits it will deliver,” said Sue Reid, VP and director, CLF Massachusetts. “The Court’s rulings confirm what CLF, NRDC and Clean Power Now have long asserted—that Cape Wind’s benefits to the Commonwealth outweigh its costs. Cape Wind’s ability to generate substantial quantities of clean energy close to areas of high demand—making it more advantageous than distant energy projects being proposed—is just one of the many benefits contributing to the Court’s findings that the project’s costs are reasonable. In validating the DPU’s decision, the SJC has provided objective validation of the facts making the case for Cape Wind, and has cleared one of the last remaining hurdles for the nation’s first major offshore wind project to move forward.”

Another major setback for the anti-wind farm group

“Based on the record, the department ultimately found that National Grid demonstrated that it had complied with the new, nongeographically limited statute and regulations in its negotiations with Cape Wind.”
          - Justice Margot Botsford.In what is a major blow to the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound (APNS), the Supreme Judicial Court today gave its blessing to a novel power purchase agreement between Cape Wind and National Grid which had been approved by the state Department of Public Utilities.

In the 34-page ruling written by Justice Margot Botfsford, the Supreme Judicial Court unanimously rejected all the arguments advanced by the Alliance, and Justice Botsford added there was no violation of the federal commerce clause because the state had lifted its limitation that only allowed it to review power sources within the state.

Botsford repeatedly called the DPU review of the agreement between Cape Wind and National Grid “thorough’’ and “considered’,’ and added that it was consistent with state law requiring public utilities to purchase 3 percent of their energy from alternative sources.