Cantwell calls for Senate Hearing on Cape Wind

In response to closed-door conference committee decision

By Jack Coleman, capecodtoday.com correspondent

In the wake of a closed-door Senate conference committee decision that may doom the Cape Wind project, Sen. Maria Cantwell is calling for Senate hearings to focus more attention "on the federal role in siting offshore alternative energy projects."

United States Senator Maria Cantwell

Cantwell made her request to the chairman and ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman, respectively, both of New Mexico.

The request was made in a letter posted at Cantwell's website, dated yesterday, and apparently sent after a closed-door Senate conference committee approved a proposal from Alaska Senator Ted Stevens that would give veto power over Cape Wind to the governor of Massachusetts - with no specific reason needed for the veto.

In requesting Senate hearings on siting of offshore alternative energy projects, Cantwell wrote that "as you know, this issue has surfaced within the context of the 2006 Coast Guard Authorization legislation (H.R. 889), in which a narrow provision has been proposed to target a controversial offshore wind project in Nantucket Sound.

"I believe this provision - and the general issue of siting offshore energy projects - must be viewed within the context of other laws and precedents that determine the role of states in making these decisions, and thus deserves greater public debate and the additional scrutiny on Energy Committee hearing might provide," Cantwell wrote.

"There appears to be a great deal of uncertainty regarding how this process will work, the proper role of the states, the opportunities for public input, and how Interior intends to treat pending project applications," Cantwell wrote in the letter above to the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee.

Until yesterday, Cantwell was considered the pivotal swing vote on a conference committee already deadlocked 3-3 over the proposal from Stevens. Her vote became moot when Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon switched his vote, giving Stevens the four of seven he needed.

The other three came from Stevens, Republican Trent Lott of Mississippi and Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, while Olympia Snowe, R-Maine and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., voted against the Stevens' proposal.

Cantwell is said to have voted for the language from Stevens, with objections, after Smith's switched vote rendered hers moot, but this is not confirmed.

The Associated Press reported this afternoon that the Cape Wind "veto measure got a boost in recent days from longtime project foe U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, who made a personal appeal last week" to Stevens, "a committee member and a leading backer of the veto bill."

"Senator Kennedy spoke to Senator Stevens in support of this provision," Kennedy spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner said in the story, which was posted on the Boston Herald's website this afternoon.

Uncertainty on how process will work

Both chambers of Congress must vote on the reconciled Coast Guard Reauthorization bill which includes the Cape Wind veto provision, and this apparently did not take place today before the two-week Easter recess.
 
In her letter to Domenici and Bingaman, Cantwell wrote that "I am also aware of your concerns about this (Cape Wind veto) provision in view of Section 388 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, enacted last August. This measure requires the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Secretaries of Defense, Commerce and the agency in which the Coast Guard is operating, to issue regulations for siting offshore alternative energy projects within 270 days.

"There appears to be a great deal of uncertainty regarding how this process will work, the proper role of the states, the opportunities for public input, and how Interior intends to treat pending project applications," Cantwell wrote.

"A hearing that puts all the facts on the record, considers all the legal precedents regarding the balance of federal and state authorities, and perhaps even draws on successful, international siting models would be a very welcome addition to this debate," Cantwell wrote in conclusion.

Jack Coleman is a freelance writer, editor and and media adviser to the pro-wind farm Clean Power Now non-profit organization on Cape Cod. He writes a blog advocating in favor of the Cape Wind project at Wind Farmers Almanac. He has been reporting on the Cape Wind project for fours years, including three as a reporter for Cape Cod Times.