Interior Secretary says he’s ‘bullish’ on wind energy on visit to proposed Mass. project site

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Salazar says he’s ‘bullish’ on wind energy

ABOARD USCGC IDA LEWIS — Weighing the fate of a proposal to build the nation’s first offshore wind farm near Massachusetts, the Secretary of the Interior said Tuesday he’s “bullish” on the future of wind energy in the U.S., even if he decides to kill the project.

“What happens to Cape Wind, whether it goes up or it goes down, will not be determinative of the future of (offshore) wind energy in the United States,” said Ken Salazar, who was touring the project’s proposed site in Nantucket Sound.

Even after more than eight years of review, Salazar said, “important questions” need to be answered about the Cape Wind project.

“I’m not prejudging where we will end up on this particular project,” he said. However, Salazar said, there is huge wind potential along the coast.

Before his touring the sound, Salazar spoke with representatives of two tribes of Wampanoag Indians and watched the sunrise with members of one tribe.

The two tribes of Wampanoag Indians, who are known as “The People of The First Light,” say the project will interfere with their ancient religious rituals, which require an unblocked view of sunrise. They also say the wind farm would be built on what’s likely a long-submerged burial ground of their ancestors.

“It’s important for us to respect the nation’s first Americans,” Salazar said. “Part of what I felt I had to do was come out to their place of significance and actually experience some of what they experience.”

Last month, the National Park Service agreed with a tribal claim that Nantucket Sound was eligible a listing on the National Register of Historic Places, a designation that would come with new regulations for activity on the sound.

The Jan. 4 decision brought the prospect of more delay, so Salazar stepped in, first calling the opposing parties to meet with him in Washington, then promising to make a final decision by the end of April.

“It’s important to do wind energy in the right places,” Salazar added. “That is the critical question we are addressing here in Nantucket Sound.”

Cape Wind developers have proposed erecting 130 turbines, each more than 400 feet tall, over 25 square miles of the sound, several miles from the shore. Supporters say the $1 billion project will provide cheaper energy, reduce pollution and create green jobs. They also see approval as a crucial step in developing the country’s offshore wind industry.

But opponents say the project is a threat to aviation, bird life and commercial fishing interests and should be moved to a site outside Nantucket Sound that Cape Wind says is not feasible.

The late Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts was a vigorous opponent of the project, which would be visible from his family’s compound in Hyannisport. He said it was a case of a private developer’s profits trumping local concerns.