The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has
approved undersea transmission cables for the proposed Cape Wind
project, clearing another hurdle for what could be the nation’s first
offshore wind farm.
The project, which has met with resistance from some local groups
opposed to the sight of wind farms on the horizon, would provide
three-quarters of the electricity used on Cape Cod and the Islands.
Cape Wind wants to place 130 turbines about 4.7 miles off Cape Cod.
In approving the transmission cables, the DEP determined that the project "provides greater public benefit than detriment."
The portions of Cape Wind’s proposal under the jurisdiction of the
DEP’s review were the submarine electric cables from the coastline out
to the three-mile offshore state boundary.
"This DEP approval finding Cape Wind serves a proper public
interest and providing public benefit moves the project one step closer
to its final approval," Cape Wind Communications Director Mark Rodgers
said.
Rodgers said the full permitting process for the $1 billion
project could be completed by March. The Coast Guard, Department of the
Interior and Federal Aviation Administration must still approve the
wind farm on the federal level.
Bluewater Wind Delaware, LLC, a subsidiary of Babcock &
Brown (BBW.AX), is also hoping to lay claim to the nation’s first
offshore wind farm with a project in development off the coast of Delaware.
Do you think Cape Cod residents have a legitimate concern with an offshore wind farm? Share your comments.
Loading...
Cape Cod residents should be concerned with the Pilgrim Power Plant. Everyone knows that cape, island and south shore residents don’t have a meaningful escape route should Pilgrim have a nuclear accident. That’s why they issue pills to customers within a radius of the plant.
Hopefully the Cape Wind project will be one more nail in the coffin for the Pilgrim nuclear plant. The plant just received a thirty-year extension to their contract to create power. Hopefully when that thirty years is over we’ll have replaced the need for the plant with wind power.
Massachusetts Bay, off the coast of New England, has enough wind off the coast to be the next Saudi Arabia of renewable energy – except we have several advantages over the Saudi’s. Our energy source is non-polluting, renewable, close to it’s customer base, and our government controlling the resource is a legitimate democracy. So we should exploit our off-shore “wind fields” and lessen our dependency on nuclear and dirty oil.