Offshore Wind Wire

By Peter Brennan

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced today that the parties involved in the long-running Cape Wind controversy, notably Cape Wind developers and local Wampanoag tribes, have not been able to reach agreement on mitigation actions for the proposed wind turbine farm in the federal waters of Nantucket Sound.  Salazar said that he would step in to make a final decision on the proposed 130-turbine project and an independent federal agency, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, would help with the decision.

The Advisory Council will deliver comments to Salazar in 45 days, and the Secretary will make a decision after reviewing the Council’s submission.   Created by the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966, the Advisory Council describes itself as the primary policy advisor to the White House and Congress on historical preservation issues.  The Council’s Web site says that most federal historical preservation issues are “resolved by mutual agreement” but the Council steps in for “controversial or precedent-setting situations.”

“The time has come to bring the reviews and analysis of the Cape Wind Project to a conclusion,” Salazar said.  “It is clear to me that the consulting parties are not able to bridge their divides and reach agreement on actions to minimize and mitigate the Cape Wind Project’s effects on historic and cultural resources. I am asking the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation for their comments and I will then make a final decision on the proposal.  The parties, the public, and the permit applicants deserve resolution and certainty.”

The Advisory Council will also gather comments from the involved parties and the public at large before submitting its opinion to Salazar.

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Cape Cod and the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Martha’s Vineyard have said the turbines would disturb a ritual that calls for an unobstructed view of the sunrise and that the project might be built on ancestral burial grounds. Salazar had set a deadline of March 1 for the tribes and the developer to reach a compromise.  He said in January that he would step in to resolve the 9-year-old Cape Wind federal regulatory process if there was no agreement.