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Agency report helps bolster Cape Wind
Finds project would not harm local environment
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Lisa Poole/Associated PressJim Gordon, Cape Wind president, said he hopes construction of the wind farm could begin by the end of the year. (Lisa Poole/Associated Press) |
By Bina Venkataraman and Stephanie Ebbert Globe Staff / January 17, 2009
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A benchmark was reached yesterday in efforts to expand clean energy as a key federal agency concluded that the nation's first proposed offshore wind farm would have no major adverse effect on the environment of Nantucket Sound.
But Cape Wind's seven-year quest to win final approval is not over, and the incoming Obama administration will face a dilemma with the 130-turbine wind farm, which is tied to the president-elect's energy agenda and his political allegiances.
The project's supporters, including major environmental groups, celebrated the release of the final environmental impact report by the Minerals Management Service, but they acknowledged that the project will continue to face challenges. Cape Wind's opponents, concerned about navigational hazards, property values, and the view of the turbines from beaches and historical sites, have promised lawsuits.
And an Interior Department inspector general's investigation of the minerals agency's handling of the process is underway.
Calling his agency's report "a milestone," culminating years of review by government agencies, Randall Luthi, Minerals Management Service director, said in an interview that Cape Wind could become "a bellwether for many offshore wind projects to come."
Hull, Massachusetts, Wins DOE Wind Power Pioneer Award
November 07, 2006 from the website www.eere.energy.gov/news/
The Town of Hull, Massachusetts, has won the Department of Energy's Wind Power Pioneer Award. The distinction recognizes the Town of Hull for its outstanding leadership in advancing the use of wind power in a coastal community. Hull has been a model for engaging the entire community to understand and move forward together on its wind power project, from school teachers, utility engineers and local leaders to state government, academia and industry.
Located on a peninsula in Boston Harbor, the Town of Hull first developed wind power in the 1820s. Modern wind technology came to Hull in the 1980s, when the school district installed a small-scale wind power project. The Hull Municipal Light Plant supported that effort and subsequently worked with Citizen Advocates for Renewable Energy, to plan a utility-scale project. A 660-kW turbine, Hull Wind 1, was installed on the harbor in 2001. This past spring, the Hull Municipal Light Plant dedicated a second turbine. Hull Wind 2 is a 1.8 MW Vestas V80, installed on a closed landfill. The two wind turbines supply more than 10 percent of the community's energy needs.
Award finalists, which will also be recognized, include American Municipal Power - Ohio, the City of Palo Alto (CA), CPS Energy (San Antonio, TX), and Sacramento Municipal Utility District (CA).
[here in Hull, we're proud of coming in ahead of these other finalists -- notably 'SMUD'. The book entitled "Who Owns the Sun" by John O'Connor and Danny Berman [both originating in eastern Mass., by the way] uses SMUD as their lead example of how a municipal power company can set a high standard in renewables. Their CEO S. David Freeman made the famous remark "I want to put Exxon out of business". He was being interviewed by the Audubon Society.]
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