Email

Print

  Wind News

Historic sites watchdog urges refusal for Cape Wind

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar should not grant permission to the Cape Wind Offshore wind project proposed for Nantucket Sound, off the coast of Massachusetts, a federal agency said on Friday.

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation published its formal advice to the Department of the Interior stating that in its opinion, Secretary Salazar should not approve the project.

It said 34 historic properties that would be affected by the 130-turbine proposal were “significant, extensive, and closely interrelated”.

Selection of nearby alternatives might result in far fewer adverse effects to historic properties” - Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

“Adverse”

The Council’s warning was chiefly about the impact on the views from the historic properties, but it also warned about an “additional direct adverse effect” on the Nantucket Sound seabed.

It warned: “Adverse effects on historic properties will be direct and indirect, cannot be avoided, and cannot be satisfactorily mitigated.”

The Council also suggested that despite the fact that the offshore wind farm will be decommissioned after the end of its lifespan, there would be impacts from construction that decommissioning would not be able to reverse.

Curiously, the Council then said that offshore wind development on the Outer Continental Shelf could be acceptable in other locations, stating: “It appears that the selection of nearby alternatives might result in far fewer adverse effects to historic properties, and holds the possibility that those effects could be acceptably minimized or mitigated.”

Secretary Salazar, who has declared that he will take a final decision on the project before the end of April, is required to take the Advisory Council’s comments into account under the National Historic Preservation Act. The project is also awaiting final comments from the Minerals Management Service.

The proposal is to build 130 wind turbines across 24 square miles of Horseshoe Shoal, near Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

The Advisory Council noted that the area was eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places as a “place of significance to Indian tribes”. The agency suggested that the wind farm would also “adversely affect” other historic properties, including the historic 19th Century village, the Nantucket Historic District and the six-acre home of the Kennedys, the Kennedy Compound.

Opposition

The project should be denied or relocated to a better site with fewer adverse impacts” - Audra Parker, Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound

Opposition to the Cape Wind project is being spearheaded by two Native American tribes, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (Mashpee).

The Advisory Council noted: “The Wampanoag tribes have stated that an uninterrupted view across Nantucket Sound of the rising eastern sun for religious purposes is a defining feature of Wampanoag tribal culture and history.”

The main opposition group against Cape Wind, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, said the views of the Advisory Council represented a “great victory” for those interested in protecting national treasures.

Audra Parker, president and CEO of the Alliance, said: “The ACHP recognizes that Cape Wind is incompatible with the rich historic and tribal resources of Nantucket Sound and as such the project should be denied or relocated to a better site with fewer adverse impacts.

“The Cape and Islands community of stakeholders has endorsed such a site outside of Nantucket Sound – South of Tuckernuck Island. Secretary Salazar must heed these objections and either reject Cape Wind entirely or move the project to this alternate compromise location,” added Ms Parker.

Cape Wind

In a statement responding to the Advisory Council’s comments, Cape Wind said it disagreed with the agency, and that it was “at odds” with the findings of the Minerals Management Service.

The offshore project developers said: “We’re very hopeful that when Secretary Salazar reviews the complete record he will conclude that the verified public benefits of cleaner air, greater energy independence, hundreds of new American jobs and mitigating climate change will far outweigh any impacts and that he will approve Cape Wind.

“The approval of Cape Wind will launch a whole new industry in the United States of clean offshore renewable energy development that will one day be followed by many other projects that will light up the east coast and create tens of thousands of American jobs.”