Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Is Cape Wind Dead?
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_10_21-2007_10_27.shtml#1193110951
Last week, with little fanfare, the Cape Cod Commission denied [1]Cape
Wind Associates permission to run transmission lines to their proposed
offshore wind farm, the [2]Boston Globe reports. The Commission based
its decision on Cape Wind's alleged failure to provide sufficient
information about its project. Yet there is little doubt the decision
was motivated by well-financed local opposition. As the Globe
editorialized last week:
The cable has been the focus of so much attention by state and Cape
Cod regulators because it is the one part of the project under
their purview - the turbines themselves would be in federal waters
and under jurisdiction of federal watchdogs. . . .
There is evidence that the Cape Cod Commission is finding fault
with the cable proposal because some commission members or
residents of the towns they represent do not want the turbines,
which at their closest point would be about five miles from the
Cape, in their viewscape. At the same time the commission was
dealing with the cable proposal from Cape Wind, it approved without
benefit of any review at all a new electric cable linking Nantucket
with the Cape. At 26 miles, that cable has already been built, and
it is double the length of Cape Wind's.
Cape Wind can appeal the decision, or seek to satisfy the Commission's
information request. Either course may involve further delay, and
further cost increases. If local NIMBYs defeat this project, it could
produce an ill wind for offshore wind projects nationwide.
I previously wrote on regulatory obstacles to wind power and other
alternative energy sources [3]here.
References
1. http://www.capewind.org/
2.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/10/19/cape_cod_panel_denies_permit_for_wind_farm/
3. http://volokh.com/posts/1190990531.shtml
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