An Ahab for Cape Wind

SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY'S Ahab-like efforts to kill the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound have taken a new twist. Having failed three years ago to get Congress to give veto power over the project to then-Governor Mitt Romney, an opponent of the wind turbines, the senator is now pursuing a delaying tactic. An aide to Kennedy conferred with staff of the House committee chairman with responsibility for the Coast Guard, who got that service to put off release of a recommendation on the project that is expected be favorable to the wind developers. Representative William Delahunt also worked to postpone the Coast Guard action.

Just as log-rolling in Congress is bipartisan, with members from one party backing boondoggles from across the aisle, so is log-jam building. In 2006, Kennedy sought the help of Alaska Republican Ted Stevens to kill Cape Wind, with Republican Romney as the hatchet man. In the current delay effort, he has had the help of Democratic Representative James Oberstar of Minnesota, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

At issue is a $100,000 study done for the Coast Guard about potential problems that Cape Wind's 130 turbines, sited over 24 square miles, might present to marine radar use. Earlier this month, a Coast Guard officer said any problems created by the turbines could be mitigated, and called the project "doable." Oberstar recently sent the Coast Guard commander a letter urging the service to hold off on its verdict for more public review, though there had already been a meeting in October with ferry captains, fishermen, and others potentially affected by any marine radar problems.

The final recommendation from the Coast Guard is just one element of the comprehensive environmental review of the project by the Minerals Management Service of the Interior Department. A draft review by the agency nearly a year ago gave a green light to the turbines, which could provide power equal to three-quarters of the Cape's demand. In 2004, a draft review by the Army Corps of Engineers also approved Cape Wind, but in 2005 an energy bill passed by Congress took overall supervision of offshore wind away from the corps and gave it to Minerals Management Service.

No coal- or gas-fired power facility has ever received such a thorough review.

The sooner Minerals Management gives its final approval, the sooner the region will benefit from its largest renewable energy source. The New England economy could also use the 600 to 1,000 jobs the project will create during the two-year installation. Leaders in so many other areas, Kennedy and Delahunt persist in a stance on Cape Wind that undercuts their claims to environmental stewardship.