Thursday, 4:30 PM
Another delay for Cape Wind as agency grapples with review process
By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff
The plan to build a wind farm off the Cape and Islands encountered yet another delay Thursday night when the federal agency reviewing it announced it will not release a draft report of its findings this month, as planned.
The Minerals Management Service now plans to take a stand on the project in late summer, a spokeswoman for the agency said.
The review "is taking longer than originally expected," Nicolette Nye, the spokeswoman, acknowledged in a statement. "Offshore alternative energy is a new frontier for the nation, and Cape Wind is one of the first ... projects under review by MMS, thus the agency is proceeding with the review of the Cape Wind Energy Project in an appropriately deliberate and diligent manner."
The postponement pushed back public hearings on the project to the fall and will probably delay the release of its final report until summer 2008, according to Nye.
A week earlier, Massachusetts' environmental affairs secretary gave the Cape Wind project the green light. But the project, planned in federal waters in Nantucket Sound, needs approval from Washington.
Until recently, the federal government had no specific rules for reviewing offshore energy projects, a nascent industry. Minerals Management is developing a regulatory review process structure at the same time it is reviewing Cape Wind, the nation's first proposed offshore wind farm.
Cape Wind Associates aims to build 130 wind turbines on 25 miles in Nantucket Sound. The company says its windmills could produce about 79 percent of the Cape and Islands' daily power needs, pollution-free.
Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Cape Wind Associates, which proposed the project in 2001, expressed disappointment in the delay.
"As it is, we're into the sixth year of permitting for Cape Wind," he said. "We're having to pass a higher bar than any of Massachusetts' fossil fuel or nuclear power plants had to."
