Wind resistance

THE ARMY Corps of Engineers' draft environmental report on the Nantucket Sound wind farm project is becalmed in the doldrums of the Army bureaucracy. Early last month, the report by the regional Army Corps of Engineers went to corps headquarters in Washington for what was expected to be a quick review before its release to the public. But the review has been anything but quick, raising concerns that it is being stalled or shelved indefinitely.

ADVERTISEMENT

A spokesman for the Defense Department said last week that an extra review is justified because the project is the first of its kind. The spokesman, Glenn Flood, said Deputy Undersecretary Raymond DuBois wanted to make sure that the report considered all possible alternative sites and that "all the t's were crossed." Such scrutiny is useful, but it shouldn't require several weeks.

In an approval process that already involves several federal and state agencies, as it should, the additional delay in Washington does little to foster development of a promising source of renewable energy. Both proponents and opponents of Cape Wind's plan for 130 wind turbines over a 25-square mile area deserve to see the corps's draft report now to judge whether it provides a fair and thorough assessment of the proposal.

The report might conclude that the plan carries heavy costs in bird or marine life and that other sites are preferable. But if the report generally gives the project a green light on environmental grounds, it should proceed.

The Army's foot-dragging is more than matched by Congress's failure to come up with legislation that would provide a broader regulatory framework for wind, tidal, and other projects that use US waters. While current laws require such projects to pass environmental muster, there is no system yet for awarding access to large sections of ocean surface on a competitive basis with firms bidding for leases for the most promising sites.

Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly and Senator John Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, have argued that the Cape Wind project should not go forward until such a framework is in place. This stance, however, would make offshore wind power indefinitely hostage to Congress's chronic inability to agree on complex legislation. A bill sponsored by Representative William Delahunt of Quincy that would set up benchmarks for offshore renewable energy proposals has not even won committee approval, much less been passed by the House.

By all means, Congress should create a framework for offshore projects. In the meantime, though, the Cape Wind proposal deserves to have its merits and demerits measured in a timely way. The Army should release the impact statement.