Get balance right with Cape Wind
THE FEDERAL review of the proposed Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound will set the standard for future offshore wind projects in the United States, so it is important that we ''get it right." Renewable energy will reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and combat global warming, which, if unchecked, will lead to rising sea levels, and may one day wash away coastal habitat and popular beaches.
While the Massachusetts Audubon Society recognizes the need for ''green" energy, no purpose is served if the project causes greater harm than good. Mass Audubon has taken a leadership role in analyzing the potential environmental impact, with particular attention to the birds that live in the sound's Horseshoe Shoal or fly through this area.
After five years of project review, including three years of ornithological fieldwork, we released Mass Audubon's Challenge, a detailed set of standards that will guide our final review of this important project. In addition to avian research, our extensive study included discussions with ornithologists, scientists, and engineers, and a visit to Denmark's offshore wind farms during the 2005 spring bird migration.
While Mass Audubon's primary expertise is birdlife, we also evaluated and assessed other potential impacts to the seafloor, fisheries, marine mammals, and other sea life.
The Challenge requests that Cape Wind and its permitting agencies accept comprehensive and rigorous monitoring and mitigation conditions that will reduce the risk to birds and other wildlife. If these conditions are adopted and remaining data gaps are filled with a finding of no significant threat to living resources, Mass Audubon will support Cape Wind, the largest clean, renewable-energy project in the Northeast.
Mass Audubon has identified additional avian research needs for Horseshoe Shoal including:
Nighttime distribution and behavior of hundreds of thousands of long-tailed ducks.
Movement of endangered terns and threatened plovers during the late summer to early fall migration.
Abundance and distribution of spring and fall migrating songbirds.
Work on filling these gaps has begun or will begin shortly. We also propose adoption of an Adaptive Management Plan that includes a rigorous monitoring program beginning at the construction phase and continuing for at least three years postconstruction, mitigation measures in the event that the project produces unanticipated and ecologically significant adverse impacts, compensation for the use of public lands and waters, and enforceable procedures for decommissioning any abandoned turbines.
An independent panel should be responsible for collecting and analyzing data collected during monitoring and preparing reports for peer review and dissemination to relevant agencies, Cape Wind, and the public. Finally, an independently administered mitigation fund should be established for conservation of bird habitat in and around Nantucket Sound. Monitoring and mitigation should be funded by Cape Wind with contributions from independent institutions and government agencies as appropriate.
We review Cape Wind in the context of a planet experiencing rapid climate warming, oil spills, strip mining, and air pollution. The combustion of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and methane, which accumulate in the lower atmosphere and rapidly heat the earth, and mercury, which bioaccumulates in the environment, causing health problems for humans, especially pregnant women and children.
Rising sea levels caused by warming will flood low-lying barrier beaches and islands that serve as critical habitat for coastal birds including terns and plovers.
The consequences of climate warming compel us to increase energy conservation and efficiency as a first priority, and to continue to supply our energy needs wind should be tapped as the most successful and readily available of all renewable energy technologies.
The benefits and detriments of Cape Wind must be balanced against the threats to Nantucket Sound posed by fossil-fuel use and rapid climate warming. We must act boldly and quickly; uncertainty should not slow our response to this threat. Let's do it right if the science shows little threat to wildlife; let's judge this project based on its merits for improving our environment, and not on politics.
Mass Audubon's Challenge is online at www.massaudubon.org/wind.
Laura Johnson is president of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. 
