Frank says wind farm project is `good idea'

WASHINGTON -- In a letter to constituents yesterday, US Representative Barney Frank said that he supports a proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound, becoming the first member of the Massachusetts delegation to publicly endorse the controversial Cape Wind project.

Frank had previously supported efforts by Senator Edward M. Kennedy to pass federal legislation that would have allowed Governor Mitt Romney to veto the project. In an interview, the Newton Democrat said that he was ``never opposed" the wind farm, but had been deferring to his congressional colleagues on district matters.

Kennedy has since dropped that proposal, and Frank said yesterday that, accordingly, ``it's time to tell people what my position is."

``I think wind power is a good idea. I think it's perfectly reasonable to have it south of Massachusetts," Frank said. He added, ``I am for these principles subject to the navigation being worked out," referring to concerns over the project's potential effect on maritime traffic in the area.

Frank said that ``heightened interest in the energy crisis" had led to his support for the project, adding that he was struck by the number of his constituents who considered the project ``of transcendent importance."

``It shows what real concerns there are about energy," he said.

The Cape Wind proposal calls for a 24-square-mile wind plant off the southern coast of Massachusetts, which includes Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port.

Lawmakers from Rhode Island and Maine have voiced support for the project, but a number of prominent Bay State politicians, including Romney, have joined with local residents in opposing the project on environmental and aesthetic grounds. Opponents say that the project poses dangers to the area's ecosystem, tourism industry, and maritime navigation.

In his letter, Frank wrote that he did not think that environmental and aesthetic concerns ``should be allowed to interfere with a very important non-polluting source of energy."

Cape Wind backers said their cause would be buoyed by Frank's public support. ``We believe his comments today reflect a growing surge of support in Massachusetts and in the nation for Cape Wind and the benefits of renewable energy," said Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Cape Wind Associates, the project's developers.

But Charles Vinick, president of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, which opposes Cape Wind for environmental reasons, said he did not think the opinion of ``one individual" would affect the project's ultimate fate.