Alaskan senator denies making wind farm deal with Kennedy

WASHINGTON -- Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska yesterday denied cutting a special deal with Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts to block a proposed wind farm off Cape Cod.

Stevens cast his opposition to the Cape Wind proposal as an issue of states' rights.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Stevens said Kennedy went along with his proposal to hand Governor Mitt Romney, a Cape Wind opponent, the power to veto the project. Environmental groups have accused Kennedy of reaching a backroom deal with Stevens to block Cape Wind, but Stevens said he wants all states to have the final word on energy projects off their coastlines. ''He, as a matter of fact, is an old friend, and it's true that Senator Kennedy and the governor of Massachusetts support the provision," said Stevens, the Senate's senior Republican.

''It is not an issue based on friendship, nor any past favors or future favors," Stevens said. ''It is strictly a provision based upon my long-held belief that states should have a final say on projects that impact their land, resources, and constituents."

Cape Wind officials responded by noting that Massachusetts agencies governing energy, environmental, and coastal issues have reviewed or are still considering whether to approve the project.

The governor does not currently have veto power, and he does not have such power over other energy proposals in the state, either, said Mark Rodgers, a Cape Wind spokesman.

He added that despite Stevens' stated support for governors to have the final say in all cases, the language inserted by him would apply only to Cape Wind.

Stevens's speech, which Kennedy followed with one of his own on the Senate floor, was made as the provision to block Cape Wind draws growing scrutiny on Capitol Hill. The Bush administration has joined legislators in the House and Senate in saying that the provision, which would scuttle the project, should not be included in a bill designed to fund Coast Guard operations.

The chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Pete V. Domenici, and the top Democrat, Jeff Bingaman, both of New Mexico, say they will block the bill if the Cape Wind provision is not removed. The Coast Guard bill is expected to be considered first in the House, but pressure from Cape Wind supporters has so far delayed it there.

Kennedy yesterday accused Cape Wind developers of getting their own special deal in an energy bill passed last year. Pointing to a chart showing the federal waters inside Nantucket Sound that Cape Wind wants to build giant turbines on, Kennedy said the energy bill had put Cape Wind on a faster track than similar companies.

''We have a developer that is up there that has claimed these 24 square miles without competition," he said. ''It is completely exempt from all of the protections."

But Sue Reid, a lawyer for the Conservation Law Foundation, said the company was grandfathered in under previously existing regulations governing offshore wind farms and was not exempted from state and federal requirements. The energy bill gave similar treatment to another developer's proposal for a wind farm off Long Island. ''It took into consideration that both of those projects had been in the pipeline for some time," Reid said.