Cape Wind, Nantucket Sound – Latest Developments

The much delayed huge offshore wind farm off Nantucket Sound; Cape Wind, moved a step closer to being constructed after a ruling by a US federal court on Wednesday.

The US Court of Appeals upheld the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) 2012 determination that the proposed 130-turbine Cape Wind offshore wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, south of Cape Cod, Mass., posed “no hazard” to air navigation.

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The decision in Town of Barnstable, Mass. v. FAA marks a major development in one of many long-standing legal disputes that have delayed the project by a staggering 13 years. This lawsuit involved the Department of Interior (DOI), the FAA, various citizen groups and developers of what could be the United States’ first commercial offshore wind farm. Given the huge coastline of the United States’ Eastern and western seaboards, one may be forgiven for wondering why there have been so many successful onshore wind farms there and not one commercial offshore wind farm.  It could be that if construction actually begins for Cape Wind, then other investors, wind companies and manufacturers will be encouraged to look for other offshore sites.

It was as long as four years ago that the FAA issued its third “No Hazard Determination”, shortly after the DOI issued its approval for Cape Wind. But the D.C. Circuit remanded the decision to the FAA, in October 2011, finding that the FAA  focused just on whether the turbines met the technical definition of obstruction (whether they exceeded 500 feet) without considering separately whether they might interfere with air navigation. That decision seemed to hand a legal victory to opposition groups, including the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound and the Town of Barnstable in terms of delaying approval and the construction of Cape Wind.

But the FAA ultimately issued a public notice of its reinstated project review in February 2012 indicating that “none of the turbines would have an adverse effect on the use of air navigation facilities or navigable airspace,” and then following that action in August 2012 with its fourth No Hazard Determination. The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound challenged that determination, but in the Court of Appeals has denied its review. What next?

The Cape Wind project has now secured all required permits and has been issued a commercial lease and received approval for its construction and operations plan by the DOI. In December last year, the developers signed a major contract with Siemens for the supply of 3.6-MW offshore wind turbines, an offshore electric service platform and a service agreement for the first 15 years of commercial operations. Even though construction hasn’t commenced, the Cape Wind developers say they have sold 77.5% of the project’s power output in long-term power purchase agreements to the US National Grid and NSTAR.

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Mark Rogers

Cape Wind Communications Director Mark Rodgers said on Wednesday:

“The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the Town of Barnstable and their financial backer—coal billionaire Bill Koch—have failed yet again in their continuing campaign to use the courts to delay the financing of Cape Wind. This was the same court that had previously provided project opponents their sole and temporary relief, opponents have lost all 12 legal decisions in other courts.”

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Bill Koch

There are still other lawsuits waiting to be heard, but supporters of Cape Wind can see light at the end of the tunnel. Opponents have called the project expensive and outdated. A bit rich when it is them that have caused the delay and caused additional expense to the project in legal fees battling opponent’s lawsuits- many of which have been spurious. And let’s not forget that many local people are in favor of the development-

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We will keep you posted on further developments….