Offshore Wind - More Delays

Here’s an important lesson for anybody trying to develop a major alt-power project: work with your neighbors.

Cape Wind, the proposed offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound, appears to be sinking after years of controversy. Last week a federal panel recommended that the government reject the project; interior secretary Ken Salazar is expected to make a final ruling this month.

Among other missteps, Cape Wind developers failed to win over the powerful Kennedy clan, which reportedly was concerned about the environmental impact of the turbines. (Also, big windmills might mess up the view from the Kennedy compound.) When a green project gets the thumbs-down from the famously pro-environment Kennedys, that’s a bad sign. Fishermen were also reportedly concerned the turbines would interfere with their nets, and Native Americans said the project would intrude upon culturally significant areas and rituals.

And in New York, NIMBY politics also scuttled in 2007 an offshore wind proposal that would have been visible from one of Long Island’s most popular beaches, though Long Island Power Authority is currently working on another proposal that might address these concerns by planting the turbines farther out in the Atlantic.

But in Rhode Island, another windy Northeast state, wind-power advocates are taking a different approach. Instead of letting developers take the lead, that state is trying to do its homework first. The state is expected to finish in August a three-year study of potential offshore wind sites. It’s evaluated bird migration, fish populations, local fishermen and Native Americans’ concerns. That seems like it should cover all, or at least most, of their bases.