State agency seeks commission input on wind farm
A state agency has asked the Cape Cod Commission whether it has any objections to findings that the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm meets state guidelines for activities in federal waters.
In a letter sent Thursday to commission executive director Paul Niedzwiecki, the director of the state Office of Coastal Zone Management wrote that “in excess of caution” he was forwarding for comment the federal consistency certifications for the plan by Cape Wind Associates LLC to build 130 wind turbines in the Sound.
CZM is responsible for balancing human activities and the protection of coastal and marine resources.
In the letter, agency director Deerin Babb-Brott wrote that public notice of CZM’s review appeared to meet legal requirements but that lawsuits challenging the findings asserted it did not.
The state agency’s review of the project was included in the Environmental Monitor, a publication that the Cape Cod Commission presumably checks frequently, CZM spokesman Robert Keough said yesterday.
The commission has not raised this issue previously, he said.
Niedzwiecki, who had not seen Babb-Brott’s letter but had it read to him, said yesterday that he sent a letter to Ian Bowles, the state’s secretary of the Office of Energy
and Environmental Affairs, several weeks ago outlining the notification issue.
“I’m going to read the letter carefully on Monday and we’re going to review our options at that time,” Niedzwiecki said.
The CZM findings are the subject of a pair of lawsuits brought by the anti-Cape Wind group, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, and the town of Barnstable.
“The components of the CZM issue that was of great concern is that they had to go to the commission,” said Charlie McLaughlin, attorney for Barnstable.
He called the request for comments from the commission “interesting” because of the planning and regulatory agency’s earlier findings that activities in federal waters must be considered in a review of Cape Wind.
Keough could not say whether the commission’s comments would change CZM’s determinations.
“We won’t know that until we receive their input,” he said. “The consistency certifications stand until and unless the (CZM) decides they need to be changed.”
It was important to note that the commission did not submit any comments during the CZM review, Keough said.
The commission has 21 days to respond to the letter, according to Babb-Brott.
The letter was sent on the same day the state Energy Facilities Siting Board decided to craft a tentative decision that would override a denial of the project by the Cape Cod Commission, along with eight other local and state permits.
By Patrick Cassidy
14 March 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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