March 9, 2007
Massachusetts

Commission seeks comment on wind farm

The Cape Cod Commission will conduct a public meeting regarding a proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 19 at Mattacheese Middle School, Higgins Crowell Road, West Yarmouth.

The meeting is not a typical public hearing for the commission, said Margo Fenn, its executive director. It is intended to allow the public to comment on the final Environmental Impact Report recently filed by Cape Wind Associates, the would-be developer of 130 commercial wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal, to the Massachusetts Environmental Protection Act Office. The commission will then consider the public comments as it prepares its own letter of comment for MEPA.

The MEPA deadline to submit comments is March 22. The state deadline is not directly connected to ongoing federal review of the project.

“This is an important deadline to meet,” said Fenn. “This may be the public’s last chance to tell the state if the EIR is adequate.”

According to the commission, should MEPA decide that the EIR adequately addresses state and agency concerns, the Massachusetts Secretary of Environmental Affairs would issue a certificate for the project. In turn, that certificate would trigger commission review of the project as a Development of Regional Impact, or DRI. The DRI process would include additional meetings and public hearings at the regional level.

Fenn emphasized that speakers should keep their remarks as brief as possible and state their key concerns regarding the EIR.

“Ideally, those interested in the proposed project should prepare written comments to submit to MEPA,” said Fenn, adding that those with written comments addressed to MEPA can give them to the commission at the meeting. The commission will then deliver the comments to MEPA before the March 22 deadline.

The public can also mail written comments to the following address: Secretary Ian A. Bowles, EOEA, Attn: MEPA Office, Anne Canaday, EOEA No. 12643, 100 Cambridge Street, Suite 900, Boston, MA 02114.
Cape Wind filed its report Feb. 15.

townonline.com

8 March 2007


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/03/09/commission-seeks-comment-on-wind-farm/