Where the Wind Blows

By Sunny Lewis, Environment News Service. Posted November 12, 2004.

The first offshore wind park in the United States off Cape Cod would cause little harm to the environment, according to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) released by the Army Corps of Engineers on Monday. Instead, it would reduce air pollution and energy prices, without causing problems for aircraft, boats, birds or fish, the report projects.

The Cape Wind company plans to erect 130 wind turbines, with a total maximum output of 420 megawatts on Horseshoe Shoal, five miles off the Cape Cod shore in Massachusetts. In average conditions the wind park will produce enough electricity to power three-quarters of the Cape and Islands with clean, renewable energy, the company says.

The 3,800-page DEIS report is the product of three years of scientific, environmental and economic analysis and includes the input of 17 federal and state cooperating agencies as well as public comments.

Jim Gordon, president of Cape Wind, was delighted with the environmental impact statement. "The release of this report represents a notable victory for an informed public dialogue during the permitting process, given the sustained campaign by project opponents to keep this report from ever seeing the light of day," he said.

An opponent group, Windstop.org, warns that the view from every beach on the Cape "will be destroyed by the steel forest the size of the island of Manhattan, New York."

The DEIS acknowledges that the turbines will be visible from areas of the shoreline and from other areas of Nantucket Sound.

The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound says the Sound is a "rich ecological resource area that qualifies for and deserves protected status." A power plant in the midst of this sensitive ecosystem could degrade or destroy vital habitat for birds, fish and marine mammals, and pose a serious threat to the near-shore fishing industry.

"The wind energy plant is an expansive industrial complex of 130 wind turbines, each 417 feet tall, which will cause visual, noise and light pollution, both by day and by night," the Alliance says.

The wind farm opponents warn that a 10-story-tall offshore transformer station Cape Wind plans to install would expose the beaches of Cape Cod to the enviromental impact of a possible transformer station fire, leak, spill or explosion.

Several major environmental organizations back the wind farm. The Conservation Law Foundation, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Greenpeace USA, HeathLink and Cape Clean Air have all opposed attempts to halt review of the project. The release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement follows two positive reports from the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board and the U.S.Department of Energy, which also found that the Cape Wind project would produce energy, environmental and economic benefits for the region.

"Natural gas and oil prices have reached record heights; the Cape Wind DEIS is a timely reminder that we can take steps to fight back. Harnessing wind power will help propel us toward a healthier environment and increased energy security and independence," Gordon said.

Opponents rely on the statement of a retired U.S. Coast Guard helicopter pilot who is a current professional pilot on Cape Cod. "I view the proposed wind farm as an extreme hazard to aviation, " Lt. Cmdr. William H. Rypka wrote in a letter to the editor of the Cape Cod Times. Fog limits visibility to zero on some days, Rypka warned, which would increase the risk of a collision between an aircraft and a wind turbine. "I truly believe in alternative energy, but this is not the proper site for it," he wrote.

But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' DEIS states that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a Determination of No Hazard to air Navigation regarding Cape Wind. Specifically, the FAA found that Cape Wind would have no adverse impact upon: air navigation, communications, radar, control system facilities, air traffic operations enroute through Nantucket Sound under VFR conditions, air traffic operations inbound, outbound, or enroute through the Nantucket Sound airspace under IFR conditions.

In other findings, the DEIS says energy produced by Cape Wind will displace an equivalent amount of energy that would otherwise have been needed from more expensive fossil fuel sources, lowering the cost of electricity on the New England spot market for all consumers.

The wind farm would reduce the cost of compliance with the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards for Massachusetts electricity consumers and would help reduce the region's dependency on foreign oil. The manufacturing, construction, and operation of Cape Wind would create 600 to 1,000 new jobs during the construction period and 154 permanent jobs. The DEIS projected $21.8 million in addition economic output each year; $10.2 million in value added; and, nearly $7 million in labor income.

Sunny Lewis is editor in chief of Environment News Service, an independently owned wire service covering the environment.

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