Cape Wind is dealt a setback [View All]

Cape Wind is dealt a setback

Bill would give Romney final say

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff | April 7, 2006

Governor Mitt Romney, an opponent of the wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound,
would gain the authority to kill the controversial project under a tentative agreement
reached yesterday in the US Senate.

After days of closed-door talks, members of Congress agreed on a measure that would grant
the governor or his successor the right to block the wind farm proposed by Cape Wind
Associates, Senate aides said. The break came yesterday when US Senator Gordon H. Smith,
an Oregon Republican, switched sides and backed the measure giving the governor the
authority to block the project, environmental advocates and Senate aides said.

The amendment is now expected to be attached to a broad Coast Guard authorization bill
that would face floor votes in the House and the Senate, where its future remains unclear.
Some expect the measure to generate a battle in the Senate, where Senator Pete V. Domenici,
a New Mexico Republican and chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, sharply
criticized it this week as contradicting Congress's commitment to producing more renewable
energy.

Cape Wind aims to build 130 wind turbines on a 24-square-mile area of Nantucket Sound.
During average winds, Gordon says, the project could provide three-quarters of the
electricity needs of the Cape and Islands, without generating pollution.