Native tribes fight Cape Cod wind farm

Subject: Native tribes fight Cape Cod wind farm Wed Jan 06, 2010 3:10 am

Ten-year battle to build US's biggest wind turbines approaches endgame

The plan to build an enormous wind farm in Nantucket Sound, off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, has seen off a string of formidable enemies. They include the Kennedy clan, and others among the old money families of the coast, and Bill Koch, the billionaire oil and coal tycoon, the main financial force behind the opposition. The struggle to obtain the necessary permits has been under way for almost a decade.

The installation would, if constructed, be the biggest offshore wind farm in the US by far and would lend a much-needed shot of credibility to President Barack Obama's efforts to boost the renewable energy industry.

Last year, the battle appeared to have turned in the favour of the project, named Cape Wind, after a long-awaited environmental impact assessment concluded that the proposed wind turbines – 130 of them, each one 440ft high, spread over an area the size of Manhattan – would present negligible ecological problems.

But all bets were off again after complaints from two Indian tribes on Martha's Vineyard, the Mashpee Wampanoag and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head. Wampanoag means "people of the first light", and the tribes maintain that Nantucket Sound is integral to their spiritual traditions of watching the sun rise in the east.

Their worship requires unrestricted views, they claim. And the project would also disturb their ancestral burial grounds. The National Park Service has heeded their plea, and the entire area of ocean has been listed for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

More: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/native-tribes-fight-cape-cod-wind-farm-1859009.html

Native tribes fight Cape Cod wind farm

Native tribes fight Cape Cod wind farm

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