Cape Wind approval may boost R.I. plans
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s announcement on Wednesday of his approval of an offshore wind farm in Massachusetts could have far-reaching implications for Rhode Island.
The approval of the 130-turbine Cape Wind project catapults Massachusetts and developer Energy Management Inc. back into the lead in the race to build the first offshore wind farm in the United States. The thumbs-up given by Salazar was the last major approval Cape Wind needed in its odyssey to build a wind farm in waters nestled between Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. No other project in the country has even started the federal permitting process, which by some estimates could take seven years to complete.
So unless Rhode Island can get a stalled proposal for a small wind farm in state waters back on track soon, the Ocean State’s ambitions to develop offshore wind before any of its neighbors on the East Coast appear dim. And on the face of it, that could be a blow to the state’s fledgling green economy. Read more…
