On Thursday, Oct. 4 at 7:15 p.m., the Martha’s Vineyard Commission is holding a public hearing on the draft for the Wind Energy Plan for Dukes County. This plan was widely distributed last year and can be downloaded from the commission website, mvcommission.org (search for Wind Energy Plan September 2012).
The leading critics of the 170-turbine offshore wind farm proposed for the shallow waters of Horseshoe Shoal made their way across Nantucket Sound to rally Vineyard opposition to the project.
"I've seen grocery stores take longer to get permitting in front of the Cape Cod Commission than it took for Cape Wind to get [a data tower permit] from the Army Corps of Engineers," said Isaac Rosen, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, to less than a dozen officials at the all-Island selectmen's meeting Wednesday night.
A crowd of Vineyard residents registered their concerns with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding a proposed private energy project that aims to plant 170 windmills in 28 square miles of shallow water in Nantucket Sound. For nearly two hours last Thursday night an audience of 60 entered comments into the formal record during a scoping session held in conjunction with a Martha's Vineyard Commission meeting in the basement of the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown.
Army Corps of Engineers Releases Long-Awaited Environmental Report for Controversial Cape Wind Plan
The controversial Cape Wind project vaulted back into the news this week with the long-awaited release of a draft environmental impact statement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
After three years of deliberation and months of anticipation, the environmental report found that the wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound would have economic and air quality benefits but little or no long-term negative impacts.
Top federal environmental agencies found fundamental flaws in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers review of the controversial Cape Wind project, the Gazette has learned.
Responding to an early version of the Army Corps draft environmental impact statement, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Mineral Management Service all questioned the objectivity of the Army Corps analysis.
Amid an escalating political climate around the controversial Cape Wind project, the Martha's Vineyard Commission decided last week to finally step into the fray.
While commission members were clear they would not take a position on the project itself, they unanimously agreed to take up as a cause the inadequate regulatory framework for permitting offshore wind farms.
The Martha's Vineyard Commission on Monday voted without dissent to designate an energy district critical of planning concern in the town of Aquinnah, the first such district of its kind on the Island.
The town and the commission will now begin the process of drafting special townwide regulations for Aquinnah to promote alternative energy in new construction and establish guidelines for the placement of wind turbines, solar panels and geothermal systems.
The town of Aquinnah, known for being progressive in planning, this week moved a step closer to adopting a townwide energy conservation district.
Town selectmen on Wednesday submitted a nomination to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission to designate Aquinnah as an energy district of critical planning concern (DCPC). The nomination was filed by Camille Rose, chairman of the selectmen.
Some 61 per cent of residents of Cape Cod and the Islands favor the Cape Wind project, according to a major new scientific survey of 501 residents.
So said the press release put out yesterday by the Civil Society Institute, which describes itself as a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank in Newton. The release made it look like a decisive verdict in favor of the wind power project, delivered in the court of public opinion.
Abundant wind power, with no fuel cost, is destined to replace the most expensive source of electrical generation — and that is from oil-fueled power plants.
Allow me to explain. In New England, unlike the rest of the country, oil-generated electricity plays a large but diminishing role. Almost a quarter of the installed capacity of all power plants here use oil as fuel.
