Cape Wind Plows Ahead

Cape Wind, the first major offshore wind farm proposed for the US continues to move forward. As this article, Corps denies Romney's bid to delay release of wind farm impact report, David Kibbe, Cape Cod Online (7/31/04) reports, the Corps will not delay the release of the draft environmental report to allow Massachusetts to clarify the scope of its jurisdcition over the project. A month prior, the First Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in TEN TAXPAYER CITIZENS GROUP; CAPE COD MARINE TRADES ASSOCIATION, INC.; RAOUL D. ROSS; THE MASSACHUSETTS BOATING AND YACHT CLUBS ASSOCIATION, INC., , Docket No. 03-2323 (June 28, 2004) finding that federal law preempts the state of Massachusetts from exercising permitting jurisdiction over outer-continental shelf (OCS) lands in the Nantucket Sound where the project will be sited. OCS lands begin roughly three miles from shore - and according to his July 26 letter to the Corps, Massachusetts Governor Romney described that he was seeking to clarify whether certain rock formations near shore would extend the state's jurisdiction into the footprint of the wind farm.