Appeal is one of three; local control at issue

The influential Cape Cod Commission is appealing a state board's recent decision to grant the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm a suite of local permits, warning that the move could mean little local say in future energy projects across the state.

The appeal, to the state's highest court, was one of three announced yesterday - the town of Barnstable and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound filed others - over the consolidation last month by the Energy Facilities Siting Board of nine local permits for the 130-turbine project into one "superpermit.''

"The decision attempts to override local and regional permitting processes,'' Paul Niedzwiecki, executive director of the Cape Cod Commission, said in a statement. "Allowing this process to stand would allow any type of future utility project to avoid local review in evaluating and mitigating local impacts.''

The commission, a regional planning agency, had denied the project a permit for an electrical transmission line.

The appeal is yet another wrinkle in the developers' eight-year battle to build the nation's first offshore wind farm. The project is awaiting a federal sign-off that could come next month. But the appeals promise to stall the project even longer.

Officials at Cape Wind, the developers, said they were confident the Siting Board would prevail before the Supreme Judicial Court. They said the reason for the commission's denial, lack of information, is not believable.

"The Cape Cod Commission had more information and more time, years and thousands of pages of documents,'' said Mark Rodgers, a Cape Wind spokesman. "We are sure [the Siting Board] will be upheld.''

The wind farm would be built in federal waters, beyond the reach of most state and local agencies. Many of the transmission lines would be on land, however, giving various governments authority to review pieces of the project. Included are the towns of Barnstable and Yarmouth, as well as the Cape Cod Commission.

The commission denied the project a permit in 2007, saying it did not have enough information. Cape Wind immediately appealed to the state Siting Board. It was created more than 35 years ago, in part to evaluate energy projects that may be unreasonably held up or burdened by local permitting processes. The developers asked not only for the board to overrule the Cape Cod Commission but for all local approvals to be evaluated as one by the board. The board agreed to do so.

All Cape Cod Commission issues "were raised and considered in the course of an 18-month-long proceeding'' by the siting board, said Robert Keough, spokesman for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. "We are confident that the Siting Board's ruling will be upheld by the court.''

The appeal from the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the project's main opposition group, echoed the sentiments expressed by the Cape Cod Commission.

Barnstable officials said the Siting Board has authority over its permits, but not the commission's.

Charles McLaughlin, assistant town attorney, also said that the state facilities board too narrowly evaluated the transmission line and other direct effects of the project in state waters, while ignoring the broad impacts the entire wind farm would have on Cape Cod and the state.

"It makes sense you should look at the entire project and its effect in Massachusetts,'' said McLaughlin. "We believe they have the authority to do so.''

The Cape Cod Commission said it would not be making a public statement about its decision, but posted a lengthy explanation on its website.

In the statement, Niedzwiecki said the issue was about jurisdiction, not the Cape Wind project, and stressed that the commission understands that fast action is needed to end the nation's dependence on fossil fuels and that offshore wind projects are necessary in coastal areas that could be endangered by a rise in sea levels.

Yet, he noted, "the fastest way to permit and construct off-shore wind is to participate fully in the local process.'' Niedzweicki said he hoped the dispute would be settled within months.

The Cape Cod Commission's decision to appeal rankled some Cape Wind supporters, who said the public agency should not be using taxpayer dollars to fight a project that's so needed in the region.

"I live on the Cape, as do many of our members,'' said Barbara Hill, executive director of Clean Power Now, a Cape Wind support group.

"This is an egregious use of funding. We have so many issues here, and my tax dollars are funding the attorney to take these suits to the Supreme Judicial Court.''