Native American rituals and beliefs have emerged as a surprising last-minute obstacle to federal approval of the nation's first offshore wind farm, threatening to significantly delay the Cape Wind project. Two Massachusetts tribes say the 130 proposed wind turbines in Nantucket Sound would disturb their spiritual sun greetings and submerged ancestral burying grounds. The Aquinnah and Mashpee Wampanoag tribes ...are pushing for the entire sound to be listed as a traditional cultural property on the National Register of Historic Places.

...a 350-foot wind turbine may be too much of a good thing for Mountain Hill Road residents. ...The planning board made its decision Monday night, despite stiff opposition from neighborhood residents who packed town hall to protest the plan. ‘‘It's not that we're against wind energy, but the drop zone for one of the turbines would be within 85 to 200 feet of our neighbors,'' Mountain Hill Road resident William Gould said. ‘‘These things are monstrous, and they are right on top of our neighborhood. The impact would be devastating. ‘‘The bylaw says five acres and wind is enough for a turbine. If this is approved, what neighborhood is next?''

If you see some balloons floating on the hill behind Graham Waste, don't think there is a sale on used cars. The balloons are part of the on-going Planning Board review process for two wind turbines with a proposed siting off Route 3A. Beginning today (Friday) and continuing throughout the weekend, balloons will be floated as the approximate height of the two proposed wind turbine locations to aid the Planning Board in visualizing the scale of the project.

A dispute over transmission lines for the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm landed in court this week. ...Barnstable officials filed a complaint in Barnstable Superior Court Wednesday claiming the Cape Cod Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over the transmission cables that would link the turbines to the shoreline. In October, the commission rejected a plan to have the transmission cables make landfall in Barnstable, and Cape Wind appealed that decision to the state Energy Facilities Siting Board. In the complaint filed Wednesday, Barnstable officials contend the state Energy Facilities Siting Board does not have the authority to review the commission's denial of the transmission lines.

Passage of a bylaw that sets limits for wind-turbine noise could be another step toward town use of wind power. The planning board's bylaw proposal calls for using noise standards that were adopted by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The bylaw, which will be voted on at town meeting, would require that any application for permission to install a turbine include information about the current noise level and how much noise the turbine would produce. It also would limit the noise increase. The measuring of noise would be done at the base of the turbine and the property line. ...‘‘There is a tremendous opportunity for wind turbines, but there are a lot of questions that need to be answered, but we can eliminate any undue expectations about (turbines ) being too noisy,'' he said.

The Cape-based group campaigning to kill the Nantucket Sound wind farm raised nearly $4.7 million in contributions in calendar year 2004, nearly tripling the amount raised the year before.

Hearing of the map from her neighbor, Nan Cook couldn't believe it. Drafted by the city's former planning director, Nancy Colbert, last March, the map shows possible locations where wind turbines could be placed in the industrial park. There are about 22. ...Cook, who lives on Hill Street, called the possibility of adding 22 more turbines to the industrial park "insane."

Eighty-two residents of that neighborhood have signed a petition against the proposal. "In spite of significant neighborhood opposition and negative vote by the ZBA, they are still pursuing something that is not economically viable," said Anne Frasca, a certified public accountant whose property abuts the park and who organized the opposition. "The savings generated are minimal - $1,900 a year. . . . That's assuming estimates on wind in the area are accurate, but they never did a full analysis on the wind." The parks commission has said that a professional study doesn't make sense financially for a proposal that will cost the town so little. While Town Meeting approved $60,000 to purchase the turbine, a state grant would reimburse the town $45,000.

Cohasset's first green project under the town's new wind turbine bylaw may soon be dead, after nearly two years of discussion and planning. Planning Board vice chairman Stuart Ivimey said last week he will not vote in favor of a special permit for a pair of commercial wind turbines proposed by a Plymouth company, leaving the project one vote short of approval.

FAIRHAVEN - Residents speaking at a forum on wind power last night made a lot of noise about what kind of sound two proposed Little Bay wind turbines would produce. During a sometimes chaotic meeting in a standing-room only hall, some wanted to know why a specific wind study has not been done on the project and why turbines would be erected closer to homes than what is recommended in other studies. "We have done the studies that the town asked us to do," said Nils Boldgen of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, which has worked with the town on the project. "A noise study could be done." Officials also said the sound requirements would have to meet levels determined by the town's bylaw: 60 decibels at 600 feet.

FAIRHAVEN - While the developer that wants to erect two wind turbines on town land is offering free bus trips to see operating turbines in Hull, members of the WindWise Fairhaven group questioning the project say they are paying for a noise study. WindWise member Kenneth Pottell made the revelation last night as the Board of Selectmen discussed the issue in the wake of a wind power forum last week. "It's really important that the town does it right," Mr. Pottell said. "We're not asking for something other towns haven't done."

The fate of what would be the nation's first offshore wind farm is calling attention to the political obstacles facing renewable power, despite President-elect Barack Obama's determination to greatly expand its use. The project, called Cape Wind, is a Boston firm's plan to build 130 windmills across 25 square miles of federal waters off Cape Cod. ...A spokesman for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound says the group sees "lots of room to protest" the government review.

Most in the neighborhood are uneasy about the turbines - and the issue took the forefront in town politics when attorney Ann Ponichetera DeNardis ran for the Board of Selectmen. Led by Mrs. DeNardis, neighbors signed a five-page petition asking Town Meeting to vote the proposal down last Tuesday. A raucous Town Meeting decided otherwise, supporting the renewable energy project seen by most as a benign way to help the town's economy and the environment. But negative feelings run high.

By the time federal regulators stopped accepting public comments about the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm on Monday, two of the letters had already raised some eyebrows among the project's critics. That's because the two letters were signed by the same person, state Division of Marine Fisheries director Paul Diodati, but they struck noticeably different tones. ...Diodati's first letter [dated Feb. 20] spells out the loss of access that fishermen could face as well as concerns about rescue crews reaching a troubled boat in the area. But the second letter, dated March 7, tones down the rhetoric considerably, reducing the section that lists the potential impacts to fisheries to just a few sentences. The section also mentions a couple of possible benefits, such as certain species becoming attracted to the newly built tower foundations.

The final environmental impact statement for the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm will be released tomorrow, according to a notice posted on the Web site of the Office of the Federal Register. The final report marks a major development in the long-running attempts by Cape Wind Associates, LLC, to build a wind farm in the sound.

"It's a mechanical monstrosity. ... It's ugly. It makes noise, said Beverly Whitcomb. It makes a whopping sound which will just drive you nuts."

The pieces of the tower that will support the wind turbine to be built in the coming weeks at Mark Richey Woodworking are so massive, they dwarf the humans preparing them to reach skyward. Once assembled, the tower alone would serve as the tallest structure in Greater Newburyport. ...The group has started a Web site, BackBayWind.org, that links to research video showing the potential hazards of these massive turbines, from health hazards to safety fears. One video shows a turbine collapsing in the wind.

Jason LaCroix, 14 Hill St., told councilors of the "human effect" the turbine has caused in the neighborhood. He recently purchased and put in a new glass door on his house. He had to take it out after he saw the shadows of the turbine's rotors on his wall reflecting off the glass. On his rooftop deck, the turbine is "virtually eye level," he said. The flicker study done for the Richey turbine wasn't accurate and minimized what impact it would have on the Back Bay neighborhood.

The biggest challenge to the proposed 1.5-megawatt wind turbine in Falmouth Technology Park may not come from the 14 local, state, and federal agencies that Notus Clean Energy LLC needs approval from. Instead it may come from nearby residents who are concerned that the machine will negatively impact their views, lower their property values, create noise pollution, and potentially cause health problems to those in the neighborhood.

Councilors agreed to re-examine the ordinance and possibly make changes after neighbors in the Back Bay neighborhood voiced their opposition to the 292-foot-tall turbine put up by business owner Mark Richey on his woodworking facility site in the industrial park. That turbine went up in January. Armed with materials, research and drafted changes to the ordinance, neighbors offered suggestions on how the document could be altered - the current setbacks need to be changed, they said, and to share what it's like to live in the turbine's shadow each day.