Final approval for Cape Wind is stalled, aggravating developers of the Massachusetts offshore wind project and igniting concerns that the latest roadblock -- over American Indian ceremonies -- could jeopardize other ocean-based energy proposals. ..."There's great concern. It should have been finished months ago," said Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Cape Wind, noting that the delay is disrupting efforts to arrange construction contracts, line up installation barges and find buyers for the anticipated electricity.

In Berkshire County, where three paper mills have closed and a water bottling company has balked on plans for a new facility all because of the high cost of power, small and medium-size businesses are reeling. Local economic development officials are seeing the hills that they must climb to attract new businesses — and retain existing ones — grow ever steeper as Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECO) continues to increase its commercial rates for power. This is the setting that U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry chose for a field hearing of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, during which local business leaders will testify on the cost of energy and the effect it is having on their ability to make a profit and maintain employment levels.

A new poll released this week found that support for a wind farm in Nantucket Sound drops if customers' electric bills go up by $100 or more per year. ...Conducted by the UMass Dartmouth Center for Policy Analysis, the poll asked 28 questions of 436 National Grid customers across the state over two days earlier this month. Respondents quickly become sensitive to the price of wind power despite support for the energy source, said the center's director, Clyde Barrow.

Letter from Under Secretary of Energy seen veiled veto threat
Editor's Note: The link to the original article provides a more readable version of Under Secretary Garman's letter.

The Minerals Management Service has issued their Final Environmental Impact Statement as of 1 p.m. Friday. They submitted it to the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday Jan. 9. According to MMS "impacts are expected to be negligible or minor; some moderate impacts were found."

A company that wants to build a floating wind farm off the coast of Martha's Vineyard has received a boost from the state's congressional delegation. In a letter dated June 26, the entire Massachusetts delegation asked the U.S. Minerals Management Service to review an application by Blue H USA LLC for a lease to test floating platform technology and collect data at the site for the proposed wind farm. The company announced the congressional support for its application at its U.S. headquarters in Boston yesterday.