The Cape Cod Commission - a regulatory agency formed to slow the dizzying pace of development of the Cape in the 1980s - is expected to deny Cape Wind Associates a permit this week, potentially delaying the nation's first offshore wind farm even further. A subcommittee recommended that the commission deny the permit due to insufficient information - a ruling that prompted howls from allies of Cape Wind Associates, which has been pitching its plans to the commission and other governmental agencies for six years.

The Cape Cod Commission has voted to deny a plan to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. A commission subcommittee recommended the denial, saying Cape Wind Associates was unwilling to provide more time and information. But the company said it provided exhaustive amounts of information about the project, which has already cleared previous hurdles.

Building a wind turbine, even a small one at your home, could be much more difficult if the proposed new regulations before Cape Cod Commission are adopted. The proposed rules state that any turbine greater than 65 feet in height would be a Development of Regional Impact.

YARMOUTH, Mass. - A plan to build the the world largest offshore wind-power farm off Massachusetts is dividing residents of the Cape Cod resort region, in a debate involving million-dollar ocean views, migrating birds and soaring energy bills.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said his department will "hopefully" decide by the end of the year whether to approve plans for what may be the nation's first offshore wind farm along the coast of Massachusetts. The Interior Department is working toward an "expeditious conclusion" of the approvals needed for Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound, Salazar said today. "We'll have a final decision to be made hopefully by the end of this year," he said.

But Mr Kennedy is not the only politician in the state who objects to the plan. Mitt Romney, the Republican governor considering a run for his party's presidential nomination in 2008, is against the wind farm. So too are most candidates running to succeed Mr Romney, including Tom Reilly, Massachusetts' Democratic attorney-general.

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.''

WASHINGTON --Supporters of the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm are preparing for a showdown in the Senate on a bill that could sink the project.

A key federal agency said Monday that a proposed wind farm off Cape Cod would pose no major environmental problems, giving a boost to the project that has sparked a long and bitter public fight. A draft environmental report by the Minerals Management Service said plans by developer Cape Wind Associates to build 130 windmills across 25 miles of federal waters in Nantucket Sound would have mostly 'minor' or 'negligible' effects on wildlife, ocean navigation, fishing and tourism. ...A spokesman for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the leading opposition group to the wind farm, said the report underestimated the project's environmental threats. 'We're disappointed because there are still gaps in what's been put in the report,' said Glenn Wattley in a phone interview with The Associated Press. 'Statements that there is minimal environmental impact, we think are wrong. There are very important and serious impacts.'

BOSTON — One side says a 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound will provide a fine source of renewable energy. The other says the 24-square-mile development will despoil one of the country's most majestic expanses of open water.

Cape Wind Associates is working with investment bank Lehman Brothers to secure financing, Rodgers said, adding that he was confident the project would clear a government regulatory review which is expected to decide on the project in 2007.

Compared to those ultramodern windmills, the Eastham Mill is a relic: When the canvas sails are tied up, the arms look like pieces of wood and cloth washed ashore from a shipwreck. They don't move in the wind. But a few times a year the sails are unfurled, the arms turn in the wind, and Owens dumps corn into the mill, making cornmeal.

The roundtable is set for Aug. 14, and while it will not be held in a public forum, it will be produced by The Cape Codder for airing on local access Channel 17. Air dates will be announced in each of the newspapers. Staff coverage of the roundtable will appear in The Cape Codder's Aug. 18 issue, and in the sister publications the following week.

The 6 p.m. session at Mattacheese Middle School is the last opportunity, however, for public comment on the plan to erect 130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound to generate electricity. "Everybody should keep in mind that it's not a dialog session," said Rodney Cluck, Cape Wind project manager for the federal Minerals Management Service. "We'll be there listening. The information will be brought back and analyzed in the final Environmental Impact Statement."

Historic preservation, 5, Cape Cod Community College wind turbine, 0. Following more than four hours of passionate debate and deliberation, the Old King's Highway Regional Historic District Commission voted 5-0 yesterday to uphold a denial of the college's plan to build a 243-foot-tall turbine on its West Barnstable campus.

One day after a state board tentatively approved a "super permit" that encompasses nine state and local approvals needed to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, the Cape Cod Commission has mounted a legal challenge. On Friday the commission filed a motion claiming the Energy Facilities Siting Board ...lacks the jurisdiction to overturn the commission's previous procedural denial of the project.

The CCC met last week to receive public testimony of the scope of its authority in reviewing the project, which would build a 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound to generate electricity. That electricity would be transmitted to the mainland via submarine cables that would make landfall in Yarmouth. The big question is whether the CCC's planned review of the project will tackle the entire wind farm, even though the facility proper is located in federal waters and outside of state control, or just the cables, which do fall under the commission's purview.

The controversial wind-farm proposal is the first such land-based facility advanced in Massachusetts. The first plan was withdrawn from review in March 2010. It was resubmitted to the Bourne Planning Board and commission.

BARNSTABLE - Wary of giving the slightest appearance of a Cape Wind endorsement, the Cape Light Compact governing board this week tabled a resolution supporting renewable energy. The governing board, made up of appointees from all 21 towns on Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, has resisted taking a formal position on the offshore wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound despite lobbying efforts by the project's supporters - including Cape Wind developer Jim Gordon - and opponents.

Local political and business leaders made a flying trip to Washington, D.C., Dec. 14 to meet with top officials of the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency slated to release a draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Cape Wind Project within weeks. "Personally, I'm tired of hearing about the NIMBYs," said state Rep. Demetrius Atsalis, who led the contingent. "That's not everybody (who's opposed)." The Hyannis Democrat said he pointed to votes in Mashpee and Martha's Vineyard showing significant opposition to the plan to erect 130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound, as well as statements by the Barnstable Town Council and other local government bodies. ..."We're the abutting neighbors," Joakim said. "We're the most affected communities and nobody is talking to us about how this will affect us. Our own governor is advocating this, and he's never sat down and talked to town staff or elected officials that I know of."