Do you remember open-book tests, the ones where you could look up the answers to the questions?

Those are the kind of tests that Cape Wind has passed.

Here are some questions that weren't on the test.

What right do you have to build an energy plant in what amounts to an ocean sanctuary?

How can you describe the Nantucket Sound project as the harbinger of more offshore energy installations when the Draft Environmental Impact Statement listed so many problems with alternative sites?

Why should the project's impact on cultural resources such as Barnstable's historic districts be left unaddressed until some post-approval negotiation over mitigation?

How can a state agency charged to overturn the decisions of state and local agencies (if these actions would threaten the provision of adequate and appropriate power supplies) reject a regional regulatory commission's judgment? How, indeed, when the state Legislature that created both decreed that the commission's actions could be challenged only in the courts?

What is the economic viability of a power supply costing twice as much as conventional versions?

Even the questions in the open-book test still await fuller answers. These will come in the weeks and months ahead as federal and state agencies comment on the Minerals Management Service DEIS. It's at this stage that we'll learn the further objections of the Federal Aviation Administration and other bodies, including the Coast Guard.

Having see the DEIS, supporters and critics of the project know what questions were in the book on which Cape Wind was tested. In the public testimony and agency comment period ahead, there will be ample opportunity to ask others.

The Editors
editor@barnstablepatriot.com