The Environmental Policy Act signed into law in 2005 called upon the secretary of the interior to promulgate regulations by May 5, 2006 to site offshore renewable energy projects.

And still there is no regulatory process under which the Cape Wind precedent-setting proposal for alternative use of the submerged public land, Nantucket Sound, is being reviewed. Therefore, the reviewing agencies are incapable of providing our/their informed consent regarding the Cape Wind application to lease and be provided with an easement and/or right-of-way to construct an industrial scale wind facility in Nantucket Sound.

The Cape Wind project is being reviewed within the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Meaningful public participation in the decision-making on matters that most affect us is the principle upon which NEPA was created. Absent standards and rules that will apply to the Cape Wind permit review, the public and agencies are denied meaningful participation in this NEPA process.

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, recently sent a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to request that he be provided with the status of the department's development of these "critical" regulations.

Citing concerns that have been raised about the lack of consideration of the effect of Cape Wind on bird and bat species in the draft Environmental Impact Statement, the chairman wrote: "I would also like you to provide me with a legal analysis of how the incidental take of migratory birds that could occur with offshore renewable energy projects on the Outer Continental Shelf might be addressed through your authority under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to regulate the taking of protected bird species."

It's encouraging to observe Chairman Rahall demand accountability.