IN THE seemingly endless debate these past weeks over a congressional amendment on the Cape Wind project, the focus has largely been on the bare-knuckle politics between the developer and opponents, not the actual substance of a debate that has raged on for more than four years. That battle, now being fought on a national stage, culminated in the adoption of language that authorizes the governor of Massachusetts or the commandant of the Coast Guard to veto the project.

While Cape Wind has targeted politics and well-funded opponents as the culprits, the real issue -- and villain -- is the utter recklessness of building a massive industrial-scale project across 24 square miles of Nantucket Sound. That's where Cape Wind wants to put 130 steel towers, a location where two ferry routes and the main shipping channel form the ''Nantucket Triangle." They could not have picked a worse location.

More than 3 million people cross the sound every year on commercial ferries within close proximity to the planned turbine field. There are more than 400,000 flights through that airspace every year with hundreds of small aircraft barely flying above the 426 foot height of these turbine blades. Anyone who knows Nantucket Sound knows that a clear day can quickly turn into pea soup fog with nearly zero visibility, leaving even experienced mariners bewildered about who -- and what -- is out there in their path. Not to mention the commercial fishermen who rely on Nantucket Sound for half their catch and know full well that safety concerns will result in restrictions or outright prohibition on fishing in the Cape Wind grid.

The congressional amendment, filed by Alaskan Representative Don Young, the only licensed mariner in Congress, was at first a prescriptive solution that would have imposed a 1.5 nautical mile buffer zone between the shipping channels, ferry lanes, and the nearest turbine.

According to a United Kingdom study, radar interference was detected at 1.5 nautical miles from the wind turbines at the North Hoyle wind plant in that country. A 2004 UK study concluded that ''clutter in the radar display, due to the presence of wind turbines, was found to be considerable" and that ''these effects can be mitigated by vessels keeping well clear of wind farms in open waters or where navigation is restricted, keeping the wind farm boundaries at suitable distances from established traffic routes."

Wayne C. Lamson, general manager of the Steamship Authority, wrote to Young that ''under certain wind and sea conditions, it occasionally becomes necessary for our captains to use tacking maneuvers outside of our normal navigational tracks . . . ." Lamson added, ''The area is very congested at times with commercial and recreational traffic. With the wind farm as currently proposed for Nantucket Sound, it has the potential for creating a significant hazard to safe navigation for our vessels and other users of the waterways."

But rather than attacking the substance of Young's amendment, Cape Wind's proponents have derided Young as the architect of the ''Alaskan Ambush." Ignoring the fact that his committee was the logical place from which to file the amendment and that his congressional career qualifies him to address issues of navigational safety, Cape Wind has attacked him for simply being from Alaska with no apparent right to get involved in an issue in Massachusetts.

The avalanche of expert opinion supports the conclusion that this project would pose an unacceptable risk to mariners and the general public, and no amount of name-calling and mudslinging is going to change those facts.

This issue won't be settled by a congressman from Alaska, but rather the governor of Massachusetts, who has appropriate oversight of a unique geography of federal water surrounded by state water, or the commandant of the US Coast Guard, who has appropriate expertise on navigational issues. They will decide if this project is worth the risks that it poses here in Massachusetts. From our vantage point, the answer is clearly no.

John T. Griffin is vice chairman of the Barnstable Airport Commission, a licensed pilot, and a former island ferry boat captain. Edward Barrett is president of the Massachusetts Fishermen's Partnership.