What began as a well-conceived effort to be sustainable and fiscally responsible has become one of the most contentious and divisive issues in the town’s history. After the turbines were constructed, the town worked to gather public input. Had that commitment to inclusion been present before decisions were made to purchase and erect the turbines, some of the town’s darkest days may have been avoided. ...In January 2010, I called the construction of Wind I “the best of Falmouth” for 2009, noting that it was, “…one of the most significant achievements in the last decade locally.” I readily admit today that I was wrong. Why can’t the town?

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Standing at the podium inside Admirals’ Hall, David Moriarty told the senators that, in Falmouth, “everything was perfect until the wind turbines came to town.” The land-based turbines, he said, have fractured the town and harmed the health of some residents, “torturing our friends and neighbors.”

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Another sign of the continuing downward spiral of the Cape Wind project popped up on social media this morning when Mark Rodgers announced via his Facebook page that he was resigning from his role as the company’s spokesman.

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The town of Hancock and the owner of Berkshire Wind are in a dispute over PILOT payments. The Selectmen on Tuesday voted to take the utility to court.

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National Grid has given no indication that a contract is still under consideration. “Cape Wind had an opportunity to extend the contract, which, for whatever reason, they declined to do,” the utility said in a statement. “Any new contract, could one be negotiated, would require an extensive and lengthy review by the Department of Public Utilities.”

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Meanwhile, in the United States, the massive windmills gobble up valuable habitat, as do the roads needed to access them. These eyesores ruin otherwise picturesque landscapes, and are built with little regard for the migratory paths of protected wildlife. The deadly blades can reach speeds up to 170 mph, often chopping birds into pieces. Most recent data estimates that 600,000 birds and hundreds of thousands of bats fall prey to this “green” technology every year.

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The governors of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island teamed up Wednesday to begin looking for ways to increase the region's reliance on renewable energy sources while also expanding natural gas capacity.

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The last man of nearly a dozen accused of stealing and scrapping copper from a Florida wind farm in 2013 was handed a 2 1/2 year suspended sentence on Tuesday.

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The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has issued an administrative consent order on the Hoosac Wind project. The order against Iberdrola Renewables comes after the company failed to implement sound reducing measures for its 19 wind turbines in the towns of Florida and Monroe.

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A company that built six solar farms at capped landfills on Cape Cod has filed a lawsuit seeking to have more than $12 million in liens placed on revenue generated from the projects. The Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative, along with the towns of Barnstable, Brewster, Chatham, Dennis, Eastham, and Harwich, have been named as defendants in the lawsuit. A lawyer for the cooperative said it will participate in the lawsuit as necessary to protect its interests and the interests of its member towns in the solar projects.

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The developer of Cape Wind has terminated contracts to buy land and facilities in Falmouth and Rhode Island, the latest sign that the $2.5 billion effort to become the nation’s first offshore wind farm may never produce a kilowatt of energy.

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Sources confirmed Friday that Cape Wind Associates LLC has ended payments and an existing lease agreement option with Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown.

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The development of a terminal at New Bedford’s port – after $113 million in state investments – suffered a blow when Cape Wind lost two electricity contracts after it failed to obtain financing for its $2.8 billion wind project by a Dec. 31 deadline.

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May had nothing against the wind or renewable energy. It’s just that electricity from Cape Wind, which would set up 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound, would be expensive. And that matters in a state where electricity costs are already twice the national average. “Clean energy,” May told the Globe in 2010, “isn’t cheaper energy.”

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Several dozen people filled the lower conference room at Bourne Town Hall during the Bourne Board of Health meeting on December 10 to voice their opinion on a proposed Plymouth wind farm that would border Bournedale. Most of the residents spoke in opposition to the project brought before the board by cranberry farm owner Keith A. Mann.

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Warren Doty of Chilmark, who was president of the association during the lawsuit, played a key role in orchestrating the settlement. He also expressed regret over the outcome and took responsibility for not communicating about the settlement more publicly.

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Brewster may be back in the wind turbine business. Local opponents of the discarded plan to site twin 400-foot turbines off Freeman’s Way (abandoned in 2013 after a four-year battle) can breathe easier – these proposed turbines would be in Plymouth.

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What’s more, the utility’s spokespeople state, it makes no profit on the supply side of the bill, simply passing along to customers the going rate for electricity from regional power generators. The profit and cost of doing business comes from the other half of the bill, the "delivery" portion that covers the transmission and maintenance of power lines and hookups to homes and businesses.

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Cape Wind will pay a total of $4.5 million in rent to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which owns the 28-acre facility, for two years. During that time, Cape Wind will be the only operator of the facility and the terms of lease allow for two one-year extensions.

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I carefully read the district court’s opinion, concluded that it was not only wrong but clearly wrong and that, if left unreversed, it would establish a deeply problematic precedent for anyone trying to obtain prospective relief in federal court from state actions violating federal constitutional or statutory rights.

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