Interior Secretary sees little hope for consensus on wind farm

Weighing the future of a controversial wind farm project, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar toured Nantucket Sound on a Coast Guard cutter Tuesday, surveying the 24-square-mile area where the proposed project would loom.

Mr. Salazar's visit comes a month after the National Park Service said Nantucket Sound was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The designation is sought by two tribes, the Mashpee Wampanoag of Cape Cod and the Aquinnah Wampanoag of Martha's Vineyard, who say the project would disturb a ritual that calls for an unobstructed view of the sunrise. They also say the installation, called Cape Wind, might be built over ancestral burial grounds.

Mr. Salazar has set a March 1 deadline for the tribes and the project's developer, Energy Management, to reach a compromise on the plan. But the interior secretary said Tuesday that he was "not holding my breath on consensus," suggesting that he expects he will have to determine the fate of the 130-turbine wind farm by April on his own.

The wind project has been in the works since 2001 and is strongly supported by Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts.

"The worst thing we can do for the country is to be in a state of indecision, and this application has been in a state of indecision for a very long time," Mr. Salazar said while sailing aboard the cutter on a calm, overcast afternoon.

Standing on the bridge of the ship, the interior secretary asked about the environment of the sound. He also alighted from the vessel to view a data-collecting tower that stands about 190 feet high, the approximate height of the base of a wind turbine.

Whatever the fate of the project, Mr. Salazar said, renewable energy will remain a priority for the administration. "What happens to Cape Wind, whether it goes up or goes down, will not be determinative of the future of wind energy in the United States," he said.

Mr. Salazar met with members of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe at sunrise Tuesday morning and later listened to a presentation on "the importance they put on a particular area," he said.

In a statement, Cedric Cromwell, chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag, said he felt that the visit by a high-ranking federal official was overdue.

"We have repeatedly raised serious concerns over the proposed project for more than six years," he said. "For the first time, we believe that our concerns are being heard, and we look forward to continuing the process of consultation until an acceptable outcome has been achieved."

Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Cape Wind, said the group expected the project to go forward.

"We are confident that when the secretary balances Cape Wind's benefits of increased energy independence, the hundreds of new jobs created and the contribution it will make to preserving and enhancing the environment of the cape and island then he will move this long overdue project forward," he said.