Sound objections

After nearly a decade of acrimonious debate, there are those who think that the fate of the proposed wind factory on Nantucket Sound now hinges on one crucial point: Does the industrial project violate the historic, cultural and spiritual traditions of the local Wampanoag tribes?

After all, that's where all the focus has been lately as U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar visited the Sound last month and met with representatives of the Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag.

Salazar gave Cape Wind and the Wampanoag until last Monday to reach an agreement reconciling differences on how the 130-turbine wind farm would affect the tribes' cultural traditions.

To the tribes' credit, they rejected a $2 million offer by Cape Wind to "mitigate" the effects of the wind farm on their ancestral sites.

With no agreement between the developer and the tribes, Salazar has said he will make a decision on whether to approve the project by April.

"It is clear to me that the consulting parties are not able to bridge their divides and reach agreement on actions to minimize and mitigate the Cape Wind project's effects on historic and cultural resources," Salazar said.

As important as the tribes' objections are, there are a myriad of issues that Salazar needs to consider.

Chief among them is whether a private developer can stake a claim on a public resource without adequate input from local and regional stakeholders.

We have long advocated an all-inclusive zoning process that leads to a comprehensive ocean management plan, which identifies appropriate and inappropriate places to build any commercial structure off our coast, whether it be LNG platforms or wind farms.

As Sen. John Kerry has said, "I am in favor of wind power, but I think we do have to have a siting process. I think we've got to have some sort of standard by which these things are going to be put offshore. You can't do it on an ad hoc basis and just have one private person come in and say 'Hey, plunk it down here.' Someone else plunks it down (over there)... . That's just not a great way to start dealing with national resources."

In other words, the Cape Wind project and its review by the state and federal government were done backwards.

Yes, there are benefits. The project will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on foreign fuel. But do we really have to sacrifice 24 square miles of Nantucket Sound to develop our nation's first offshore wind farm, when the technology exists to build them farther offshore or perhaps build them off more industrial areas where they would be welcomed?

If some developer had proposed to build 130 turbines that spun strands of gold to reduce our national deficit, as we stated several years ago, every one of the environmental groups that support Cape Wind would be jumping up and down in protest. But because it's renewable energy, they have shamefully looked the other way.

Finally, the local Indian tribes are not the only people who place value on the unbroken horizon of Nantucket Sound.

Supporters of the wind farm need to honestly ask themselves whether they would like to have 130 huge turbines planted on their favorite public space, whether it be a mountain ridge in Vermont, a canyon in the Southwest, or an ocean vista off Key West.

With a footprint larger than Manhattan, with turbines each the size of the Statue of Liberty, this industrial project is out of place in an area that borders marine sanctuaries on all sides.

Nantucket Sound is a national treasure and it must be protected at all costs.