Mass. wind farm project sent to preservation panel

BOSTON (AP) – The secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior says representatives of two Native American tribes and a developer have failed to agree on a wind farm off Cape Cod by Monday’s deadline, leaving the future of the initiative in the hands of an Obama administration that’s pledged to make the U.S. “the world’s leading exporter of clean energy.”

In a statement, Secretary Ken Salazar said that he was sending the proposal on Cape Wind to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, which has 45 days to allow the public to express its views on the project.

Salazar said he will then take comments from the council into consideration before deciding whether to approve the wind farm.

“The time has come to bring the reviews and analysis of the Cape Wind Project to a conclusion,” Salazar said. “The parties, the public and the permit applicants deserve resolution and certainty.”

Salazar is expected to make a decision on the project in April.

Cape Wind developers have proposed building 130 turbines, each more than 400 feet tall, in Nantucket Sound. Supporters of the proposal say the $1 billion wind project would provide cheaper energy, reduce pollution and create green jobs.

But the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Cape Cod and the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Martha’s Vineyard say the project will interfere with sacred rituals and desecrate tribal burial sites.

The Wampanoag added that the project would interfere with sacred rituals that require an unblocked view of the horizon.

The Native American tribes and other opponents say the project is a threat to aviation, bird life and commercial fishing interests and should be moved to a site outside Nantucket Sound that Cape Wind says isn’t feasible.

Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers said the developer “made a generous offer” to the two tribes but no agreement was reached by Monday, Salazar’s deadline. He declined to give details of the offer.

The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s chairman, Cedric Cromwell, and the Aquinnah tribe’s historic preservation officer, Bettina Washington, did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment Monday.

In January, the National Park Service agreed with tribal claims that Nantucket Sound was eligible for a listing on the National Register of Historic Places, meaning it’s deemed worthy of preservation.

Last month, Salazar toured the Nantucket Sound site and watched a crimson sunrise on a Mashpee beach near where the Wampanoag conduct rituals.

Obama has never mentioned the project while talking publicly about renewable energy, despite his enthusiasm for the topic and the fact Cape Wind would be the nation’s first offshore wind farm.

Some Cape Wind advocates have chalked up Obama’s silence to respect for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, an early and influential Obama backer. Kennedy battled the project fiercely, writing Obama of his opposition the month before he died in August from brain cancer.

To add to the uncertainty, Salazar has called it “a good project.” But two Obama appointees to agencies connected to the project’s review have links to its chief opposition, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.