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Ted Kennedy has reportedly dropped his long-running blocking of the turbine wind farm that was proposed for Nantucket Sound in 1997. The turbines were estimated to be able to supply Cape Cod with most of their electricity needs. He is reported to have said that he will allow the Coast Guard to decide whether it should be built. The Coast Guard decides such things? Call me cynical, but it seems more likely that he has secured assurances rom others that they will block the wind farm for him.

WASHINGTON -- Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska yesterday denied cutting a special deal with Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts to block a proposed wind farm off Cape Cod. Stevens cast his opposition to the Cape Wind proposal as an issue of states' rights. In a speech on the Senate floor, Stevens said Kennedy went along with his proposal to hand Governor Mitt Romney, a Cape Wind opponent, the power to veto the project. Environmental groups have accused Kennedy of reaching a backroom deal with Stevens to block Cape Wind, but Stevens said he wants all states to have the...

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration and two influential senators weighed in Friday against a provision that would block a 130-turbine wind farm off Cape Cod, where some of Washington's most powerful have vacation retreats. The wind farm, which would be located in Nantucket Sound about six miles off shore, has been a focus of controversy for five years. Developers won favorable environmental reviews and hoped to have it completed in 2009. A provision tucked into a bill authorizing activities for the U.S. Coast Guard would give Massachusetts' governor a veto over the project, although the turbines would be located in...

WASHINGTON -- Rich, oceanfront residents of Cape Cod do not want their view of Nantucket Sound faintly obstructed by offshore protrusions of a proposed wind farm. So, they have hired high-priced lobbyists to kill Cape Wind, a project providing an environmentally sound source of energy. Their most important ally in this venture is a fellow wealthy Cape Cod landowner, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Opposition to America's first offshore wind farm seems a peculiar posture for the liberal lion of the Senate. The self-indulgent squires of Cape Cod likewise seem a strange set of friends for Teddy Kennedy. He is also...

Fans of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy have long argued that he has fought the good fight ... But today, he is defending the indefensible: special interest legislation, tucked into a Coast Guard authorization bill, that would give Gov. Mitt Romney the power to veto the proposed Cape Wind energy project, even though it would be in federal waters. The project... more than five miles offshore of Cape Cod. The equivalent of burning 113 million barrels of oil per year. Proponents of Cape Wind say it is an important source of alternative, renewable energy, and it has the backing of such...

Opponents of a plan to build the first offshore U.S. wind farm in Nantucket Sound off Massachusetts were a step closer on Friday to blocking the $900 million project. Negotiators in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate agreed late on Thursday to give Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney the power to block a plan by Cape Wind Associates LLC to put 130 giant wind turbines near the resort islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Backers say the project could generate enough electricity for most of Cape Cod and nearby islands. Opponents include wealthy residents with yachts and shorefront property near...

Please call and write to Congress and ask that they oppose the Stevens Amendment to the Coast Guard Reauthorization bill. The Stevens amendment attempts to block the Cape Wind project for offshore Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The Conference Committee members are being asked to make a decision on the amendment TODAY. The amendment would allow the Governor veto power over wind farms but would not provide the same veto power over nuclear, coal, oil or other power generation projects. Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R), who has stated that he opposes the Cape Wind project, would have the ability to...

There is a rich irony in watching Senator Ted Kennedy join forces with Representative Dan Young of Alaska to stop a windmill power-generating project in Nantucket Sound. Rep. Young –conservative Republican and chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee – often opposes environmental proposals. His ranking from the League of Conservation Voters is zero. Mr. Kennedy’s ranking is 95 percent. The Cape Wind project they are fighting would place 130 windmills near the center of Nantucket Sound, perhaps seven or eight miles due south of Hyannis Port, Cape Cod, where the Kennedys’ famous seaside property it situated. Messrs. Kennedy...

Within the space of a single week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Sen. Edward Kennedy have managed to mangle reality with op-ed pieces in two of the nation's leading newspapers. ''As an environmentalist, I support wind power,'' began RFK Jr.'s op-ed piece in the New York Times, ... Then he proceeded to once again propagate the inaccuracies repeated like mantras by those opposed to the Nantucket Sound wind farm. ''The noise of the turbines will be audible onshore. A transformer substation would house...40,000 gallons of potentially hazardous oil... The Humane Society estimates the whirling turbines could every year kill thousands...

Given to environmentalist lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose fight for "green" energy apparently stops as soon as the results might spoil his view. Kennedy penned an irate New York Times op-ed in December, condemning the proposed building of wind turbines around the Nantucket Sound. While Kennedy criss-crosses the country in his jet-fuel-burning private plane stumping for alternative energy sources, he wants an exception for his own backyard. Greenpeace spokesman Chris Miller was not pleased, saying: "It's about a vision for healthy oceans, not the view from the Kennedy compound."

Even for Greenpeace, a group known for turning high-seas drama into political statement, the foray into the Nantucket Sound wind farm debate has played like perfect theater. Take, for instance, the picture-postcard morning of Aug. 17, when a pair of Greenpeace motorboats surrounded a schooner crammed with wind farm opponents, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It was a made-for-TV face-off that, indeed, was reported on the national news that night. But for Greenpeace, a $360 million organization that spends about $3.3 million each year on U.S. campaigns, ongoing efforts for the Cape Wind project transcend interrupting a Kennedy sail. Today,...

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who in recent weeks has emerged as the wind energy industry's public enemy No. 1, is also a Nantucket property owner. Alexander, who last month filed legislation that could hobble the emerging wind industry - including the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm - bought a seaside plot on the eastern edge of Nantucket four years ago for $800,000. Alexander and his wife own the half-acre property in Siasconset through a trust, according to a recent Senate filing. They have not built there and today the property is worth $1.25 million, according to the island's tax...

The U.S. Department of Energy has praised the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm as an important first step, and perhaps the foundation, of a more focused American wind energy industry. In a letter sent March 31 to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - the principal reviewer of the ambitious Cape Wind plan - an energy official predicts the local review process will provide helpful guidance in future wind energy development. David K. Garman, assistant secretary to the office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, suggests the project responds to federal policy that makes alternative energy a priority. Though the...

A report released yesterday by opponents of the proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound claims that nearly 80 percent of the 130 turbines would be in water deep enough to be vulnerable to a strike by a tanker. The result, the group says, could be a spill severely affecting the Nantucket Sound ecosystem. The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound commissioned an oil-spill assessment in response to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Cape Wind Energy Project that was released last November. The oil-spill assessment was conducted by Lighthouse Technical Consultants and The McGowan Group. The public and other interested...

Blue-collar General Electric workers in Lynn have launched a campaign to support a planned Nantucket Sound wind farm project vehemently opposed by many of the rich and famous residents of Cape Cod and the islands. Leaders of the IUE-CWA Local 201, which represents 2,500 workers at GE's Riverworks plant, are passing out petitions and meeting with lawmakers in an effort to promote wind energy and possibly create hundreds of manufacturing jobs in Lynn. GE, via its wind-energy unit, is in line to land the more-than-$200 million contract to build the 130 giant wind turbines for the proposed project, spearheaded by...