The Bush administration is expected to issue as early as Friday a favorable final environmental review of the nation's first offshore wind farm project, clearing the way for Cape Wind to obtain a federal lease to erect 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound.

Nicholas Pardi, a spokesman for the Minerals Management Service, said last week that the agency, part of the Interior Department, is planning to release its findings "by the end of the year." Supporters of the project who have been told of the agency's timetable said a favorable review should come in the next few weeks and possibly on Dec. 5.  Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne would then have to wait 30 days to make the decision official and award the lease allowing the project to be located in federal waters. The supporters, as well the leader of the main opposition group, said they believe the administration wants this accomplished before Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.

Final state backing could follow early next year, said a spokesman for the state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, culminating the developer's long struggle to gain approval for what seemed like a green power pipe dream when it was announced seven years ago: A giant wind farm anchored in the waters off Cape Cod.  "This is important not only for Massachusetts but for the nation as a whole," said Jack Clarke, director of public policy and government relations for Mass Audubon, a conservation group that came out in support of the project after evaluating its impact on wildlife.
Note: Click here to read this Boston Globe article

A Cape Cod man who is a former member of a state fisheries advisory board has admitted to violating ethics laws by working with a group opposed to the wind farm Cape Wind Associates wants to build in Nantucket Sound.  Mark Weissman, 70, of Mashpee was a member of the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission from 1993 until August. 

...Weissman admitted in an agreement with the State Ethics Commission released yesterday that between 2002 and 2007 he testified at hearings about Cape Wind and that he requested that the advisory commission send letters to other agencies regarding the project.

Since 2003 Weissman has been paid more than $48,000 for consulting services he provided to the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, a nonprofit organization and a vocal opponent of the wind farm.  Weissman received more than $8,000 for work related directly to the alliance's opposition to Cape Wind, including $2,000 for work related to the environmental review of the project, according to the agreement reached with the ethics commission.
Note:

Click here to read this Cape Cod Times article

The European Commission has placed offshore wind power at the heart of its plans for the next wave of EU energy legislation.

...It stressed that offshore wind can make a "significant" contribution to all three key objectives of the new energy policy - reducing climate change emissions, improving energy security and industry competitiveness.  The Commission said: "Today, the potential for offshore wind energy is largely untapped: even excluding potential deepwater deployments based on floating foundations, the potential exploitable by 2020 is likely to be some 30-40 times the current installed capacity."
Note: Click here to read this article on New Energy Focus

Cape Wind, a Massachusetts offshore wind farm under review for seven years, finished what was likely its final public hearing this week and expects to receive the last of its major regulatory decisions before year's end.

This article is reproduced in its entirety here with permission. Copyright 2008, Platts/The McGraw-Hill Companies. http://www.platts.com/Electric%20Power/Resources/

BOSTON, MA, NOVEMBER 5, 2008 – Eighty seven percent of voters in eleven Massachusetts towns in the south shore voted Yes on Question 4, a non-binding question that read:

Should the state representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of legislation that would support the development of Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound and other possible future onshore and offshore wind power developments in Massachusetts?

LIKE his uncle, his grandfather and many of their neighbors, Arie Versendaal spent decades working at the Maytag factory here, turning coils of steel into washing machines.  When the plant closed last year, taking 1,800 jobs out of this town of 16,000 people, it seemed a familiar story of American industrial decline: another company town brought to its knees by the vagaries of global trade.

Except that Mr. Versendaal has a new factory job, at a plant here that makes blades for turbines that turn wind into electricity. Across the road, in the old Maytag factory, another company is building concrete towers to support the massive turbines. Together, the two plants are expected to employ nearly 700 people by early next year.
Note: Click here to read this New York Times article

Rest assured the candidates for state and county offices in the Nov. 4 election have their energy credentials in order.

Last night at a forum on energy at Cape Cod Community College, more than a dozen candidates took turns talking about energy issues and outlining what they would do to make energy more efficient, more affordable and more green.
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Click here to read this Cape Cod Times article

On October 22, 2008 E&E Publishing's ClimateWire published a profile of Cape Wind President Jim Gordon and provided an update on Cape Wind as well as other offshore wind power proposals off the east coast of the U.S. and the race among the States to be home to America's first offshore wind farm.  This article is reproduced in its entirety here with permission. Copyright 2008, E&E Publishing, LLC. www.ClimateWire.net

Sen. John Kerry said Monday that he will support the controversial Cape Wind project if it gains final environmental approval.

“My view on Cape Wind is very simple. I’m all for wind power,” Kerry said at a Patriot Ledger editorial board meeting. “If the EIS (environmental impact statement) comes back approving it, I’m all for it,” Kerry said.  Kerry was referring to a final Environmental Impact Statement about the project from the U.S. Minerals Management Service. The agency’s initial report on the project, which would put 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, was largely positive.

Note: Click here to read this Brockton Enterprise article

...A wind industry hub would encourage supply chains and assembly and bring overseas turbine manufacturers into the UK creating thousands of new jobs.

Dr Gordon Edge of the British Wind Energy Authority (BWEA) said the north-east would be a natural choice because it was on the edge of the North Sea where most of the offshore wind farms will be sited.
Note: Click here to read this article in the Telegraph