Boston Globe Editorial:

IN 2001, when Cape Wind first proposed its 130-turbine project for Nantucket Sound, oil cost $20 a barrel and natural gas cost $3 for a million cubic feet. Now oil is close to $100, and gas is $10. More important, scientists have estimated that global warming is happening at a quicker pace than they had believed seven years ago. All of this makes more timely than ever the green light that Cape Wind got yesterday from the US Interior Department's Minerals Management Service.

The draft environmental impact statement by the service points to effects the project would have on birds, marine wildlife, and recreation, but it says none of the impacts is major. Certainly none of them outweighs the benefit of a pollution-free source of electricity that could supply power equal to three-quarters of the Cape's demand. The project would create new jobs and bring Massachusetts closer to the role of clean-energy leader that Governor Patrick, a longtime supporter of Cape Wind, has advocated.