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November/December 2009
News For Coastal Advocates
⌘
Recurring
People; Awards; Species &
Habitats; Restorations; Report
Cards; Products;
Funding
⌘
Atlantic CoastWatch is a bimonthly
newsletter for those concerned
with environmentally sound coastal
development.
A
tlantic C
oastW
atch
Cape Wind Nears Approval
The Cape Wind power project in Nantucket Sound, likely to become the
first offshore wind farm in the US, has won a favorable Final Environmental Impact
Statement from the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service
(MMS). Prospects for marketing the power have brightened. Local support has
grown. Apparently unbiased polling of residents of the Cape and Islands by the
University of Delaware conducted in 2005, and again weeks ago, indicated a
shift from 56 percent opposed to the project to 57 percent in favor, according to the
Cape Cod Times. Still, Cape Wind has not achieved fi nal approval from the Depart-
ment of Interior for a lease.
Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, a strong advocate for the
project, recently heralded the agreement of National Grid, power supplier to
Nantucket and other MA areas, to begin negotiations for a long-term purchase of
power. Tom King, president of National Grid’s US operations, is quoted by the
Boston Globe as saying the company wants to be a catalyst that helps to develop the
US wind industry. With negotiations completed and state approval of the arrange-
ment obtained, the estimated $1 billion fi nancing becomes much more feasible.
The Globe reported that Patrick appointee US Senator Paul G. Kirk,
Jr., following in the tradition of Senator Ted Kennedy, has written President
Obama opposing the project, urging the development of overall standards before
its approval. But many other politicians are favorably inclined. Patrick’s secretary
of energy and environmental affairs, Ian A. Bowles, points out that, “after eight
years of thorough review" Cape Wind is “the only offshore wind project that has
the potential to be built in President Obama’s fi rst term." And US Representa-
tive Edward J. Markey, chair of the Select Committee on Energy Independence
and Global Warming, advocated the approval of Cape Wind before the Copenhagen
conference.
(Continued. p. 7)
Faulty Oversight in Puerto Rico
In October, reported the Miami Herald, a fuel tank farm in Bayamon,
Puerto Rico exploded. The result was what the paper called a “massive" toxic fi re
that “took fi refi ghters several days to extinguish and caused fuel leaks into neigh-
boring waterways." The incident was the culmination of a long history of gross
environmental violations on the part of the company, Caribbean Petroleum
Company (CAPECO) that operated the tank farm.
Since 1990, said investigative reporter McNelly Torres in the Miami
Herald article, at least 25 oil spills from the company had been recorded. Clean
Water Act violations and fi nes have been frequent, prior explosions and fi res, and
reports of unsafe working conditions have resulted in $1.3 million in penalties and
fi nes.
When asked why CAPECO is allowed to continue operating , the EPA’s
Jose Font ducked.“What we have to look for is compliance with the law," he said.
