Clean Power Now: Final Decision on Cape Wind Expected After Wednesday Meeting With Interior Secretary Salazar

Hill: Confident of Outcome After 9 Years of Review, All Questions Answered; 86 Percent of State Residents Support Nation's First Wind Park, Including Many Stakeholders Not at Salazar Meeting.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On the eve of a meeting Wednesday (January 13, 2010) on the Cape Wind clean energy project with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Clean Power Now Executive Director Barbara Hill issued the following statement:

"The long-delayed start to the Cape Wind project is now within sight.

After nine years of painstaking and transparent review and extensive public participation under the auspices of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Minerals Management Service, the verdict is clear: Federal environmental impact reviews have all concluded that the Cape Wind project will provide significant public interest benefits in terms of clean energy with what are only minor to negligible impacts.  

We commend Secretary Salazar for avoiding further delays by convening this meeting in order to move Cape Wind to a final decision point.  With the Salazar-imposed deadline of March 1st to conclude the ongoing Section 106 consultation under the National Historic Preservation Act, a favorable Record of Decision for Cape Wind should follow shortly after this week's meeting.

I want to emphasize that the nature of the Section 106 consultation process is such that it is necessarily 'stacked' and not representative of the significant public support that Cape Wind has to build the project on Horseshoe Shoals in Nantucket Sound.

As such, Secretary Salazar will not be hearing at the meeting from the many tens of thousands of Cape Wind supporters including: the 86 percent of Massachusetts residents who favor Cape Wind (see link to survey results below); MA Climate Action Network; Cape & Islands Self Reliance; Clean Water Action; Environmental League of Massachusetts; Civil Society Institute; TheCLEAN.org; American Lung Association - Massachusetts Chapter; Cape Clean Air; Boston Urban Asthma Coalition; Greenpeace; Conservation Law Foundation; Natural Resources Defense Council; Union of Concerned Scientists; Healthlink and many others.  (See a link to a fuller list of supporters below.)

Moving ahead on Cape Wind will send a powerful and unmistakable message that the United States is no longer content to lag behind the rest of the world in using wind power to create new jobs, foster energy independence and reduce this nation's carbon footprint.

Cape Wind will concretely advance the Obama Administration's stated objectives in addressing the challenges of climate change while promoting energy security and economic development. Following this lengthy and rigorous review, approval of the Cape Wind project also will send a critical message to the clean energy sector and will help lay the strongest possible foundation for offshore wind energy development in the United States."  

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Cape Wind is poised to be the United States' first offshore wind park.   The project involves 130 wind turbine towers in Horseshoe Shoals, a shallow area in the federal waters of Nantucket Sound, and would produce enough clean power for 75 percent of the Cape & Islands energy needs.

Polls: 86% of State Residents/74% of Cape & Islands Residents Support Cape Wind

http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/media/030608release.cfm

List of Cape Wind Supporters

http://www.capewind.org/article47.htm

Understanding Cape Wind:  Answers to the 7 Most-Asked Questions

http://cleanpowernow.org/index.php?name=FAQ&id_cat=5

Energy Independence:  Slashing the Cape & Islands Dependence on Foreign Oil

http://v1.apebble.com/cpn/oil_imports.pdf

Fact v. Fiction:  Debunking the Top 10 Myths About Cape Wind

http://v1.apebble.com/cpn/Myths.pdf

Editorials on Cape Wind Opponents

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/06/21/time_to_end_the_blustering/  (Columnist Yvonne Abraham, Boston Globe, June 21, 2009).

http://cbslocalblogs.prospero.com/wbz_keller?entry=327 (New England political analyst John Keller, WBZ TV/Boston, January 17, 2009)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123275548773411757.html (Wall Street Journal "Review & Outlook," January 24, 2009)

Harpooning the Fat Cat Opponents:  August 7, 2007 "Daily Show" Segment on Cape Wind

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-august-7-2007/jason-jones-180---nantucket

ABOUT CLEAN POWER NOW

Clean Power Now (www.CleanPowerNow.org) started on Cape Cod in 2003 and has grown to over 13,000 members strong. We are a non-profit grassroots organization informing citizens and empowering them to support viable renewable energy projects and policies, and to secure their local and regional benefits.  We believe that the timely development of such projects, in conjunction with energy efficiency and conservation, will bring about a clean, healthy environment, an improved economy and a more secure, sustainable America.  Our immediate focus is to increase citizen support of offshore wind power in Nantucket Sound.

SOURCE Clean Power Now, Hyannis, MA