The plan to build the nations first offshore wind farm passed a major hurdle today. The state’s secretary of energy and environmental affairs, Ian Bowles, approved the report in a ruling announced today,saying it complies with state environmental laws.

“Overall the Cape Wind project will contribute to the long-term preservation and enhancement of our environment,” Bowles said.

It’s nice that after years of going back and forth that the project has a state approved environmental document. Bowles has determined that the Final Environmental Impact Report submitted by the Cape Wind wind farm project “adequately and properly complies” (pdf of approval letter) with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act. The project can now advance to the state permitting process.

Cape Wind involves the development of 130 Wind Turbine Generators on a grid over 25 square miles in Nantucket Sound known as Horseshoe Shoals, located in federal waters. The project also includes cables that transmit the electric power to the mainland, making landfall in the Town of Yarmouth and passing through Massachusetts’s territorial waters, generally three nautical miles from shore. The portion of Cape Wind located in federal waters is currently under federal environmental review led by the US Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service.

“My obligation under MEPA is to ensure that the impacts of construction and operation of the portions of the project within Massachusetts’s jurisdiction have been adequately avoided, minimized, and mitigated. I find that they have,” said Secretary Bowles. “Based on the air quality benefits, as well as the compensatory mitigation measures detailed in this Certificate, I find that the environmental benefits and compensatory mitigation provided by the project are adequate to mitigate the impacts of the project occurring in Massachusetts.”

The $10 million Cape Wind mitigation package consists of:

• $780,000 towards the restoration of Bird Island, off the town of Marion in Buzzards Bay. At 1.5 acres in size, Bird Island provides prime nesting habitat for Roseate and Common Terns, but the island is subject to significant and accelerating erosion. The enhancement of nesting habitat on Bird Island will benefit the same tern population that is subject to potential impacts from the wind turbine array.
• $4.22 million towards natural resource preservation, marine habitat restoration, and coastal recreation enhancement projects in the area of Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard.
• An estimated $5.6 million in Federal Lease Payments over 20 years, representing 27 percent of the revenues received by the federal government.

Which to me doesn’t look anything like the “public land grab” cape wind opponents have been screaming about. They are going to provide low cost renewable energy to the grid, pay millions in land leases, pay additional millions to restore bird breeding ground, and now have a state approved environmental document. But that’s not all.

Secretary Bowles also declared that the Cape Wind Project “is expressly consistent with and will significantly advance” the Commonwealth’s energy policy goals. “Overall, the Cape Wind Project will contribute to the long-term preservation and enhancement of our environment,” said Secretary Bowles.

With Secretary Bowles’s finding that the project’s Final EIR is adequate, Cape Wind is free to file for permits from the various state agencies needed to proceed with construction.

Read Bowles full press remarks here. (pdf)

As anyone could predict the people against this project continue to say it will harm birds, fisherman, and rich peoples views. They will continue to complain, even as major environmental non-profits, state and federal agencies and a majority of Massachusetts residents, disagree with them. If they continue like this we might soon have to question their credibility.

Cape Wind President Jim Gordon said the decision is good news not just for his company, but for the state.

“This certificate is a very strong statement on the future of Cape Wind and of wind power in the United States,” he said. “This sends a message that Massachusetts is serious about renewable energy.”

Gordon declined to say how much it would cost to build the project, but said $30 million has been spent so far on design and planning — including the three-volume environmental report. If built, the project would be able to supply on average 79 percent of the Cape and Island’s electricity demands, he said.(via)

Environmental groups hailed the decision.

Conservation Law Foundation President Phil Warburg said projects like Cape Wind are key to “our effort to combat climate change and lessen our dangerous dependence on fossil fuels.”(via)

Lets hope they can continue to move through this very long and very detailed review process, and start harnessing wind energy soon because the Cape Light Compact wants to buy it.

The governing board of the Cape Light Compact wants to talk business with Cape Wind Associates LLC.

A resolution, passed by a 10 to 3 vote Wednesday, instructs chief procurement officer Maggie Downey, the compact’s administrator, to contact Cape Wind Associates for the purpose of entering into negotiations for a long-term power supply contract.

The decision was something of a shock to observers who have seen the Compact board struggle for months over making even a general statement endorsing utilization of all types of alternative energy, including wind. The Compact is an aggregation of Cape and Vineyard towns organized to seek power supplies at favorable rates and administer energy efficiency programs.

“We have always expressed a desire to sell power on the Cape and Islands, and we look forward to hearing from officials of the Cape Light Compact,” Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers said.(via)

With a long term power contract the Compact (the agency that decided where Cape residents buy power from) could lock in an ever growing energy bill for Cape and Islands resedents. A rate that has seen 80%+ growth over the last two years.