Cape Wind gets green light

BOSTON, April 30 (UPI) -- After nearly a decadelong permitting path, the Obama administration has approved the United States' first offshore wind farm.

The 130-turbine Cape Wind project, to be located in federal waters of Nantucket Sound off Massachusetts, is expected to meet 75 percent of the total electricity demand of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Island.

"This will be the first of many projects up and down the Atlantic Coast," said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar Wednesday in Boston as he announced Cape Wind's approval.

Noting that Cape Wind is one of the largest greenhouse gas reduction initiatives in the country, the Interior Department said the project would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from conventional power plants by 700,000 tons annually, the equivalent of taking 175,000 cars off the road for one year.

But environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., nephew of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., told FoxNews.com that the project would cost the people of Massachusetts $4 billion over the next 20 years in extra costs.

Fishing company owner Shareen Davis said the concerns of the area's fishermen were not studied adequately.

"We're talking about the industrialization of Nantucket Sound," she said. "It's not a wind farm, it's a power plant," the Cape Cod Times reported her as saying.

Cape Wind President Jim Gordon, reflecting on the long road to the project's approval, told reporters, "Going first is never easy and Cape Wind is proud of the role we played in raising awareness for what will become a major component of our energy future and in helping the United States develop a regulatory framework for this new exciting industry."

The project is expected to generate 1,000 construction jobs and another 150 operational positions. Gordon said he hopes construction to begin before the end of the year.

"Cape Wind jump-starts the American offshore wind industry and sets the stage for the U.S. to become a leader in clean energy," said Kit Kennedy of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Gordon suggested that offshore wind could also be a solution for the 27 coastal states he said consumed 73 percent of the nation's energy.

Gordon asked opponents of the project "to join the community and country in ushering in a new era of environmental stewardship, energy security and prosperity."

Early in March, Cape Wind agreed to buy 130 wind turbines from Siemens Energy Inc., which plans to open a Boston office.

Other developments in Massachusetts' growing wind energy sector include a testing center for wind blades now under construction in Charleston and Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas' research hub in Hudson.