Cape Wind

The merger finalized Tuesday between Boston's NStar and Connecticut's Northeast Utilities has created one of the nation's largest energy delivery companies, with more money to invest in system improvements, more crews to fix power outages, and better bargaining power to negotiate lower rates for customers, chief executive Thomas J. May said. NStar is now a subsidiary of the combined utility, which will be the region's largest, serving nearly 3.5 million electric and gas customers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.

William I. Koch, the Osterville summer resident and fossil fuel magnate who helped bankroll the opposition to the Cape Wind energy project, has emerged as a key backer of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, donating $2 million to Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Romney's drive for the White House. The donations rank Koch's privately held Oxbow Corp. third among companies that have donated the most to Restore Our Future, behind Perry Homes, the Texas home-building company, and Bain Capital, the Boston private equity firm that Romney cofounded in 1984.

Marcy L. Reed, National Grid’s new president in Massachusetts, yesterday defended the utility’s decision to purchase power from Cape Wind, saying clean energy projects like the massive offshore wind farm are essential to progressive energy policies, even if they initially cost customers more. “We genuinely believe that we must have large-scale renewables to move the dial on climate change,’’ said Reed. “What’s the cost of doing nothing?’’ Reed, a longtime National Grid executive, was named president of the London-based utility’s Massachusetts operations in January...

The state's highest court has rejected a bid by the owner of a beachfront property on Martha's Vineyard to intervene in the state's approval of the Cape Wind project's deal to sell electricity to National Grid. Thomas Melone argued that Cape Wind's giant wind turbine farm would have "adverse effects" on him. He said it would alter the view from his property, diminish its value, and that oil or other contaminants could find their way to his property. But the Supreme Judicial Court said today that that didn't give Melone the right to challenge the approval by the Department...

Excerpts from the Globe's environmental blog. The decadelong effort by Cape Wind to build 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound has at times played out like a soap opera, complete with subterfuge and sneaky end runs to try and block it. Now, the Cape Wind saga - with all its wacky politics, power, and people - will be on the big screen. "Cape Spin: An American Power Struggle" will be shown as a sneak peek at the Martha's Vineyard Film Society Aug. 2 at Union Chapel on Martha's Vineyard.

Boston utility NStar has agreed to pay a starting price for power from the Cape Wind project that is substantially above the cost of conventional energy and will slightly increase the average customer's monthly bill beginning the first year the offshore wind farm generates electricity, according to a 15-year contract filed with state regulators Friday. The price, 18.7 cents per kilowatt hour, is the same as what National Grid agreed to pay when it signed a contract in 2010 to purchase half the power generated by Cape Wind.

The Supreme Judicial Court today gave its blessing to a novel power purchase agreement between Cape Wind and National Grid that was approved by the state Department of Public Utilities. In a 34-page ruling written by Justice Margot Botfsford, the high court unanimously rejected every argument advanced by critics of the wind farm planned for Nantucket Sound. Botsford repeatedly called the DPU review of the agreement between Cape Wind and National Grid "thorough" and "considered" and consistent with state law requiring public utilities to purchase 3 percent of their...

The Supreme Judicial Court is considering arguments from opponents of National Grid's deal to buy power from the planned Cape Wind offshore wind farm. The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound and the Associated Industries of Massachusetts are among the plaintiffs in the case argued yesterday before the court. The groups object to a deal approved by the Department of Public Utilities in which National Grid agreed to pay Cape Wind an above-market starting price of 18.5 cents per kilowatt hour.

The state's highest court gave the green light yesterday to a controversial offshore wind farm's agreement to sell half its energy to a utility, and the president of the Cape Wind project said he hoped construction could begin in about a year. "Today is a really big day for Cape Wind, but it's an even bigger day for clean energy in Massachusetts," said Jim Gordon, whose company plans to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. "This moves the project forward. " The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision to uphold a power-purchase deal between Cape Wind and National Grid...

Cape Wind’s attempt to win a US Department of Energy loan guarantee has been placed on hold, in a setback to efforts by the nation’s first offshore wind farm to secure financing. In a letter sent this week, the department said that with the multibillion dollar loan program’s September expiration date approaching, remaining funds would be used on projects whose applications were further along. “This is not a statement about the quality of your project, but simply about its readiness to proceed at this time,’’ read the letter, sent to Cape...

The merger finalized Tuesday between Boston's NStar and Connecticut's Northeast Utilities has created one of the nation's largest energy delivery companies, with more money to invest in system improvements, more crews to fix power outages, and better bargaining power to negotiate lower rates for customers, chief executive Thomas J. May said. NStar is now a subsidiary of the combined utility, which will be the region's largest, serving nearly 3.5 million electric and gas customers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.

IT WAS noteworthy that the Globe's article about NStar's deal to purchase electricity from Cape Wind did not focus exclusively on the higher cost of electricity from Cape Wind, but pointed out the advantages of this energy in terms of diversification of New England's energy portfolio, societal cost savings due to foregone emissions of greenhouse gases, and price reductions related to applicable subsidies ( "NYSENSTNStar OKs top dollar deal with Cape...

After an almost year-and-a-half of review, Massachusetts regulators today approved a nearly $20 billion merger between Boston's NStar and Northeast Utilities of Connecticut — a combination that will create New England's largest utility, and would likely give the new company more influence over regional energy and environmental policies. Shareholders have already approved the deal, and the state's regulatory consent was the last hurdle the companies needed to clear before combining.

Boston utility NStar has agreed to pay a starting price for power from the Cape Wind project that is substantially above the cost of conventional energy and will slightly increase the average customer's monthly bill beginning the first year the offshore wind farm generates electricity, according to a 15-year contract filed with state regulators Friday. The price, 18.7 cents per kilowatt hour, is the same as what National Grid agreed to pay when it signed a contract in 2010 to purchase half the power generated by Cape Wind.

A dozen US Senators, including John Kerry and Scott Brown, are urging government officials to reauthorize a production tax credit for wind energy projects that is set to expire at the end of the year. Wind industry representatives, including the American Wind Energy Association trade group, are pushing for a long-term extension of the credit, which pays project owners roughly two cents for every kilowatt hour their wind turbines produce. The credit was created in 1992 to spur development of wind energy and remains central to the health of the...

The long-planned Cape Wind offshore wind project is unlikely to be producing electricity by mid-2015, New England's power grid manager says in a new report that raises the prospect of more delays in a project beset by them. But Cape Wind officials say they disagree with ISO New England's evaluation and expect to be running at least partially by mid-2015. ISO New England's determination about Cape Wind was included in a Jan. 3 report in which the company rejected Cape Wind's bid to participate in a market that it oversees.