Nantucket Sound

The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of the Interior‘s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement for approving the proposed 130-turbine wind project in Nantucket Sound. The lawsuit, filed last week in US District Court in Washington, contends that the wind farm will destroy historical, cultural, and spiritual tribal resources on Horseshoe Shoal, which was once exposed land. It also says the wind farm will obstruct views across Nantucket Sound that are used for spiritual rituals and contemplation.

The Supreme Judicial Court rejected Wednesday 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 wind turbine farm would have "adverse effects" on him, altering the view from his property and diminishing its value, and that oil or other contaminants could find their way to his property. But the SJC said that did not give Melone the right to challenge the approval by the Department of Public Utilities of the agreement by National Grid to purchase...

A prominent advocate of the Cape Wind offshore wind project is shutting down, saying they've achieved their primary goal of building support for offshore wind. Clean Power Now announced Thursday it was dissolving eight years after it was founded, saying "the core mission has been accomplished. " The group cited the years of regulatory review Cape Wind cleared to become the first U.S. offshore wind farm to win a federal lease. Cape Wind president Jim Gordon praised the group for effective advocacy and leadership.

Federal officials designated a large swath of ocean about 14 miles south of Martha's Vineyard yesterday as the potential site for a massive wind farmthat would dwarf Cape Wind, the long-stalled project that is planned for Nantucket Sound. After two years of meetings with local and state officials, environmental groups, and others, including local tribes, officials at the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said they are launching an environmental assessment of about 1,300 square miles that could give rise to hundreds of soaring wind turbines within several years.

WASHINGTON - Congress is expected to help fishermen, ferry operators, and other boaters with a new weather buoy in Nantucket Sound to improve forecasting when conditions become dangerous. The deaths of four fishermen in the sinking of the Lady of Grace, a New Bedford-based dragger, during an icy January storm in the sound have accelerated the push for the buoy. Representative William D. Delahunt, who represents Cape Cod and the South Shore, secured $250,000 for the buoy in an appropriations bill passed by the House this summer.

The Supreme Judicial Court rejected Wednesday 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 wind turbine farm would have "adverse effects" on him, altering the view from his property and diminishing its value, and that oil or other contaminants could find their way to his property. But the SJC said that did not give Melone the right to challenge the approval by the Department of Public Utilities of the agreement by National...

The developer of a proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound is scheduled to be in Suffolk Superior Court tomorrow, seeking access to computers owned by the project's leading opposition group, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind Associates wants to determine whether the alleged spread of negative information about the company involves more than one person. The firm is seeking a judge's order that would allow it to examine the contents of four computers used by John Donelan, a founding Alliance member who admitted sending a phony press release.

BARNSTABLE -- The leading opponents of a massive energy-generating wind farm planned for Nantucket Sound spent about $600,000 more than they raised last year, according to their annual tax filing. The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound spent $2.4 million in 2003 while raising $1.7 million in direct public contributions plus $122,000 in a loan that was forgiven. The alliance also carried a $242,000 deficit into 2003. The alliance received about 2,900 contributions in 2003, said Audra Parker, the group's assistant director.

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...

HYANNIS -- Weeks after boats from the environmental organization Greenpeace interrupted an event by opponents of the Cape Wind project, critics of the proposed energy development used their own vessels to surround a Greenpeace boat. As Greenpeace's 163-foot research boat Arctic Sunrise gave public tours touting the Cape Wind project on Saturday, a flotilla of 20 vessels surrounded it on the edge of Hyannis Harbor. Project opponents aboard fishing trawlers and other craft sounded horns, waved banners, and shouted.

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.

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...

A prominent advocate of the Cape Wind offshore wind project is shutting down, saying they've achieved their primary goal of building support for offshore wind. Clean Power Now announced Thursday it was dissolving eight years after it was founded, saying "the core mission has been accomplished. " The group cited the years of regulatory review Cape Wind cleared to become the first U.S. offshore wind farm to win a federal lease. Cape Wind president Jim Gordon praised the group for effective advocacy and leadership.

(Virginia Fordham/Courtesy Berklee College of Music) Berklee College of Music Professor Steve Wilkes collects sound in the field. By Jeremy C. Fox, Town Correspondent On June 18, Hyde Park residents Steve Wilkes and Virginia Fordham were in line at Provincetown's Whaler's Wharf Cinema, awaiting a latte and oatmeal raisin cookie, when they heard bagpipes. Fordham turned to her husband. "I think that's a wedding," she said. "You'd better run outside.

Standing sentinel on the edge of Deer Island, facing east toward the entrance to Boston Harbor, is a new wind turbine that was installed in April. It rises about 15 stories high. The rotor is encircled by a pair of white rings that help direct the breeze through - not around - the three spinning blades. Designed by a Waltham company called FloDesign Wind Turbine Inc., the turbine looks a bit like a jet engine. It takes advantage of some of the same aerodynamic principles, which enable it to extract more energy from wind, without needing to...

The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of the Interior‘s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement for approving the proposed 130-turbine wind project in Nantucket Sound. The lawsuit, filed last week in US District Court in Washington, contends that the wind farm will destroy historical, cultural, and spiritual tribal resources on Horseshoe Shoal, which was once exposed land. It also says the wind farm will obstruct views across Nantucket Sound that are used for spiritual rituals and...

Cliff Lodge 9 Cliff Road, Nantucket 508-228-9480 www.clifflodgenantucket.com What we liked best: The views from the top-floor room and from the spectacular widow's walk. What we liked least: The tiny room, although bigger ones are available for those with more foresight. What surprised us: The peacefulness of the patio and the affordability of the place, even in high season. You know you're at the Cliff Lodge when . . . you can see Nantucket Sound from the rooftop.

They have property rights to the low-tide mark. Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound , By Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb, PublicAffairs, 326 pp., $26.95 This is not your typical beach read. It isn’t light. It isn’t even fiction. It is, however, a genuine page-turner, and if it is true, it is also a laugh riot.

US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar vowed yesterday to work closely with Atlantic Coast states to streamline the permitting process for offshore wind energy projects. Salazar said the federal government must collaborate with the states - which include Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia - to avoid long delays for appropriate projects. He said the coastal states are leading the way in developing offshore wind power. Salazar’s goals include working to identify which coastal areas are best suited for wind turbines and discouraging speculators...

CRAIGVILLE - Occasionally, a place is so universal in its appeal that it draws all types of people and events. So it is with Craigville Beach on Nantucket Sound, with happenings perhaps more diverse than at any other single spot on Cape Cod. The Cape Cod Writers Conference, for example, has been a literary fixture in August for 46 years, gathering hundreds of aspiring authors to Craigville Village, which was founded in 1872. (Christian camp revival meetings flourished on this very spot, with Craigville Beach taking its name from J. Austin Craig,...