Salazar Meets with Tribes on Nantucket Sound Over Wind Farm. By Beth Daley, BGlobe, February 3, 2010. "With the wind barely blowing yesterday, the conditions were hardly ideal for talking about plopping a 130-turbine wind farm about 5 miles off Cape Cod. Yet there was US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the man deciding the fate of the controversial wind farm, sitting on the bridge of a Coast Guard vessel and peering out across the Sound with binoculars a few hours after meeting with Native Americans opposed to the Cape Wind project. 'Very meaningful,' said Salazar about his visit that included a private sunrise meeting with the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe on a Cape Cod beach, and a later discussion with the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe on Martha's Vineyard. Standing on the deck of the Ida Lewis during a boat tour of the proposed wind farm's footprint, he said he came to Cape Cod and the Islands as a sign of respect to the Wampanoag tribes' deep reverence for the water body.
"Salazar announced no conclusions on February 2 about the advisability of locating the wind farm in the scenic Sound, but his visit to the Wampanoag and the area underscores just how high-stakes the Cape Wind farm has become to the Obama administration, which is hoping to accelerate renewable energy efforts and show the world it is serious about fighting manmade climate change. If completed, the project's developers say it will supply, on average, the equivalent of 75% of the energy needs of Cape Cod and the Islands. For opponents and supporters of the wind farm, the day appeared as a kind of last stand after a nine-year permitting saga. About 60 demonstrators waved signs for and against the project as Salazar's boat docked an hour late in Woods Hole... Salazar's visit comes after he summoned parties involved in the Native American and Cape Wind dispute to Washington, D.C., last month and gave them until March 1 to hammer out an agreement."
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