Cape Wind and its opponents are both claiming victory after a U.S. District Court judge yesterday upheld the Interior Department's approval of the proposed $2.6 billion offshore wind farm but said two federal agencies violated the Endangered Species Act in their reviews of the project.
Judge Reggie B. Walton ruled against four lawsuits challenging the Interior Department's granting of the nation's first offshore wind lease to Cape Wind after a permitting process that spanned a decade.
"These are incredibly important legal victories for Cape Wind," Jim Gordon, the company's president, said in a statement. "It clears the way for completing the financing of a project that will diversify New England's electricity portfolio."
In his 88-page opinion, Walton rejected a lengthy list of legal claims project opponents had raised, including arguments over sea turtles, Native-American artifacts, navigational safety and the adequacy of the project's environmental impact statement.
In what the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound called a "landmark win for the environment," however, the judge ruled that both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Endangered Species Act in their reviews of Cape Wind, and he ordered them to revisit its impacts on migrating birds and endangered right whales in Nantucket Sound.
Specifically, Walton remanded the case to the wildlife service to independently evaluate a shutdown of turbines during migratory bird season to reduce bird mortality, and instructed the marine fisheries service to assess whether and how many right whales might be harmed by the wind farm's construction and operation.
"This is good news for environmentalists and for all of us who want to see the fragile and unique environment of Cape Cod protected," said Audra Parker, president and CEO of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. "The court has validated that federal agencies have taken unacceptable shortcuts in their review of Cape Wind."
The NMFS did not return calls yesterday. An FWS spokesman declined to comment, saying the agency needed time to review the court's decision.
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