Court puts Cape Wind on hold

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A federal appeals court has overturned a vital clearance for the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm in a ruling Friday that dealt the project a major legal setback.

A federal appeals court has overturned a vital clearance for the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm in a ruling Friday that dealt the project a major legal setback.

In a 14-page opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., rejected a determination by the Federal Aviation Administration that the proposed wind farm would pose "no hazard" to aviation over the Sound. It also found that the agency overlooked its own rules in making that determination.

The court ordered the case back to the FAA for further review.

The ruling is a blow to Cape Wind LLC, which seeks to put 130 wind turbines, each 440 feet tall, in a 25-square-mile patch of Nantucket Sound. The project was the first offshore wind farm in the United States to win federal approval last year.

The project also had a setback in May when the U.S. Department of Energy put a hold on a federal loan guarantee for the project because of a lack of money in the program.

Friday's ruling effectively halts the project. It's unclear how it will affect the host of other legal challenges facing Cape Wind.

"This represents a major setback for an already struggling project," said Audra Parker, president and chief executive officer of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound who, along with the town of Barnstable, filed the appeal.

Barnstable town attorney Charles McLaughlin echoed those sentiments.

"Someone is finally saying the political steamroller has to slow down and these safety concerns have to be addressed," he said.

Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Cape Wind, said the ruling shouldn't affect the project's timetable.

"The FAA has reviewed Cape Wind for eight years and repeatedly determined that Cape Wind did not pose a hazard to air navigation," he said in an email to the Times. "The essence of today's court ruling is that the FAA needs to better explain its determination of no hazard. We are confident that after the FAA has done this, that their decision will stand and we do not foresee any impact on the project's schedule in moving forward."

The FAA will review the court's decision and determine whether Cape Wind will need to refile for a new "no hazard" determination, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the agency.

If so, the company will immediately do so, Rodgers said.

In its ruling, the court cited a failure of the FAA to follow its own guidelines in determining whether the turbines would pose a risk to flights operating under visual flight rules.

"The FAA did misread its regulations, leaving the challenged determinations inadequately justified," wrote Senior Circuit Court Judge Jason Williams in the opinion.

The FAA can find a project adversely affects air traffic if one flight has to be rerouted, according to the opinion.

A 90-day study of traffic in the airspace found that 425 flights flew through the immediate project area and most of these were at an altitude of less than 1,000 feet.

In addition to the ongoing legal challenges, Cape Wind must still find a buyer for half of its power and secure financing.

 

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111029/NE...

 

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Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

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(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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