HYANNIS

WHEN IT COMES to ocean management, the smallest state is making a big impact. In light of Rhode Island’s acceptance of the promising Deepwater Wind project, Massachusetts has an opportunity to learn from The Ocean State.

The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound (Alliance) commends the leadership of Gov. Donald Carcieri and the State of Rhode Island in general to bring acceptable offshore renewable energy to New England.

Unlike Massachusetts’s stalled and conflicted Cape Wind project, Rhode Island’s Deepwater Wind project is economically viable and properly sited; it need not consume years to permit. First and foremost, Governor Carcieri prudently employed a “consensus-based management” approach to promoting and developing economically viable offshore alternative energy.

The governor’s public solicitation of proposals that included stakeholder meetings was a fair and transparent process for all developers, interested parties and citizens. It is a stark contrast to the special, no-bid arrangement Cape Wind lobbied for to appropriate Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound.

Delaware has also used a similar open solicitation and consensus-based management approach that has produced widespread community support for the Bluewater Wind, LLC project proposed for nearly 12 miles off the state’s coast. Additionally, while Cape Wind has publicly attacked and mischaracterized any opposition to its project as NIMBY or anti-wind energy, there are many critical environmental, public safety and economic issues at the core of the dispute over the Horseshoe Shoal site.

By selecting a deep-water site, Governor Carcieri has virtually eliminated every point of conflict. For example, a deep-water site reduces or eliminates two serious issues: marine and aircraft safety. It is a known fact that wind turbines interfere with navigational radar systems. Deep-water wind projects can be sited more than 3 to 5 nautical miles from shipping lanes and out of direct line of sight of airport radars. The United Kingdom employed a process of risk assessment and turbine setback to ensure public safety. In addition, deep-water sites pose less of a threat to important stakeholder concerns such as historic preservation. In the case of Cape Wind, the project would adversely impact well over 1,000 historic sites around Nantucket Sound. Also, Cape Wind will prohibit shallow-water commercial fishing on Horseshoe Shoal, inflicting further hardship on an industry faced with ever growing restrictions.

The fact is, Cape Wind’s technology, monopole design, requires the pounding of 130 steel cylinders over 80 feet into the seabed, not only desecrating ancient American Native burial sites, but also causing serious harm to the benthic environment that is a spawning ground for many commercially significant species.

Tellingly, Cape Wind has not addressed the fact that roughly 30 percent of Horseshoe Shoal would have to be dredged (some areas are too shallow), causing serious sediment disruption and permanent alteration. Finally, as Andrew Dzykewicz, Rhode Island’s energy commissioner, indicated, the Deepwater Wind project will be economically viable given current and future market prices. It is clear that deep-water wind floating-platform technologies are vastly superior to monopole systems like Cape Wind’s, which would produce electricity at perhaps 20 cents per kilowatt hour or more. It is obvious why GE decided not to sell the 3.6-megawatt offshore monopole turbines.

In fact, Cape Wind is essentially a “fictitious” project without the shallow-water, GE 3.6-MW turbine. In contrast, the Deepwater Wind project is real and cost-effective.

Again, we commend Governor Carcieri’s vision in employing a transparent, consensus-based management process. The governor has provided New England with a model for collaboration and compromise.

In Massachusetts, perhaps $50 million has been wasted on conflict; the Cape Wind battle has no end in sight, given the one and a half dozen permits it still needs to secure. The Alliance is committed to supporting alternative energy and finding solutions to the Cape Wind conflict.

Deepwater Wind’s proposal is the right offshore-wind project to end debate on Cape Wind and advance alternative energy offshore.

Glenn G. Wattley is president and chief executive of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the main anti-Cape Wind group.