01:00 AM EST on Monday, March 21, 2005

The League of Women Voters of the Cape Cod Area has endorsed the 130-turbine wind-power project proposed for Nantucket Sound.

Because of the controversy surrounding the Cape Wind proposal, the League devoted an unusually long time -- more than two years -- to studying it. "It was one of the most thorough studies I've ever seen," said Elizabeth Levy, president of this chapter of the League.

Six League members went to Denmark, at their own expense, to see that country's offshore turbines. Shirley Weber, at first opposed to the Cape Wind project, said at a recent meeting that the trip had changed her mind: "The Danes were so positive about wind, and the place where they had built their project was so like Cape Cod."

League member Muriel Lightfoot praised the Army Corps of Engineers for its assessment of the proposal: "I've never in my 30-year experience in environmental work seen the Army Corps do such a good job."

League members also visited wind-power projects in Hull, outside Boston, and Vermont; collected papers on wind energy; held a public forum; and gradually came to a consensus. "The Cape Cod National Seashore has the worst air quality of any national park in the United States," said President Levy. "Most of the pollution that we get is particulates from energy plants. . . . We have concerns for the Cape; we have concerns for the whole country. All things considered, the consensus was that this project should be allowed to go ahead."

We praise the League's effort. This is the only Cape Cod group to have undertaken extensive research of the project before deciding on it. It's also a measure of the League's commitment to the democratic process that it did the work at its own expense.

Meanwhile, the Truro Board of Selectmen has voted unanimously to support Cape Wind. In a letter to the Army Corps, the board said: "It is incumbent upon current Cape Cod municipal leaders to provide a clean environment for the current and future residents of Cape Cod."

Noted Matt Palmer, of Clean Power Now, a group formed to support Cape Wind: "These decisions show a certain amount of courage, in that they were not swayed by the power elite that have been opposed to this project since the beginning."

Sadly, League members who asked The Cape Cod Times for coverage were rebuffed. Indeed, the paper later reported that the League did not support the project. After some phone calls, the paper ran a correction -- but never a full story of the League's position. Readers could have benefited from that information, and a thorough report on the Truro decision, too.