President Obama Jumps Into Cape Wind Project Brawl

We all know President Obama likes a challenge. Apparently feeling health care was to easy, he has decided to jump into the Cape Wind Project brawl that has been going on for years.

The Cape Wind Project is one of those projects that move beyond local issues and simply become a brawl that would make a boxer blush. What, you’ve never heard of this mess? The brawl has been going on since 2001 when the project was announced as the first major wind farm initiative in the country. Yes, 2001. Nine years ago.


The project was immediately controversial. The problem was it was situated in federal waters off the shore of Massachusetts. More specifically, it was 25 miles off the shore. This made the wind turbines visible on the shoreline. The shoreline is populated with resorts and expensive homes off of Cape Cod. As you can imagine, they were not too keen on the idea of the turbines and the fight started.

Nine years later, we are pretty much where we began. The parties have sued each other. Courts have moved the project forward. Other courts have moved it back. In a cheeky move, the land owners got Indian tribes involved as a legal maneuver. At this point, the project has devolved into a brawl that even the Hatfields and McCoys would consider ludicrous.



President Obama is trying to be our first really “green” President. As if things weren’t difficult enough in his life, he’s decided to send in the metaphorical troop to get the Cape Wind project brawl resolved. All indications are he is sending in the heavy artillery. That artillery is the Secretary of the Interior. Since the farms would technically be in federal waters, the White House has a ton of leverage in this fight.

It is going to meet with the parties objecting to the farm on March 1, 2010. It hopes to have a solution to the brawl then. Oh, wouldn’t you like to be a fly on that wall?! Look for a lot of arm twisting in that meeting.

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