Energy bill's turbine amendment stirs storm (Mass.)

[jpak]

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071118/NEWS/711180380

BOSTON — Environmentalists and coastal lawmakers are vowing to fight a surprise provision in an energy bill that they say would open up virtually the entire Massachusetts coast to unlimited wind turbine development.

The amendment was tucked into a sweeping energy bill that was approved by the Massachusetts House of Representatives with little debate late Thursday.

The amendment would allow renewable energy projects like wind power and hydroelectricity in the state's five ocean sanctuaries, which are now protected from development by state law. Those areas, up to 3 miles from shore, include Cape Cod Bay, Buzzards Bay, the state waters around the southern Cape and islands and the coast north of Boston.

The change, if adopted by the Senate next year, would remove a major hurdle to Boston developer Jay Cashman's controversial plan to build up to 120 wind turbines in Buzzards Bay. The bay is an ocean sanctuary, where the state only allows development when it is deemed a "public necessity."

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