House Select Energy and Global Warming Committee Chairman Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.
Photograph by: Harry Hamburg
Credit: AP

Massachusetts Representative Edward Markey said moving ahead with the first major US offshore wind farm would send a strong message to the climate change meeting in Copenhagen starting Dec. 7 about the US commitment to clean energy.

“As the leading emitter of carbon pollution, the United States must take a leadership role within the international community,” Markey, a Democrat, said in a letter to the Interior Department.

Markey’s push for Cape Wind comes as the United States prepares for the meeting next month with officials from around the world to hash out a global agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

Although a climate bill co-sponsored by Markey narrowly passed the House this year, efforts to move a similar bill through the Senate have been delayed.

The Obama administration has touted the offshore wind as a potentially major source of clean electricity for the United States. But after years of state and federal review, Cape Wind continues to await approval.

Unveiled in 2001, the $1 billion Cape Wind project seemed to be on its way getting the green light after Interior’s Minerals Management Service gave the proposal a favorable environmental review at the start of this year.

But months passed and no decision came.

Last week Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said “hopefully” his department would issue a final decision by the end of the year for the project, which is being developed by Cape Wind Associates LLC.

The proposed wind farm is designed to power about 400000 homes, but has run into fierce opposition because its 130 turbines would be within view of popular Cape Cod resorts.

Prominent business leaders and politicians, including the late US Sen. Edward Kennedy, opposed the project, saying the turbines would be an eyesore and threaten the tourist industry around Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

The decision on the wind farm has also been held up by local native tribes who have appealed to a state historic commission to have the area where the project would be located designated a “traditional cultural property.”

“MMS is working expeditiously to satisfy the legal requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act and once that process is completed the Department will be in a position to make a decision,” Interior spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said in a statement.