Wind Farm off Cape Cod Gets Go-Ahead From Obama Administration

A contoversial wind farm in Nantucket Sound offshore from Cape Cod has been granted government approval to generate renewable energy from the breezes blowing along the coastline.

In Boston, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the 130-turbine Cape Wind project marked the "beginning of a new direction in our nation's energy future," the Associated Press reported Wednesday. Cape Wind expects to be generating power by 2012 and eventually provide 75 percent of the power to Cape Cod, Mass.

But opponents of the project vowed to fight on. Members of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe on nearby Martha's Vineyard have threatened a lawsuit, arguing that the project would interfere with sacred rituals and desecrate burial grounds, the AP said. Others cite potential harm to wildlife, air and sea traffic and historic vistas. The late Sen. Ted Kennedy opposed the wind farm, which would be visible from the famed Kennedy compound in Hyannisport.

Salazar, speaking for the Obama administration, said he understood the concerns but believed they were outweighed by the demand for renewable energy -- in this case, from the nation's first offshore wind farm.