Wind farm approved

last updated 8 January 2015

In a groundbreaking decision, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved the nation’s first offshore wind farm, to be located in Nantucket Sound, off the Massachusetts coast. The controversial Cape Wind project, which will consist of 130 turbines rising more than 400 feet above the ocean surface, was first proposed nine years ago and stirred opposition from local Indian tribes and homeowners in Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard.

“This will be the first of many projects up and down the Atlantic coast,” Salazar said. The Obama administration claims the project will generate 1,000 construction jobs and produce as much energy as a medium-size coal-fired generating plant.