FINALLY...Cape Wind, First U.S. Offshore Wind Farm, Approved - MUST SEE VIDEO

Typical offshore wind generator farm (file photo)

WASHINGTON - April 28, 2010: After years of opposition, most notably from the Kennedy family (usually considered "supporters" of environmentally conscious projects), U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar finally signed off on the 130-turbine, 420-megawatt Cape Wind project in Horseshoe Shoal, Nantucket Sound. Supporters (that is to say real supporters of alt-energy solutions, as compared to political opportunists) consider the Cape Wind development a huge step forward for renewable energy in the United States.

Cape Wind Associates, the group behind the project, expects that it will establish Cape Cod and Massachusetts as a world-wide leader in offshore renewable energy technology. Cape Wind is projected to create up to a thousand jobs in assembly and ocean construction, boosting local economy and creating 150 permanent jobs thereafter, including 50 highly paid maintenance and operations jobs based on Cape Cod.

The wind turbines will be spaced six to nine football fields apart, allowing plenty of navigational room for shallow draft boats that pass through or fish Horseshoe Shoal. Cape Wind has been endorsed by the Maritime Trades Council and the Seafarers International Union, the largest fleet of commercial fishermen in New England.

For more information about Cape Wind visit www.capewind.org.

Cape Wind was subjected to years of environmental review and political maneuvering, including vehement opposition from Senator Edward M. Kennedy, whose six-acre family compound in Hyannis Port overlooks Nantucket Sound. Ted Kennedy, you'll recall was involved in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, political campaign specialist, who died as a result of an accident on Chappaquiddick Island while a passenger in Kennedy's car. Kennedy drove a 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 off a narrow, unlit bridge without guardrails that was not on the route to Edgartown. It landed in Poucha Pond and overturned in the water. Kennedy extricated himself from the vehicle and survived, but Kopechne did not. Although Kennedy failed to report the incident to the authorities until the car and Kopechne's body were discovered the next morning, he did express remorse over his role in her death. What does the death of May Jo Kopechne have to do with the environment and wind farms and alternative fuel solutions? Along with Kennedy's opposition to Cape Wind, it puts in perspective just how unconcerned he really was with his "fellow Americans."

In any event, the decision to approve Cape Wind is expected to face legal challenges, but Salazar said he was confident the approval would stand.

The following is a hilarious "news" report about Cape Wind from THE DAILY SHOW. It takes the piss out of the pomposity of the wind farm’s opposition.