Cape Wind's fate unclear, even in Obama's hands

(AP) — After eight years of review, the future of a controversial wind farm off Cape Cod now rests in what would seem to be friendly hands – an Obama administration that’s pledged to make the U.S. “the world’s leading exporter of clean energy.”

But it’s tough to tell if Cape Wind’s prospects just got better or worse.

To add to the uncertainty, Obama’s Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who pledged this month to decide whether to approve Cape Wind by the end of April, has called it “a good project.” But two Obama appointees to agencies connected to the project’s review have links to its chief opposition, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.

Obama has never mentioned the project while talking publicly about renewable energy, despite his enthusiasm for the topic and the fact Cape Wind would be the nation’s first offshore wind farm.

Some Cape Wind advocates have chalked up Obama’s silence to respect for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, an early and influential Obama backer. Kennedy battled the project fiercely, writing Obama of his opposition the month before he died in August from brain cancer.

Physorg