July 1, 2009 Plan opens up areas for offshore wind farms in Mass. Play video

(NECN: Peter Howe, Boston) - It has been the ocean version of a land rush off the coast of Massachusetts in recent years -- a flurry of proposals for not just wind farms but liquefied natural gas terminals, pipelines, cables and other construction.

Now the state's moving to bring order to deciding what gets built where within three miles of the coast. If you are familiar with the idea of a town zoning map, showing what can and can't be built where, what got released Wednesday is like a zoning map for the whole 192-mile-long Massachusetts coastline, going out 3 miles to the limits of state-controlled waters before they become federally overseen ocean. And while the plan is scaling way back one wind farm plan in Buzzards Bay, it would clear the way for two more cape wind sized projects farther southeast. http://www.mass.gov/czm/oceanmanagement

Massachusetts Senate President Therese Murray, a Plymouth Democrat, said, "The ocean is the last great undeveloped stretch of state territory, and it's essential that we treat the ocean with the consideration that we treat our land.''

The biggest implication of the plan: It would open up two areas for big offshore wind farms totalling maybe 166 turbines, one southwest of Noman's Land Island just southwest of Martha's Vineyard, a former bombing range, and a second site off the tip of Cuttyhunk at the southern tip of the Elizabeth Islands. It would

also allow up to six wind farms, each no more than 10 turbines, like one the town of Hull wants to build off its coastline.

State Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian A. Bowles said, "The plan guides development away from the most important and vulnerable areas in our oceans, the bird marine mammal sea floor habitat and fish.''

The plan would kill, at least in its largest-scale proposal, Quincy construction magnate Jay Cashman's Buzzards Bay wind farm called Patriot Renewables. http://www.southcoastwind.com "Essentially the plan says that that project is not appropriate or large scale renewable development is not appropriate for Buzzards Bay,'' Bowles said, because of threatened impacts to roseate terns and other effects.

Cashman, in a telephone interview late Wednesday, said he is actually "very pleased" with the study by Governor Deval Patrick's administration and will push ahead with looking to do some 10-turbine wind projects where that's allowed in Buzzards Bay. Also, Cashman said, he has permits to put up test turbines as he evaluates developing the Cuttyhunk and Noman's Land sites where the state plan would allow offshore turbines.

No real plans are out for Vineyard or Cuttyhunk residents to react to, and the Cape Wind proposal for federal waters in Nantucket Sound has generated both strong local support and opposition from people concerned about the visual impact of turbines on the shoreline and their impact on boating.

But the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Jack Clarke, who served on the commission that produced the plan, says environmentalists are O.K. with those locations. "These seem to be at first blush two appropriate sites. They're not close to large population areas in terms of vistas that people will see.'' But he stressed Audubon and others would still fight for a close review, like the three-year study they did before agreeing to support Cape Wind. Clarke said before endorsing a specific plan for wind turbines in the Cuttyhunk and Martha's Vineyard coastal areas environmentalists would demand close scrutiny of "whether or not there would be any adverse impacts to any marine life, birds, bats, fish, whales.''

Technically, what state officials have put out is a draft report. There'll be five public hearings around the state in September and October before a final plan with changes takes effect in mid-December, Bowles said.

Bowles added, "The benefit of going through a plan like this is we're able to back up our assertions with a great deal of data that show boat traffic, fishing impacts, other ecological considerations'' that aid regulators in deciding what should and should not be built in state coastal waters. And Bowles envisions revisiting every 5 years what can be built, where and why off the state coast.