Environmental Law

Feds wind plan may zap Massachusetts - BostonHerald.com

By STEPHEN HOLZER

Massachusetts electric ratepayers could get jolted by plans to open up huge swaths of federal waters south of Martha?s Vineyard and Nantucket for more offshore wind farms.

About a million National Grid ratepayers are already expected to get hit with a 2 percent hike in their electric bills due to the planned Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound.

But if 3,000 square miles of additional federal waters are fully developed, as envisioned by the U.S. Interior Department and the Patrick administration, then ratepayers could see double-digit rate hikes valued at tens of billions of dollars, business and industry experts warn.

via bostonherald.com

You should read this entire article-- one thesis is that off-shore windfarms will ALWAYS be more expensive than on-shore sources of energy.

Full post as published by Environmental Legal Blogs on January 02, 2011 (boomark / email).