The NewsRoom
Release: #3792
Date: March 5, 2008

MMS Extends Comment Period on Cape Wind Energy Project

Comments due by April 21, 2008

WASHINGTON – The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) is extending the public comment period on the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the Cape Wind Energy Project for an additional 30 days. The extension is in response to requests from the public for more time to review the document. The MMS released the Cape Wind DEIS for public review on January 11, 2008. A Federal Register Notice will publish on Monday, March 10, announcing the extension.

The proposed Cape Wind Energy Project would be comprised of 130 wind turbine generators that could generate a maximum electric output of 468 megawatts and an average output of approximately 180 megawatts. The project is proposed to be located on federal submerged lands in Nantucket Sound off the coast of Massachusetts.

The DEIS provides a detailed analysis of the anticipated environmental and socioeconomic impacts of the proposed action, including impacts associated with construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning. In addition to the proposed action in Nantucket Sound, the DEIS evaluates six other alternatives in detail, including two alternative site locations, and no action.

Federal, State, tribal, and local governments and other interested parties are encouraged to comment on the DEIS, which has been available for review online since Friday, January 11, 2008. MMS opened a 60 day written comment period on the DEIS on Friday, January 18, 2008 when a Notice of Availability for the document was published in the Federal Register. That comment period was set to close on March 20, 2008, but with the 30 day extension will now close on April 21, 2008.

Oral and written comments will also be accepted during the following upcoming public hearings on the DEIS:

Blue Bullet. Monday, March 10, 2008 at Mattacheese Middle School Auditorium in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts at 6:00 p.m.

Blue Bullet. Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at Nantucket High School Auditorium in Nantucket, Massachusetts at 5:00 p.m.

Blue Bullet. Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at Martha's Vineyard Regional High School Auditorium in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts at 5:00 p.m.

Blue Bullet. Thursday, March 13, 2008, at Campus Center Ballroom, University of Massachusetts in Boston, Massachusetts at 6:00 p.m.

Additionally, written comments may be submitted online through April 21, 2008 using the online comment form at or by mail to MMS Cape Wind Energy Project, TRC Environmental Corporation, Wannalancit Mills, 650 Suffolk Street, Lowell, Massachusetts 01854.

All comments, no matter how received, will be given the same level of attention during the MMS’s evaluation.

To obtain a single printed or CD-ROM copy of the DEIS, you may contact:

The Minerals Management Service

Environmental Assessment Branch (MS 4042)

381 Elden Street

Herndon, Virginia, 20170

Under authority of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, as amended by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, MMS will regulate alternative energy projects on the OCS. Examples of alternative energy on the OCS include, but are not limited to, wind energy, wave energy, ocean current energy, solar energy, and hydrogen production.

MMS: Securing Ocean Energy & Economic Value for America
 U.S. Department of the Interior

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Last Updated: 05/27/2008, 03:49 PM Central Time

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