Delahunt pitch for Nantucket Sound remains dead in the water

"Pursue and pursue with great vigor" becomes "put on (cryogenic) hold"

By Jack Coleman

Do the words "national marine sanctuary" ring a bell? If not, that's because you probably haven't heard them much lately. But a few years ago you probably did, especially if you've followed the debate swirling around the proposed offshore wind farm.

Back in December 2002, Congressman William Delahunt vowed to "pursue and pursue with great vigor" a designation of national marine sanctuary for Nantucket Sound to keep Cape Wind Associates from building wind turbines in Horseshoe Shoal.

Delahunt's dream ended on Craigville Beach last Friday when Governor Romney preempted his proposal

The protective status has been accorded only 13 times in 30 years, including Stellwagen Bank to the north of Cape Cod.

Delahunt made his resolute pitch, incidentally, less than two weeks after the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, an anti-wind farm soul mate, earned an ignoble "Dirty Dozen" award from the Toxins Action Center environmental group for the Alliance's deceitful propaganda against the Cape Wind proposal.

Delahunt asked the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown to report back to him on "the ecological relevance and significance" of Nantucket Sound.

Follow the money

The center, perennially beholden to Delahunt for federal funding, eagerly complied. That Delahunt's district director on the Cape, Mark Forest, used to work as assistant town manager in Provincetown probably didn't hurt in getting the center to help out as needed.

Mark Forest

Less than two months later, the center produced a report to Delahunt's liking. Delahunt held a press conference in Hyannis to praise the report, which was described in the Cape Cod Times with a headline that read, "Nantucket Sound plan gets a boost; a study commissioned by Delahunt supports creating a marine sanctuary."

The article read, "Based on past evaluation and supported by a just-completed review, Nantucket Sound's marine ecosystem deserves special protection as a national marine sanctuary, a report commissioned by U.S. Rep. William Delahunt concludes."

Two years after vowing to pursue the designation "with great vigor," Delahunt has not even filed a bill, amendment or budget rider for his proposal

More than two years after vowing to pursue the designation "with great vigor," Delahunt has still not filed a bill, amendment or budget rider for his proposal.

The report also described two previous attempts for Nantucket Sound to receive the federal designation in the early 1980s, both of which failed.

By the summer of 2003, it looked like this third attempt was again dead in the water. Nine months after vowing to pursue the designation "with great vigor," Delahunt had not even filed a bill, amendment or budget rider for his proposal

A few weeks after an August 2003 story in the Cape Cod Times titled, "Progress Slow on Sound proposal," Delahunt's promised vigor kicked in with his announcement to hold a public forum on the matter.

The forum was organized by the Center for Coastal Studies, with a panel of carefully selected experts and observers - none in favor of the wind farm.

Delahunt aide Mark Forest took umbrage with the August 2003 story in the Cape Cod Times (I know firsthand - I wrote it), specifically with the paragraph that read, "Two previous attempts at a sanctuary designation for the Sound 20 years ago were unsuccessful."

Proposal "on hold" for a long, long time

Not so, Forest claimed - the previous proposals were "on hold."

Well, that's one heck of a hold - cryogenic, if you will. At this sclerotic pace, Delahunt's proposal will be considered at some point mid-century, when much of the coastline in his district will be underwater if ominous trends in climate change continue (when asked if he wanted correction or a clarification, Forest declined).

Bill Delahunt

The forum was orchestrated by Forest and held at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in September 2003 . Moderated by Armando Carbonell, former executive director of the Cape Cod Commission, it featured a panel discussion with Peter Borrelli, executive director of the Center for Coastal Studies; former state senator Jack Alymer; Barnstable town councilor Robert Jones; and Richard Delaney, executive director of the Urban Harbors Institute.

The panelists lamented what they perceived as an inadequate permitting regime for the Cape Wind project and called for more state and federal oversight of Nantucket Sound."We're basically at a point now where we've got to put together a cohesive management package," Alymer said, as reported in the Cape Cod Times.

Borrelli said the two previous attempts at the sanctuary designation were thwarted by Republican control of the White House during the Reagan-Bush era, which ended in 1993, and by efforts to get the same designation for Stellwagen Bank, which reached fruition in 1992.

But the GOP hold on the presidency can hardly be blamed for the Nantucket Sound proposal remaining moribund, at least in the early 1990s. Not only did Bill Clinton's victory in 1992 return a Democrat to the presidency, Democrats also controlled Congress until early 1995.

The forum, while doing little more than reiterate that opponents of the wind farm remain opposed to the wind farm, did succeed in its main goal - of creating an impression that Delahunt was doing something about his proposal for Nantucket Sound.

After the event, little was heard about the idea except for occasional op-ed pieces by Borrelli.

If at first you don't succeed....

But in case anyone had not gotten the message from wind farm opponents that Nantucket Sound is a Very Special Place, the Center for Coastal Studies initiated a second study to drive home that point.

As was the case with the earlier research, the center's second report falsely describes the state's application for sanctuary status in the early 1980s

That second report, "Toward an Ocean Vision for the Nantucket Shelf Region," was the subject of a public forum at the Barnstable senior center on March 15 (at this point, Delahunt may have better luck designating Nantucket Sound a national marine public forum).

As was the case with the earlier research, the center's second report falsely describes the state's application for sanctuary status in the early 1980s. On page 10 of the first report, the center claimed that "no action was taken with respect to this nomination because NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) did not have a program for the sanctuary system in place until 1983."

Yet according to the Dec. 28, 1981 newsletter of the state's Office of Coastal Zone Management, the office declined to advance then-Gov. Ed King's nomination of the central portion of Nantucket Sound to "active status" for a federal marine sanctuary designation.

"This administrative step almost certainly means the end of the line for the nomination," the newsletter reads (bureaucratic jargon, perhaps, for "on hold"?).

"The majority of these resources are more readily definable in state waters and not in the central area of the Sound."

A Nov. 27, 1981 letter from the Office of Coastal Zone Management cited in the article said the proposed area "does not adequately meet site selection criteria for consideration."

While "adequate resources exist in Nantucket Sound," the letter stated, "the majority of these resources are more readily definable in state waters and not in the central area of the Sound."

Given how Delahunt rarely misses a chance to bash the Cape Wind proposal, at least when he's on Cape Cod, it may come as a surprise to some that you'll find no description of his sanctuary proposal on Delahunt's congressional web site.

69 to 1 at of March 20, 2005

Of 69 press releases on the site as of March 20, the only one that mentions the Cape Wind project was posted more than two years ago, on Feb. 26, 2003, and does not refer to the sanctuary pitch made by Delahunt just two months earlier. The releases describes Delahunt and state Attorney General Thomas Reilly asking Gov. Mitt Romney for more help in stopping the wind farm.

Not surprising given his background in business, Romney resisted the calls of Delahunt and Reilly, lawyers both, for a "comprehensive national regulatory scheme" (i.e., more billable hours) to thwart development of offshore renewable energy.

More power to thwart unwelcome projects

"I wish (it) could affect Cape Wind; it really doesn't." - Mitt Romney, March 18, 2005

But on March 18, Romney unveiled his own ocean management plan during a press conference at Craigville Beach with the panoramic sweep of Nantucket Sound for a backdrop. Romney's plan would impose offshore zoning rules, similar to those found on land, and give the state more power to thwart unwelcome projects.

But the enthusiasm of wind farm opponents for Romney's initiative bordered on the surreal when Romney said, "I wish (it) could affect Cape Wind; it really doesn't. It grows out of Cape Wind, it grows out of the lessons we've learned."

And Romney may have learned a few other lessons as he gives stump speeches around the country, ostensibly in support of other Republicans but also as groundwork for a possible run for president in 2008.

For example, farmers in Iowa struggling to survive hold more charitable views of wind power, especially when they'll get paid a $2,000 annual subsidy for each turbine while their cows continue to graze around them.

And residents of New Hampshire, long accustomed to wood stoves and hydroelectric power to offset high fuel costs, give renewable energy more than just lip service.

A Bourne native and freelance writer, Jack Coleman wrote about the Cape Wind project from 2001 to 2004 as a political reporter and bureau chief with the Cape Cod Times. Today in addition to his work for this medium and others, he writes two daily blogs; a Political Blog and a Wind Farm blog.