Cindy lowry biography

EI Staff March, 2008

Voices

For close to four years, the Cape Wind offshore wind project proposal (see Spring, 2005 EIJ) has been making its tortured way through the Army Corps of Engineers permitting process under the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899.

The proposal has become the unfortunate poster child for offshore wind energy, a good idea being promoted in the wrong way and the wrong place by an aggressive developer.

Cindy Lowry

The national policy implications of this fight for Nantucket Sound are far-reaching, and while the debate over the harms and benefits of the proposal will continue for some time, the most troubling aspect of the Corps’ review is the federal government’s failure to answer the most critical question: Will the United States allow a private developer to take control of a vast area of the public trust lands and waters of the ocean on the basis of nothing more than a navigation permit under an 1899 law?

Ocean areas beyond three miles are owned