Salazar tours Cape Wind site

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar tours proposed Cape Wind site

By Christine McConvilleHundreds of Cape Wind fans and foes braved the afternoon’s bone-chilling temperatures today to lobby Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar about the project.

Today, Salazar was on Cape Cod and out on Nantucket Sound to see firsthand the proposed location of the controversial Cape Wind project.

Salazar spent the early part of the day in Mashpee with members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.

He participated in a 6 a.m. sunrise ceremony on a spit of land at Ponponesset Beach, and then met at tribal headquarters with Cedric Cromwell and Vernon “Silent Drum” Lopez.

Later, Salazar and his staff traveled to meet with members of the Wampanoags’ Aquinnah tribe on Martha’s Vineyard.

Tribal Chairman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais said she took Salazar to sites where tribal members greet the sun, and look at the shoals.

The tribes say Cape Wind will interfere with ancient burial grounds and tribal spiritual practices, which include worshipping the sun at daybreak.

“It’s the wrong project, in the wrong place, at the wrong time,” she said.

“There are plenty of places for wind turbines, but only one shoal,” she said.

Salazar then went on a nearly three-hour boat cruise with members of the national media.Comment:  "I'm shocked," said Salazar after the tour. "It's just a big ol' empty ocean. There are no cliff dwellings or burial mounds. I didn't even see any pottery sherds or arrowheads."

Salazar took several years' worth of food and clothing on the cruise with him. "The dangers of three-hour tours are well known," he told reporters. "One minute you're putt-putting around the harbor, the next you're shipwrecked on a desert island thousands of miles away."

For more on the subject, see NPS Rules Against Wind Turbines and Wampanoag vs. Wind Turbines.

Below:  Mary Ann, the Skipper, Gilligan, the Professor, Ginger, and Mr. Howell. "Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, second from left, on Nantucket Sound Tuesday, flanked by officials of Minerals Management Service and the Interior Department." (Joanne Rathe/Boston Globe)