US congressional Republicans launched an investigation into whether the White House pressured the Federal Aviation Administration to approve the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound, senior lawmakers said in letter released on Wednesday.
"A politically based determination of the Cape Wind project by FAA is an unacceptable use of federal authority, contravenes FAA's statutory mandate, and raises significant safety concerns for Nantucket Sound," wrote California Representative Darrell Issa, the chairman on the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Representative John Mica of Florida, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Issa and Mica's letter focused on documents first obtained by the anti-Cape Wind Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. Those documents appear to show that FAA officials were concerned about the political fallout of denying approval to a wind farm that is vying to be the first built offshore the US.
The documents include an email by an FAA operations manager, who wrote that "it would be very difficult politically to refuse approval of this project."
The FAA in 2010 ultimately ruled that the wind farm would not pose a hazard to airplanes offshore Massachusetts. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned that ruling last year, saying FAA failed to analyze the impacts to airplane pilots who fly primarily by sight, rather than instruments.
Issa and Mica said the FAA emails "raise significant questions about how the FAA arrived at its determination of no hazard … [and] whether it instead made a decision based on the political implications of that decision."
The FAA plans to issue a new ruling soon, the agency said in a statement.
"The FAA is currently conducting an aeronautical study on the Cape Wind project and hopes to make a determination soon. The FAA makes obstruction evaluations based on safety considerations and the available solutions to mitigate potential risks," it said.
Issa and Mica asked FAA Acting Administrator Michael Huerta to explain the emails, and provide a host of documents relating to the agency's oversight of Cape Wind.
Cape Wind spokesman Michael Rodgers said the charges of political influence are another obstacle conjured up by project opponents.
"During the Bush years, the opposition group falsely claimed the Bush Administration was pressuring agencies to approve Cape Wind and they demanded and obtained an investigation which found the review was appropriate," Rodgers said. "Now they make the same false claim, only this time about the current administration. There are no merits to these claims and they should be summarily dismissed."
Cape Wind has received full approval from the Department of Interior and the state of Massachusetts, but still must find financing before it can begin construction. The development would use 130 wind turbines that stand 440 feet tall to generate up to 420 MW.
