Huffington Magazine Issue 39 | Page 39

SINKING IN BUREAUCRACY backing of virtually every major environmental group — including the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace and others — the government’s unhurried review of the project cost tens of millions of dollars more than it would have in countries with more streamlined permitting processes. And even now, Cape Wind remains stuck in a briar patch of legal challenges to its siting, most ly filed by a small but determined coalition of local residents and unusually wealthy property owners in the area who have no incentive to relent. It is a dilemma that developers of major infrastructure projects know all too well, and one that some critics say is in dire need of reform. “There has to be a better way,” said Matthew Brown, an attorney with Common Good, a nonpartisan group seeking ways to overhaul governmental and legal systems to streamline the approval or rejection of major projects of all kinds. “It shows just exactly how far away from the purposes of the process the actual reality has come,” Brown said, “because environmental review, and the lawsuits attending it, now actively thwart environmentally positive HUFFINGTON 03.10.13 “WHEN YOU’RE FINANCING A PROJECT, NOVELTY IS BAD.” projects like Cape Wind.” During his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama declared that, “for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change,” and he promised to “speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.” But just what an idealized projectpermitting system might look like — for clean energy or any major infrastructure project — remains a matter of debate. Environmental and citizen groups are understandably loath to limit access to the courts, or to overhaul a regulatory machinery that, for all of its messiness, affords them a good deal of leverage against deep-pocketed developers of far more menacing projects than Cape Wind. And while the Nantucket wind farm appears to be nearing the end of its own legal and regulatory limbo, it still remains too soon to say with any certainty when — or even if — the project will be built. This, critics say, needs to change. “I can’t think of anything more benign in terms of impact than an offshore wind farm, compared