Source: Cape Cod Times
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100501/NEWS/5010321
The federal and state government upped the ante this week in betting that Cape Wind is a winner.
When U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm Wednesday he more than doubled a multimillion dollar financial mitigation offer for local Indian tribes opposed to the plan.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) have already rejected twin $1 million packages from Cape Wind Associates LLC to secure their support for the project.
In his official "record of decision" released Thursday, Salazar increased to $2.1 million the amount Cape Wind could pay each tribe for "to-be-identified cultural and/or historical tribal interests." The state chipped in an additional $3.5 million. State officials also agreed to restrict development in state waters around the Sound to "limit additional visual impacts to the tribes' traditional cultural properties."