Cape Wind seeks to limit foes’ role before regulatory board

The developer of Cape Wind is trying to blow off critics who want a say in the state’s regulatory review of the offshore project’s power-purchase contract with National Grid.

A lawyer for Cape Wind Associates LLC asked the Department of Public Utilities to deny full “intervenor status” to several groups, claiming they failed to properly explain how they would be affected by the 130-turbine project, and arguing that their input could lead to “protracted proceedings” and “substantial delays.”

Among Cape Wind’s targets are the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, a vocal opposition group, and Associated Industries of Massachusetts, which is worried about rate hikes hurting many of the state’s top employers.

“This is unprecedented,” said an outraged Robert Rio, a government affairs executive at the employer group AIM. “These objections show the level that Cape Wind will go to keep ratepayers and their representatives in the dark.”

In a 39-page filing ahead of last night’s public hearing in Bridgewater about the controversial Cape Wind energy contract, the developer asked the DPU to knock the Alliance and AIM down to “limited-participant status.” The lawyer added that their interests “may be marginal at best.”

Cape Wind said the DPU’s staff and the attorney general’s office will “thoroughly and objectively investigate the merits” of the proposed National Grid energy contract, which the Herald has estimated would cost ratepayers about $3 billion over 15 years.

DPU executive director Timothy Shevlin declined comment because the objection by Cape Wind and a similar request filed by National Grid are pending matters before the commissioners.

A Cape Wind spokesman deferred to the DPU when asked about the filing.

AIM responded yesterday with another push for “intervenor” status, saying limited-participation status would deprive the trade group of “the ability to put on witnesses, undertake discovery and cross-examine witnesses.”

Also in its filing, Cape Wind said it had no objections to a request for intervenor status for Clean Power Now, a project supporter. But the developer conceded that the group’s role could also be limited so the DPU could “maintain consistency in its approach.”