Alliance To Protect Nantucket Sound, Inc. v. Energy Facilities Siting Board, 457 Mass. 663 (Mass. Sup. Jud. Ct. 2010)

(in 4-2 ruling, court upholds defendant's power to overrule local opposition to transmission lines coming inland from planned offshore 130-aero generator wind power station known as the Cape Wind Project on Nantucket Sound; project had been denied permit from Cape Cod Commission and applied to defendant for a single permit that would consist of all state and local permits for Cape Wind project; Chief Justice dissented noting that ruling clears way for oil drilling rigs and nuclear power plants to be developed off-shore of Nantucket Sound and Cape Cod; Chief Justice notes that defendant has usurped state's fiduciary responsibility to the state's citizens and failed to consider in-state impacts of the wind power station, including inherent economic inefficiency of wind-generated electricity and, as such "seriously undermines the public trust doctrine").