Year-round residents of Nantucket [1] are voting today on whether the island should support a proposed wind farm [2] to be built 14 miles off their scenic coast. While such offshore farms are big in Europe, [3] this would be the first one in the U.S.

According to Cape Wind Associates, [4] the project's developer, the 130 turbines planted in Nantucket Sound would produce an average of 170 megawatts of electricity – enough to feed 75 percent of Nantucket, Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard's needs, offsetting emissions from coal- and oil-fired plants. (You can see how much energy could theoretically be produced in current conditions at Cape Wind's monitoring station.) [5]

While the election will have no direct effect on the wind farm [5]'s future, it will be seen as a bellwether of political movement behind the project. Last week, a Senate-House conference attached an amendment to a budget bill for the U.S. Coast Guard that would allow Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney veto power over the wind farm.

Romney, mindful of the island's tourist economy, is a vocal opponent of the project. Senator Ted Kennedy, who perhaps not coincidentally owns a well-known family compound [6] in affluent Hyannisport on Cape Cod, is also not a fan [7]: It's rumored that Kennedy pushed for the amendment, which was drafted by Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens [8], whose greatest environmental hits include a lust for ANWR oil [9] and a preference for airborne mercury. [10]

The bill will go to the full Congress after its two-week Easter break.