BOSTON – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has filed complaints with Massachusetts over the projected cost of power produced by the Cape Wind project, The Boston Globe reported Thursday.
Wal-Mart often becomes involved in issues of utility rates, Wal-Mart spokesman Bill Wertz told The Globe, “because that’s an important factor in our ability to save customers money at our stores. It’s a big cost for us.”
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Under the terms of National Grid Plc.’s contract with Cape Wind, the utilities company will pay 20.7 cents per kilowatt-hour for power generated by Cape Wind Associates LLC’s proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm starting in 2013. National Grid said last month that the cost of electricity from the Cape Wind project will increase the average residential electric bill in Massachusetts by $1.59, or roughly 2 percent per month.
Spokesman for Cape Wind Mark Rodgers said that the recent complaints filed by Wal-Mart against the wind energy project were “unfortunate” for the retailer’s growing image as a proponent of renewable energy.
“They have, with great fanfare, introduced a lot of initiatives to try to green up their corporate image and, I think, by coming out against the contract for the highest-profile clean energy project in the country, that really sets them back,” Rodgers told The Globe.
The Bay State’s Department of Public Utilities held a public hearing on Wednesday night in Bridgewater, Mass., The Globe reported, to discuss the pending $3 billion agreement between National Grid and Cape Wind Associates. Two more public hearings will be held next week – one in Nantucket on Monday and the other in Worcester on Tuesday.
