Cape Cod opponents lose court bid to stop research tower

Wind farm opponents lost a court bid to stop construction of a weather monitoring tower in Nantucket Sound this month. A group of boaters and others asked for an emergency restraining order to keep Cape Wind from placing the data-gathering unit in the water. The suit, separate from an earlier suit filed by the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, was filed in Barnstable county. That judge sent it on to federal court, which ruled that the group failed to show any reason why the tower should be halted immediately. The alliance is pursuing a similar legal suit in federal court, which is expected to take several years to pass through the court system. "We expect to be in the water by the end of October," says Cape Wind attorney Dennis Duffy.