BOSTON — A $1 billion proposal to build the first massive U.S. offshore wind-power farm has moved a step closer to overcoming permit requirements in Massachusetts, where it faces opposition from some influential residents. Cape Wind Associates LLC, a privately funded Boston-based energy company, has proposed constructing 130 wind turbines over 24 square miles (62 sq km) in Nantucket Sound, within view of the wealthy Cape Cod resort region of Massachusetts. The project, designed to power about 400,000 homes, won tentative approval by Massachusetts authorities for a certificate that combines nine state and local permits needed to build the turbines. Cape Wind said in a statement on Friday that Thursday’s ruling by the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board represented a ‘major victory.’ The board, created by the state legislature, instructed Cape Wind to work with two towns to agree on ‘reasonable and customary conditions’ for permits for burying electric cables, Cape Wind said. Opponents — including some politicians and business leaders with homes on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket — say Cape Wind’s turbines would kill migrating birds, threaten the region’s lucrative tourist industry and disrupt commercial fishing. They include U.S. Senator Edward […]