Cape Cod Times' poll shows residents evenly split on offshore wind power farms.

Byline: Ethan Zindler

Jun. 13--Four years into the contentious Cape Wind debate, local residents are evenly split over whether to build an offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound, according to a new survey commissioned by the Cape Cod Times and WCAI, the Cape and islands National Public Radio stations.

Support and opposition to the wind farm is dead-even across the Cape and islands. Among those who have heard of Cape Wind's plan to build a 130-turbine facility on the Sound, 39 percent oppose the project while 37 percent back it. The two-point difference falls within the poll's 4 percent margin of error and is statistically insignificant.

"I'd say that's a horse race," said professor Clyde W. Barrow, director of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth's Center for Policy Analysis, which conducted the survey. "Statistically, that's a dead heat."

The center conducted telephone interviews with 648 Cape and islands residents from May 2 to 10. Of those contacted, …