Offshore wind farms are a common sight in Europe but not here. Cape Wind would be this country’s first — sending, finally, a signal to the world about America’s resolve to fight global warming and reduce its dependence on foreign oil.

This is not, admittedly, an easy decision. The project has endured nine years of state and federal reviews and ferocious opposition from local landowners on Nantucket Sound — including the late Senator Edward Kennedy — who hate the idea of having 130 windmills, about 400 feet tall, on the horizon.

In addition, and more problematically for Mr. Salazar, two Indian tribes have said that Nantucket Sound is of great cultural and spiritual significance to them and that building the turbines could disturb ancestral burial grounds on lands that were above water thousands of years ago.

Mr. Salazar’s own department is divided on the matter. The National Park Service believes the tribes have a case; the Minerals Management Service says the project should proceed.

Mr. Salazar could ease the blow for the Indian tribes with financial compensation. He could also promise that the wind farm developers, whose test borings have so far failed to locate any archeological remains, would collect further sediment samples before sinking foundations.

The criticisms of the project do not come close to outweighing its enormous promise. Cape Wind would be located in what may be the most propitious offshore site in America: shallow water protected from heavy waves; strong, steady winds; and close proximity to thousands of consumers and industries that would benefit from clean power. The secretary’s choice is clear.