WAPO story:
Ending a nearly decade-long political battle over installing wind turbines in the waters just off Cape Cod, the federal government approved the first offshore wind farm in the United States on Wednesday, a move that could pave the way for significant offshore wind development elsewhere in the nation.
In approving the Cape Wind project, a group of 130 modern windmills in Nantucket Sound that would start generating electricity by the end of 2012, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he would "strike the right balance" between energy development and protecting the area. Some opponents of the project said it would endanger the habitat for seabirds; others decried the visual impact of the turbines, as close as five miles from shore.
Cape Wind President Jim Gordon said the "tragedy" of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico underscores the problems with traditional energy development.
"It gives the nation pause to reflect on, really, what are our energy choices, and how are we going to live with them?" Gordon told reporters. "Every energy project has some impact. This was never about a choice between Cape Wind or nothing."
Shows you how anybody can cite the Gulf oil spill in their favor.
Of course, the either-or nature of most debates makes little sense. My argument: go alternative wherever you can, as every bit helps.
Personally, I love driving by all the windfarms in NW Indiana on my way to Chicago. I think they're quite beautiful. They also make me feel like I've actually arrived in a future I imagined as a kid. And having lived right along the coast in question for many years, I wouldn't have any problem seeing them go in there either. In fact, I think it would cool as hell to take a boat out there and check them out up close.
NIMBYs will always fight such things, but if you want to lead on such technology, you actually have to employ it. Unless we want to cede the entire offshore windfarm industry and its technology, we've got to play in this way.