America approves its first offshore wind farm, and it couldn't come at a better time"More than 800 giant wind turbines spin off the coasts of Denmark, Britain and seven other European countries, generating enough electricity from strong ocean breezes to power hundreds of thousands of homes," writes Tom Zeller, Jr., in the New York Times."China's first offshore wind farm, a 102-megawatt venture near Shanghai, goes online this month, with more in the pipeline. But despite a decade of efforts, not a single offshore turbine has been built in the United States."That may change. Last Wednesday, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the government's approval of America's first wind farm, a 130-turbine project off the coast of Cape Cod."The Cape Wind project would be the first wind farm on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, generating enough power to meet 75 percent of the electricity demand for Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Island combined," according the Interior Department press release."The project would create several hundred construction jobs and be one of the largest greenhouse gas reduction initiatives in the nation, cutting carbon dioxide emissions from conventional power plants by 700,000 tons annually. That is equivalent to removing 175,000 cars from the road for a year."But opponents of the farm have vowed to take the issue to court, potentially stalling the project for many years."Opponents say it would be an industrial blot in an area of pristine beauty and change the region's historic character," writes Katerine Q. Sellye in the New York Times. "They also warn that the costs to consumers are likely to be double or triple the costs for conventional power. Improvements to the region's electrical grid and transmission lines could cost 10 billion."Perhaps opponents should also add up the ultimate cost of BP's recent oil spill -- in the lives of the lost oil rig workers, the lives of the birds and fish and turtles and the lost wages and economic suffering of the people who depend on a healthy ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico.Thankfully, Mr. Obama has put a hold on any authorizations for additional drilling on the shelf until the investigation into the BP spill is done.Considering that the oil spill is currently spewing an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil into the gulf each day, the right answer to the question of whether more oil rigs should be built or new turbines installed on the shelf can be found blowing in the wind, not leaking into the water.GET INVOLVED * Sign a Sierra Club petition urging President Obama to halt all proposals to allow more offshore oil drilling * Sign a Power of Wind petition urging American lawmakers to support a national renewable electricity standard * Take the Public Agenda quiz and find out how much you know about energy * Sign the "We Can Solve It" petition for a global treaty on climate changeRELATED POSTS * The Answer Is Blowin' in the Wind (June 27, 2009) * Congress Tackles Climate Change (June 24, 2009) * In the Dark (June 21, 2009) * What Is Clean Coal? (February 28, 2009) * How Much is 787 Billion? (February 16, 2009) * Gore: "Shake Off Complacency" (January 29, 2009) * Wind Energy Not So Great for Bats (August 18, 2008)image: wind farm in Norfolk, United Kingdom (credit: Anke Hueper)
