On a day when further down the Atlantic coast lawmakers actually ponder setting fire to an uncontained deep-sea oil spill, the Obama administration just approved the first off-shore wind farm ever for the USA. After nine years of delays and legal battles using part of the $1 billion pricetag to build it, the Cape Wind project off the coast of Nantucket has been given the go-ahead.
The potential of Atlantic Coast off-shore wind energy is staggering: a colossal 330 Gigawatts, or almost 200% of the total amount (185 Gigawatts) needed to supply nine states from Massachusetts to North Carolina.
Off-shore wind power off even just the (polled) No-NIMBY states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia could take one third of the US population off the fossil grid. Today we break ground on the beginning of US off-shore wind power.