 For any of us who care about the environment - and specifically the rapid development of clean, renewable energy sources - this is great news:
A plan to build a $1.2 billion, privately run wind farm off the Cape Cod shore cleared a major hurdle yesterday when the Interior Department deemed it environmentally safe.
The 800-page report by Interior's Minerals Management Service said the 24 square-mile wind farm in Nantucket Sound would pose little or no threat to wildlife and fish. Barring any further objections from lawmakers, a final "record of decision" for the project will be issued in 30 days.
An elated Jim Gordon, president of Cape Wind Associates, the project's developer, said Massachusetts was "one major step closer to becoming home to America's first offshore wind farm and becoming a global leader in the production of offshore renewable energy."
Great news, but even when this project is finally built, it's only a tiny - albeit important - first step.
Check out this map for wind power potential in the United States, including right here in Virginia. Note that Virginia has significant wind possibilities in the Chesapeake Bay, on the Atlantic coast, and in the Shenandoah region. So, what are we waiting for? Well, for one thing, Virginia needs to enact a mandatory Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), as the vast majority of states (particularly in terms of population) have done. How about let's start with at least a 20% RPS by 2020. Even better, how about we do what California recently did, and impose a mandatory RPS of 33% by 2020? Is there any reason, aside from political pressure and a constant barrage of feel-good (but utterly absurd) propaganda by Dominion Power, not to do this? Right, I didn't think so... |
