SINKING IN
BUREAUCRACY
was completed in January 2009.
“Sure, we can chalk it up to the
fact that this was the first proposed offshore wind farm in the
United States and that we were
paving new ground,” Gordon said,
“but there have been structures
permitted in the water for many
decades. There have been fiber optic cables, weather towers, bridges, piers, docks, things like that.”
On its face, a NEPA review
would seem straightforward.
In some cases, proposals that
are similar to other projects that
have already undergone a fullbodied examination and that were
found to have no significant impacts can obtain a so-called categorical exclusion and move on.
When a full-fledged environmental impact statement is called for,
the law requires the permitting
agency to provide a general discussion of the purpose and need
for the project, as well as a review
of potential alternatives. It also
requires a description of the affected environment and the attending consequences of building
and operating the project.
In practice, this can involve an
excruciating level of detail and
extensive consultation with agencies far and wide. Each consulting
HUFFINGTON
03.10.13
THERE ARE STILL NO OFFSHORE
WIND FARMS IN THE UNITED STATES.
agency is expected to put relevant
aspects of the proposal under its
own microscope, with the goal
that every potential impact on
people, traffic, animals, plant life,
soil, waterways, air quality, air
travel and other elements, however small, is assessed and characterized as “negligible,” “minor,”
“moderate” or “major.”
In the case of Cape Wind, the
project would be noisy and increase traffic during construction, for example, and the extent
of this had to be weighed and
documented. It would alter seaside vistas, so simulations of
how the turbines might look to
people on shore and even to boaters on the water had to be created; and because the giant spinning blades will undoubtedly kill
birds and bats, potential impacts
on all bird species that might fly
across Horseshoe Shoal had to
be calculated. The seabed on the
shoal would be significantly disturbed during construction, and
some fish populations would be
affected. So too would popular
commercial fishing areas, and
the massive transmission cables