Following ten years of planning last week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved a controversial offshore wind project off the coast of Cape Cod. This project will provide 420 megawatts of clean, renewable energy.  In average winds, this project known as  Cape Wind will provide three quarters of the cape and islands electricity needs.

Of course with every project their are vocal critics and this one no doubt will be caught up in the courts for some time.  With many locals decrying the potential loss of view along with a tribe of Native American's  citing sacred grounds, I am sure this project is dead in the water.   While I can see both sides, I’d much rather see wind turbines than oil rigs.
As a native of Santa Barbara, a small town 90 miles north of Los Angeles that experienced a large oil spill 40 years ago that inspired the birth of Earth Day a year later, oil derricks still dot our shoreline.  We see them every time we drive in town, visit the beach, kayak, sail or take a trip to the Channel Islands.  While the lights at night are nice, I’d love to see a moon lit ocean than these beasts working 24/7 to quench our thirst for oil.  Not to mention that the quality from our coast isn’t pure enough to fuel cars, just clean enough to make water bottles and plastic bags.

Our lapse in memory to the risks of offshore drilling was awoken late last month with the horrific BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.  It is well known that all off-shore wells are not the same.  At depths below 30,000 feet, such as the drill site in the gulf, extremely high pressure and high temperatures make drilling a considerably high risk and a blow-out’s ticking time bomb.  

While the cost of clean up is BP’s responsibility to a certain extent, no where near the cost of clean up or restoration.  The minimal amount of cash from the oil company and the associates, can’t possibly cover the cost on the environment, clean up, loss of jobs as well as the quality of life for years to come..  We can no longer depend on the status quo of our current energy supplies.  

While implementation of clean energy projects will take time, I hope that we start now and not look back in 5 years after another horrific  event takes place and we wonder why again accidents like this have happened again.
I challenge us all to to conserve energy, fight for policy change and think of creative solutions to our dependence on the status quo for our energy needs.