Offshore oil or offshore wind? You would expect some kind of cut and dried decision on something like this- like, why drill for oil when you can capture the wind that is always blowing, turning those famous ocean breezes into some soon to be famous clean energy? Cape Cod is somewhat of the centerpiece for the future of U.S. offshore wind, and with good reason. It was a hot topic with the late Senator Kennedy, with speculation that he was actually not in favor of it because he didn’t want the eyesore from his vacation house- true? Maybe, who knows. What we do know is that Obama clearly put offshore drilling for oil ahead of any kind of offshore wind project, and that has major implications for how much funding a wind project in Cape Cod or anywhere else will get. Then there’s the $8.8 billion that is going to the nuclear plant in Georgia.

It will be a long time before anything close to $1 billion goes in loans and funding to a windfarm, at least at the pace we are going right now. For all the talk, all the San Francisco Bay area hoo-hah about green energy and entrepreneurs, and all the press that things like this tend to get, after 10 YEARS of efforts and debate and protests and legislation pushes… not one offshore wind turbine has ever been built in the United States. Not one. None. Zero.

There are 800 off the coasts of European countries- they power hundreds of thousands of homes. China is flipping the switch on a 102 megawatt windfarm this month. We don’t even have one turbine.

The New York Times says that people point to things like bad economics, an uncertain regulatory framework and whiny people around Cape Cod. Obama is going to try and change that by announcing “Cape Wind” this week, which would fulfill his vision to create the first wind farm in the country. If it gets all of the approval it needs, it will be an historic victory. If not, it will be an historic defeat.

There are more than half a dozen offshore wind projects proposed along the East Coast and in the Great Lakes that could gain momentum if the Cape Wind project happens.

I’ll admit, I’m all for this. Anything that has to do with wind and solar I am for- the more we start building and integrating the natural forces around us into the energy that creates the electricity the better. Sure, we have a lot of coal and natural gas left, but it’s not infinite and there are great reasons why that stuff should stay where it is- just because it’s there doesn’t mean we have to try and use it until it’s gone, you know?

But one sound objection that gives me pause is the idea of where to proceed first. As Sam Jaffe, energy analyst at IDC Energy Insights, says,

 “The reason there are no offshore wind farms in the U.S. has more to do with the fact that there are plenty of land sites yet to be developed. Why on earth would you go offshore, which is more expensive, when you still haven’t developed North Dakota?”

Hmm. Build both.

Photo Credit: Storm Crypt