Abstract
What you should know:
- Climate change poses substantial risks to coastal communities, especially during severe weather events, which risk public health and cost trillions of dollars in damage to property and infrastructure.
- Decarbonizing our electricity supply is an effective strategy for reducing the carbon emissions that drive climate change.
- Resident communities, Tribes, and property owners are sometimes concerned that offshore wind turbines will change local views (viewshed) and coastal character, as well as potentially impact culturally significant areas.
- How visible an object is on the ocean horizon is influenced by many factors and fluctuates with weather, time of year, and time of day. Most planned offshore wind developments will be built far enough from shore (more than 20 miles) that they will be very difficult to see under most conditions.
- Evidence from communities near offshore wind farms, in the U.S. and abroad, indicate that the impact to the local economy is often neutral to positive.