Abstract
For over a decade, a commercial developer has been engaged in an effort to construct the first offshore wind energy project in U.S. coastal waters. The Cape Wind Energy Project, if completed, would create a wind energy production facility the size of Manhattan in Nantucket Sound, a few miles off the Massachusetts coast. On the other side of the continent, a developer has begun operation of the Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility on federal lands in another environmentally sensitive landscape—the California Desert Conservation Area. Proponents of these projects emphasize the important role that renewable energy sources can play in satisfying the seemingly insatiable American appetite for energy, at a time when the negative impacts of fossil fuel use and production are receiving well-deserved attention. Both projects have prompted lawsuits challenging federal agencies’ decisions to approve them, based on concerns over the destructive impact that the projects could have on endangered species, the environment, and historical and archaeological resources.