However, the offshore wind leases are only off Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Virginia, and if any of these offshore wind farms actually get built, something which is not a given considering the levels of NIMBYism in this country, they will be our first.
Our ponderously slow process of getting offshore wind makes us look ridiculous compared to, say, Germany and Scotland, who already have plentiful offshore wind and are building more.
Cape Wind off Cape Cod may finally get built after over ten years of delays and obstacles, mostly from ultra-wealthy NIMBYs like the Kennedys who apparently find the thought of having to look at offshore wind turbines far out on the horizon just too hideous to comprehend as they drive their Priuses and pretend to be green. Happily though, newly elected House member Joseph P. Kennedy III has broken with the family and now supports Cape Wind.
Maybe someday we will actually have offshore wind farms off both coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico. I sure hope so.