Nevertheless, DOI took several steps to minimize the visual impacts, including reducing the number of turbines from 170 to 130, reconfiguring the array to move it farther away from Nantucket Island and to reduce its breadth when viewed from Nantucket, requiring the developer to paint the turbines off-white to lessen contrast with the sea and sky, reducing nighttime lighting, and minimizing daytime lighting. In terms of seabed cultural and historic resources, DOI is also requiring a detailed marine archaeological survey of the area before construction begins. In addition, a "Chance Finds Clause" in the lease requires the developer to halt operations and notify DOI of any unanticipated archaeological find. See the DOI press release, the Record of Decision (PDF 20 MB), the Cape Wind fact sheet (PDF 108 KB), the project site map, and Secretary Salazar's reply to ACHP (PDF 3.6 MB).
There are other offshore wind proposals in neighboring northeastern states, all seeking to tap the region's estimated offshore wind potential of 1 million MW. DOI issued a Request for Interest (RFI) on April 21 for development off the coast of Delaware. Delaware officials have approved the Bluewater Wind Delaware, LLC 200 MW offshore wind farm, but they still have to apply to DOI's Minerals Management Service for an offshore lease, which may entail competing with other companies.
The area covered in the RFI is in federal waters between the shipping routes for Delaware Bay, with the closest point to shore located about 7.5 miles due east from Rehoboth Beach. Responses to the RFI are due by June 25. See the DOI press release, the RFI (PDF 62 KB) as published in the April 26 edition of the Federal Register, and the DOI's map of the proposed leasing area (PDF 486 KB).
EPA, USDA Promote Renewable Energy Generation from Livestock
The U.S. EPA and USDA announced a new interagency agreement on May 3 to promote renewable energy generation and slash greenhouse gas emissions from livestock operations.
The agreement expands the work of the AgStar program, a joint EPA-USDA effort that helps livestock producers reduce methane emissions from operations. The expanded program will provide up to $3.9 million over the next five years to help facilities overcome obstacles that prevent them from recovering and using biogas, the methane-rich gas produced by the decomposition of manure.
The collaboration will expand technical assistance and improve technical standards for construction and evaluation of biogas recovery systems. The partnership will also expand outreach to livestock producers and assist them with pre-feasibility studies.
Methane is a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. To accelerate decomposition of manure and production of methane-rich biogas, farms and livestock facilities can feed their manure into an anaerobic digester, which combines bacteria and elevated temperatures to "digest" the manure. Biogas emitted from digesters can produce electricity, heat, or hot water.
There are about 150 on-farm manure digesters operating at livestock facilities across the US, and an additional 8,000 acilities that are good candidates for biogas systems. Tapping that resource could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of more than 34 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, roughly equal to the annual emissions from 6.5 million passenger vehicles. In addition, these projects could generate more than 1,500 MW of renewable energy. See the
EPA press release, the
AgStar Web site, and the section of DOE's Energy Savers Web site that focuses on
anaerobic digesters.
