Wind Energy

The Mass Audubon Challenge
In March 2006, following extensive staff and board review of the project, Mass Audubon challenged Cape Wind and its permitting agencies to accept comprehensive and rigorous monitoring and mitigation conditions that will reduce the risk to birds and other wildlife. The Cape Wind Challenge identified the conditions, including remaining data gaps that needed to be addressed in order for Mass Audubon to support this Cape Wind project, the largest, clean, renewable-energy project in the Northeast.

Mass Audubon's Challenge was based on five years of project review, including three years of ornithological fieldwork; our assessment and comments on the first federal draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) and literature review; talks with ornithologists, scientists, and engineers; and a visit to Denmark's offshore wind farms during the 2005 spring bird migration.

Our technical review and assessment of the Cape Wind DEIS focused primarily on the project's impacts on birds and their habitat. An important basis for our review has been that the project would result in no ecologically significant impact to living resources. This standard does not imply zero impact on those resources because the production of energy always entails some level of environmental impact.

While our primary expertise is birdlife, there are other important potential environmental impacts. Our position relied on the evaluation of our own scientists and the expertise of other organizations in assessing any potential threats from this project to the seafloor, fisheries, marine mammals, and other sea life.

Read the full text of A Challenge Proposal Regarding The Cape Wind Energy Project (PDF 235K).

Read More about the Challenge Letter from Mass Audubon President Laura Johnson: Mass Audubon's Position on the Cape Wind Energy Project, March 28, 2006. Press release: Mass Audubon Challenges State, Feds, & Cape Wind to Get It Right, March 28, 2006 Cape Wind Challenge Frequently Asked Questions & Answers, March 2006 A Challenge Proposal Regarding The Cape Wind Energy Project,* Prepared by Taber D. Allison, PhD, Vice President, Conservation Science & Ecological Management, and Jack Clarke, Director, Public Policy & Government Relations, March 2006 Op Ed, A Cape Wind Challenge to Get It Right, by Taber Allison and Jack Clarke Get balance right with Cape Wind, Boston Globe Op Ed, April 9, 2006 Audubon Society backs controversial wind farm, Associated Press via MSNBC: The Massachusetts Audubon Society has given preliminary support to a proposed offshore wind farm after studies allayed concerns that the blades would cause significant harm to birds.