Wind Energy

Warming of the earth's climate due to greenhouse gas emissions is a major threat to the nature of Massachusetts. Energy conservation and efficiency, and the development of renewable energy resources, including wind energy, are essential to mitigating this major threat to both the natural and built environment. The development of wind energy facilities, however, must be conducted in order to minimize adverse impacts to the environment.

Wind energy projects are proposed off the coast of Massachusetts, and planning for utility-scale, land-based projects are underway, as well. As this industry evolves and expands, local, state, and federal regulatory and planning mechanisms must also evolve to ensure that new wind energy facilities will be sited, designed, and built in an environmentally sound manner.

In Massachusetts, environmental concerns for wind energy development include direct impacts to birds, bats, and fragmentation of forests. Mass Audubon supports state and federal government efforts for coordinated planning that guides and facilitates appropriate environmentally sound development of the wind energy industry in Massachusetts and on the US Outer Continental Shelf.

You can read more about the environmental benefits and concerns related to wind energy development, as well as the need for planning and permitting criteria in our Position Statement on Wind Energy Development.

• Cape Wind   
  Mass Audubon has compiled extensive review comments and field research on Cape Wind since August 2001.

  In May 2009, the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board finalized a Certificate of Environmental Impact and Public Interest granting all of the state and local permits necessary for the Cape Wind Associates wind energy project to proceed to construction.

• Participation in Development of Siting Criteria   
  Mass Audubon has emphasized the development of consistent standards for the siting of wind energy projects in order to minimize and avoid environmental impacts resulting from project construction and operation.

• Project Comments   
  Mass Audubon submits comments on wind projects in Massachusetts and at the federal level with a focus on siting, impacts to protected land, habitat, and water resources.