September 28, 2010
New Report: Offshore Wind’s Untapped Wealth
The answer is blowing in the wind, and we have a new report to prove it.
Oceana’s new report, Untapped Wealth, is a comprehensive analysis that shows how focusing our investments on clean energy like offshore wind would be cost-effective, more beneficial to job creation, and better for the environment and ocean in a variety of ways than offshore oil and gas exploration and development.
Here are a few of the key findings from the new report:
*Delaware, Massachusetts and North Carolina could generate enough electricity from offshore wind to equal current electricity generation, entirely eliminating the need for fossil fuel based electric generation.
* East Coast states such as New Jersey, Virginia and South Carolina could supply 92%, 83% and 64% of their current electricity generation with offshore wind, respectively.
*On the Atlantic Coast, conservative estimates suggest that offshore wind could generate about 30 percent more electricity than could be generated by the technically available offshore oil and gas.
*Wind development would cost about $36 billion less than offshore oil and gas production combined.
* Offshore wind development could create between 133,000 and 212,000 jobs annually in the United States –more than three times more jobs than new offshore oil and natural gas development is expected to create.
Plus, replacing current carbon-dioxide generating sources with clean offshore wind will help combat climate change and ocean acidification. And in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico drilling disaster, the risks associated with offshore drilling are impossible to ignore.
Check out the full report to learn more, and do your part by telling your Seantors to support offshore wind development today!