Like all windmills, these two floaters will affect the natural ecosystem and environment, around them, and a host of human resource values as well. They will be chosen from among the three alternatives in the picture.
They will also be the precursors to deploying an armada of full sized utility scale deepwater floating ocean windmills further offshore in the Gulf of Maine.
The DeepCwind strategy for this environmentas assessment appears to be to pretend these prototypes are not a step in the path to deploying a fullsized ocean windfarm in the Gulf of Maine. Thus no need to consider indirect or culmulative or secondary impacts.
So it is also important for this environmental assessment to acknowledge and examine the effects that THOSE big ones could have on the Gulf of Maine's ecology and environment. Not only the effects within the footprint of the prototypes. But where they lead.
DEADLINE Before the US Dept of Energy releases the millions to DeepCwind to proceed, the public is given until June 9, 2011, to submit comments offering their point of view or facts that the agency needs to take into consideration . Email comments to laura.margason@go.doe.gov. Snail-mail your comments to the US Dept of Energy, c/o Laura Margason, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, CO 80401. Be sure to refer to DOE/EA 1792.
These would be comments on the plan, the possible adverse impacts both in the footprint of the prototype windmills and beyond that would be affected. The following linked documents should be be enough to enable you to send them comments that will make a difference.
BACKGROUND MATERIALSDepartment of Energy's Deepcwind EA Documents. (pdfs)
DOE Public Notice of Draft Environmental Assessment 1page
Draft Environmental Assessment 108 pages
Scoping materials 40 pages. Agencies, lobstermens Association etc
Letters and Consultation 34 pages Agency letters on endangered species
DeepCwind's 2011 report on their project
www.penbay.org/wind/ocean/
DeepCwind website http://www.deepwind.org
Audio recordings of DeepCwind official Habib Dagher
* October 19, 2010 Habib Dagher speaks at 1st annual Maine Deepwater Offshore Wind Conference (one hour)
* May 20, 2010 Habib Dagher speaks at public meeting at Rockport opera House - one hour
* Habib Dagher at two work sessions of the Utility and Energy Committee on LD 1810 An Act To Implement the recommendations of the Governor's Ocean Energy Task Force
March 18, 2010 Work session Dr Habib Dagher 12 minutes
March 23, 2010 Work Session Dr Habib Dagher, 10 minutes * Dr. Habib Dagher, Q&A 8 minutes
MORE INFO http://penbay.org/wind/
Please take action to protect our wild seawinds!
Much of the information in your blog article is directly contradicted by the EA and other publicly available materials. You should do more thorough research before posting if you want to appear trustworthy.
ReplyDeleteIf you are referring to the blog entry you just commented on, or previous ones, kindly list some contradicted parts.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing going on is that the Dept of Energy and the DeepCwindies want to minimize the scope of NEPA analysis - as if the purpose of the prototypes were just to have prototypes for their own sake, a sort of windmill modelling club, with no real connect between their mini models and the (already partly funded by the same govt agency) construction and operation of a series of full sized floaters.
"The child is father of the man", someone once wrote. DeepCwind's prototypes will likewise father full-sized deepwater windmills, so consideration of the first generation of those descendants is in order, sez the National Environmental Policy Act.
Don't agree? That's your right, though you may be wrong.