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Interview: The Long Battle to Build
The U.S.’s First Offshore Wind Farm

More than a decade after he announced plans to build the nation's first offshore wind farm off Cape Cod, Cape Wind president Jim Gordon is on the verge of finally starting construction. During a 10-year fight to get approval for the project, Gordon has faced no shortage of challenges, including bitter public squabbles, a regulatory gauntlet of 17 government agencies, court challenges, and now, as he prepares to plant the first turbine, a glut of cheap natural gas that is undercutting renewable energy prices. But backed by Massachusetts laws that require utilities to buy from renewable sources, Gordon is confident the logic of wind power will prevail. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Gordon describes why he has stuck with this project through a decade of turmoil and why he believes Cape Wind’s long struggle will ultimately be good for the clean energy sector. “It was painful, it was costly, it was frustrating,” Gordon says. “But you know something, if it makes it easier for others after me, I take some pride in that. And I take some hope in that, because America needs renewable energy.”
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