Public Concerns and Benefits

After Cape Wind was proposed in 2001, some of the area’s waterfront property owners organized to oppose the project, contributing to the delays in construction. A 2006 survey by the University of Delaware near the proposed Cape Wind development found that residents most frequently based their decision to support or oppose the wind farm on perceived impacts to marine life, the environment, electricity rates, aesthetics, fishing, and boating. Residents believed the most positive impacts would be on electricity rates, job creation, and air quality. Forty-seven percent of local residents surveyed increased their support for Cape Wind if they were told it was the “first of many” offshore wind projects along the Atlantic Coast – indicating that residents prefer to feel like part of a larger solution with “important benefits.