Visual Pollution
This series features the U.S.'s only offshore wind farm off of Block Island in Rhode Island. The wind farm came online in December 2016 and powers 17,000 homes with clean, renewable energy.
Maryland approved two large offshore wind farms in 2017 to be built off the coast of Ocean City. If built, they will be the largest wind farms in the country, promising thousands of jobs and enough clean energy to power 500,000 homes. Despite these benefits, there has been a steady stream of opposition to the wind farms in Maryland due to concerns about the appearance of the turbines. Local officials in Ocean City have referred to the proposed wind turbines as "visual pollution." These aesthetic concerns ignore the actual pollution caused by Maryland's dirty sources of energy, the human health and environmental costs of which are borne far outside of Ocean City.
Maryland approved two large offshore wind farms in 2017 to be built off the coast of Ocean City. If built, they will be the largest wind farms in the country, promising thousands of jobs and enough clean energy to power 500,000 homes. Despite these benefits, there has been a steady stream of opposition to the wind farms in Maryland due to concerns about the appearance of the turbines. Local officials in Ocean City have referred to the proposed wind turbines as "visual pollution." These aesthetic concerns ignore the actual pollution caused by Maryland's dirty sources of energy, the human health and environmental costs of which are borne far outside of Ocean City.