@Pretty_Lilly
When you install something in the middle of the ocean, a highly corrosive environment, it can be very expensive. People can barely maintain wind farms on coastal land. Putting them in the ocean just sounds like a maintenance disaster.
Depending on how far off-shore we’re talking about, there could be viewplane implications, it could be competing with other coastal uses like subsistence fishing or canoe paddling, for example.
And if it is a National Marine Sanctuary, critical fisheries habitat, seabird habitat and major pathway of migratory birds as @Lve points out, the reasons should really be ridiculously apparent. Wind mills kill birds. Putting them in the path of bird migration is just idiocy. An off coast wind farm is a major construction project that would introduce massive amounts of noise to the sanctuary no doubt.
Allowing a project like this to move forward in an area that contains a wealth of resources already would be like building hotels on fertile agricultural lands. Counter productive, short-sighted, hypocritical – a decision likely driven by profit motive rather than honest environmental concern.
@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard It sounds like there is legitimate concern here. I think all alternative energy technologies are premature. It’s easy to get behind rolling out solar panels on existing rooftops in tropical climates because the impact is obviously outweighed by benefits. With windmills in this situation, the impacts outweigh the benefits. Better to allow technology to develop further than to decimate a sanctuary to provide non-oil-based energy (I would not call it “clean”) when we don’t really need it. Rather than consume pristine environments, we should install wind farms on brownfields. God knows our military leaves a thick trail of those behind them.
@Taciturnu I think historic district can be a legitimate claim. Having worked in the building industry with a multitude of architects, and even architects that specialize in historic buildings, I have come to deeply appreciate historic buildings and districts. They contain a wealth of history, relics, buildings that could never be built today due to modern codes on the books, character that cannot be recreated. I think the pros and cons should be vetted on a case by case basis, and since it was determined a no-go in that case, they could look to doing other things.