Mark Wilson / Getty Images
It hasn’t been a breeze, but after nine years, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved the construction of the nation’s first offshore wind farm on Wednesday. It’s been a long time coming for the Cape Cod project, with construction most recently being delayed because two Wampanoag Native American tribes complained that the 400-foot turbines will interfere with tribal rituals. Salazar said, "I am convinced there is a path we can take forward that both honors our responsibility to protect historical and cultural resources and at the same time meets the need to repower our economy with clean energy produced from wind power.” Cape Wind, when completed, will be the equivalent of a medium-sized coal-fired plant and will spare the atmosphere 175,000 cars’ worth of carbon emissions.