Summary of Impacts

Potential adverse impacts to natural and cultural resources could occur during each phase of wind energy development (i.e., site monitoring and testing, construction, operation, and decommissioning) if effective mitigation measures are not implemented. The nature and magnitude of these impacts would vary by phase and would be determined by the project location and size.

Effective mitigation measures could be implemented to address many of the direct and indirect adverse impacts. For some resources, minimum requirements could be established that would effectively mitigate impacts at all potential development sites. For other resources, such as ecological and visual resources, mitigation would be better defined at the project level to address site-specific and species-specific concerns.

The potential impacts of wind energy development to local and regional economies would be largely beneficial, depending upon the size of the project and the resultant wind power capacity.

For More Information

More information on impacts and mitigation measures is available in the Programmatic EIS Chapter 5 Potential Impacts of Wind Energy Development and Analysis of Mitigation Measures (PDF, 902 KB).