US offshore wind energy off to slow start

THE US' offshore wind energy is taking a while to get off the ground with the approval process slower than expected, but construction has begun.

WHEN the Obama administration cleared the way five years ago for the US' first offshore wind farm to be built, advocates hoped it was the start of a new way of generating power along the East Coast.

THAT project, Cape Wind's wind farm off of Cape Cod, has stalled. And construction has only just begun for another, much smaller, offshore wind farm near Block Island.