It’s election season in the U.S. and talk of energy plans is all the rage. And while wind gets its fair share of press perhaps politicians should look offshore for something more than drilling.

The United States has thousands of miles of coastline that is rated either excellent, outstanding or superb for wind power potential by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). There seem to be plenty of potential sites off the coast of Northeast and Southern California cities that could benefit from clean, cost effective wind power.

The political and financial resources required to site wind farms off of U.S. shores have proven themselves to be quite substantial. The Cape Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts is seven years in the making and counting. Meanwhile production costs have skyrocketed due to the rise in commodity prices. As a result the price of building an offshore wind farm may be too much to pay.

The economics may change soon as regional cap and trade schemes (RGGI for instance) and strict state Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) take effect. Gathering the required political capital is not likely to become an easier task. Coastal states like their coastlines to remain pristine. Then again, one should look to some of the photos coming out of Beijing to see what the skies over American cities could look like if we continue to rely so heavily on fossil fuel powered generation.

The United States is now the world leader in land based wind power production. One wonders what it will take for the U.S. to break the proverbial ice and leverage the energy assets that are within a few miles of our shores?

There are other offshore wind projects being proposed, most notably the Bluewater Wind project off of Maryland and a Winergy Power proposal off of Long Island, NY. Winergy’s project is notable because they recently upped the size of their farm to a very robust 940 megawatts.

Getting approval for the Winergy project is going to be tough. An offshore wind proposal by Florida Power & light (FPL) for the same general area was rejected due to cost concerns in 2007. Times are changing and so is the price of oil which closed today at $117.48 per barrel.

The head of the Long Island Power Authority nixed the FPL proposal but seems to have softened his stance, calling the proposal, “something to explore…especially as oil hits $113 a barrel and the cost of fuel continues to increase.”

Offshore wind can definitely be viable and may soon be desperately needed to meet rising demand in cities like New York and Boston. As fossil fuel costs rise and the public calls for more action on environmental issues it’s likely that those who oppose offshore wind will find fewer friendly ears to bend when making their case to stop these projects.