4. Economic Mitigation

            Wilmington is known for having lovely and welcoming beaches. Bringing in many tourists in and out of state, local shop owners have reason to be concerned that windfarms will have a negative effect on tourism. A French study by V. Westerberg et al. (2012) found that common criticism of offshore wind turbines are noise pollution, shadows, and light effects. They also found that tourists wanted compensation for having wind turbines 5km from the shore (Westerberg et. al. 2012). Of course, no one wants to see their bucks blown away with these turbines, and while the community requests for at least a 27.6-mile gap, it is uncertain if developers will agree to this (Wagner, 2017). In order to compensate for the loss of tourism, there can be economic mitigation practices in place.

            One economic practice to help local owners would be to give a tax relief. Since income will decrease on these local owners, it is fair for these owners to pay less taxes until tourism levels return to how it was before. For the economy as a whole to still gain revenue, there can be increase in taxes on products that tourists typically purchase such as merchandise, hotel rooms, gas, etc. Furthermore, electric companies can also sell back clean energy to local owners at a certain percentage discount. This can be beneficial for Wilmington as a whole since owners can advertise that they will run on clean energy. Thus, potentially attracting tourists, which increase income, increases revenue, and promote the local economy.