On a day when the North Carolina coast was buffeted by gusts approaching 40 mph, it seemed only appropriate that coastal regulators spent much of Thursday talking about how to turn that wind into energy.

But a regulatory roadmap on how to harness that estimated 1,400 megawatts of natural, renewable and domestic energy in the state's coastal and sound waters remains as choppy as the surf just down the road from where the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission was meeting in Brunswick County.

"We didn't want to get caught flat-footed if and when a project comes before us," CRC Chairman Bob Emory said. "But today also showed us the challenges we face to get ready."

Bob Leker, renewables program manager for the State Energy Office, said North Carolina is blessed to have reliable winds that occur over shallow waters, like the state's large sounds. That would help decrease installation and maintenance costs, making utility-sized wind farms more economically viable than if they had to go farther offshore.

But the state's richest marine habitats are generally located in those very same shallow waters, said Anne Deaton, head of the habitat protection section of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

"So that makes siting these projects in the right places that much more important," she said.

North Carolina currently has no mechanism for permitting offshore or coastal wind farms, and that uncertainty has all but stalled any proposed projects from coming forward.

That prompted Joseph Kalo, a law professor at the University North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to say the legal hurdles to water-based wind turbine facilities might be greater than any structural or physical barriers.

It's unclear how the regulatory review process would handle concerns ranging from threats to birds and bats from the spinning windmills, whose blades can reach 40 stories tall, to visual impacts of the structures.

For example, how would you put a price tag on the loss of the unspoiled views from the top of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse if a wind farm were built off the national seashore there or in Pamlico Sound?

"These ‘viewshed' questions are hot button issues in the mountains and along the coast, the areas where we have real wind power potential," said Steve Smith, chairman of the state Environmental Management Commission.

North Carolina isn't alone in being interested, but challenged, on how to potentially tap its offshore wind resources.

There are currently no offshore or coastal wind farms in the United States, and the most serious effort to build one, off Massachusetts' Cape Cod, is bogged down in the courts.

Federal and state officials who took part in a panel discussion on wind issues Thursday said jurisdictional questions - both among state agencies and the federal and state governments - can make permitting offshore projects confusing.

Environmental groups and agencies also are in largely uncharted waters when trying to determine the impacts of wind turbines on coastal and marine flora and fauna.

"These things are hard to study on land, and that much harder in water-based environments," said Curtis Smalling of Audubon North Carolina.

Still, there are significant reasons politicians, the public and utility companies are interested in "green" power alternatives like wind-to-energy.

Over-reliance on foreign oil and a growing environmental awareness are just two of them.

Then there's the legislation passed by the General Assembly last year mandating utility companies meet 12.5 percent of their power needs from renewable sources by 2021.

Todd Miller, executive director of the N.C. Coastal Federation, said wind power definitely has a role to play in meeting North Carolina's future energy needs.

"But the siting of these facilities is critical," he said, alluding to the environmental challenges. "We need to get that right."