March 29, 2023 — The lawsuits against America’s first major offshore wind project are coming to a head.
Four cases are challenging the federal environmental permit issued to Vineyard Wind, a 62-turbine facility being planned for construction in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard. A federal judge in Massachusetts heard arguments brought by landowners in two cases in recent weeks. The other two suits, brought by fishing groups, have been consolidated and will appear before the same judge for oral arguments in Boston on Monday.
The cases against Vineyard Wind allege that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management conducted an inadequate environmental review when it approved the project by failing to account for its impact on everything from fishermen to the critically endangered North American right whale.
The stakes are high. The Biden administration is betting that Vineyard Wind will begin an energy revolution in the United States by generating large amounts of carbon-free electricity needed to slash emissions and power the Northeast. Massachusetts utilities signed a contract to buy the project’s power to boost renewables in the state and cut emissions.
But the project has encountered resistance from a landowners group on Nantucket, a renewable energy developer with a house on Martha’s Vineyard and groups of fishermen who contend the turbines will irreversibly damage the ocean. The dispute has even attracted a prominent conservative think tank with a history of supporting fossil fuels.
“The administration has put all their political capital on offshore wind and is breaking all the rules in order to do it,” said Robert Henneke, executive director and general counsel for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which is representing fishing interests in one case. Henneke claimed that the Biden administration is guilty of hypocrisy, saying the government is relaxing endangered species requirements for offshore wind even as it imposes stringent regulations on other industries.
“The administration’s violation of the [Endangered Species Act] should be a complete bar to the whole project,” he said.
A BOEM spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment, and an official with Vineyard Wind declined to comment.