February 1, 2022 — The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance filed a lawsuit Monday against federal agencies for the Interior Department’s approval of the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind offshore energy project off southern New England, alleging the government massively failed its responsibility to follow U.S. environmental and maritime laws.
“In its haste to implement a massive new program to generate electrical energy by constructing thousands of turbine towers offshore the eastern seaboard on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf and laying hundreds of miles of high-tension electrical cables undersea, the United States has shortcut the statutory and regulatory requirements that were enacted to protect our nation’s environmental and natural resources, its industries, and its people,” declares a preamble in the lawsuit in the District of Columbia federal court.
RODA, a coalition of fishing communities and industry groups, filed a notice of intent to sue Oct. 19 over its concerns but got no reply from the agencies, said Anne Hawkins, the group’s executive director.
“The fishing industry supports strong action on climate change, but not at the expense of the ocean, its inhabitants, and sustainable domestic seafood,” Hawkins said in announcing the lawsuit. “The decisions on this project didn’t balance ocean resource conservation and management and must not set a precedent for the enormous ‘pipeline of projects’ the government plans to facilitate in the near term. So we had no alternative to filing suit.”