November 24, 2020 — Vineyard Wind, the international business consortium that plans to build the nation’s largest offshore wind farm 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, has been hit with yet another delay after a federal agency moved back its review timeline for a key permitting document last week.
The $2.8 billion dollar offshore energy project was originally expected to have its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) completed earlier this week, with a final recorded decision before the New Year. The impact statement is required before the federal government can make a decision on the project.
But the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management — the federal agency responsible for issuing the environmental impact statement and permitting the project — updated its timeline late last week, moving back the expected date for the final impact statement to Dec. 11. The BOEM online timetable for Vineyard Wind now lists Jan. 15, 2021 as its expected date to issue a formal record of decision on the development.
A BOEM spokesman said in an email that the agency is still reviewing a mountain of correspondence related to the project.
More than 13,000 comments were received during a public comment period on the supplemental environmental impact statement, the spokesman said. “BOEM continues to work with cooperating agencies in the review of these comments.”