May 7, 2025 — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear two cases challenging the federal approval of Vineyard Wind. The court denied the petitions Monday.
Commercial fishing interests sued the federal agencies involved in approving the wind farm, which is under construction 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.
The lawsuits were originally filed in 2021 and 2022.
May 5, 2025 — The Supreme Court has declined to reconsider the Biden administration’s approval of a major offshore wind project off the Massachusetts coast, in a reprieve for an industry facing rising political headwinds.
On Monday morning, the justices denied the parallel petitions led by the fishing company Seafreeze Shoreside and the fishing industry trade group Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) challenging agencies’ approvals for the Vineyard Wind 1 project.
The 62-turbine wind farm is under construction 15 miles off the coast of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard and is expected to be completed this year. Vineyard Wind’s joint developers Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners declined through their attorney to comment on the Supreme Court’s decision.
April 3, 2025 — SouthCoast Wind is responding to litigation by the Town of Nantucket appealing federal approval of the offshore wind farm planned for waters 20 miles south of the island.
The CEO of SouthCoast Wind, Michael Brown, told CAI the federal review was rigorous with regard to Nantucket’s concerns for environmental and historic preservation.
The wind farm’s parent company, Ocean Winds, remains confident in the thoroughness of the process, he said.
SouthCoast Wind is still awaiting some permits but received its main federal approval in December.
March 28, 2025 — The Town of Nantucket and a Nantucket-based activist group are challenging three offshore wind projects off the Massachusetts coast through litigation in federal court and two petitions, respectively.
The challenges are part of a larger effort to reverse Biden-era approvals of offshore wind projects under the Trump administration, which has been highly critical of them.
On Thursday, the town sued the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, requesting that the government “set aside” its record of decision approving SouthCoast Wind. Nantucket wants the government to restart its environmental review — a process that took more than three years to complete and culminated in key permits allowing the project to move forward with construction.
Meanwhile, the Nantucket-based ACK for Whales (formerly known as Nantucket Residents Against Turbines) is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to rescind permits it granted to Vineyard Wind and New England Wind to construct and operate their offshore wind farms.
The group filed a petition against Vineyard Wind on March 25, asking the EPA to reopen, reanalyze, and ultimately revoke the permit, which the agency granted in 2021 and amended in 2022. Vineyard Wind is currently under construction, with the Port of New Bedford as its staging area.
March 6, 2025 — With a huge number of bay scallops in the harbor and only a small number of fishermen still on the water, the Harbor & Shellfish Advisory Board lobbied the Select Board on Wednesday to extend Nantucket’s commercial scalloping season by nine days.
“There’s an abundance of adult scallops in the harbor,” Harbor & Shellfish Advisory Board chair Andy Lowell told the Select Board members at their meeting this week. “There are very few scallopers active at this point. The ones who do rely on this for their livelihood have missed a lot of days due to cold weather – I believe 15 or 16 days have been missed for cold weather…It was decided to extend the season, it’s simply nine more days of fishing.”
The Select Board agreed, voting unanimously in favor of the recommendation from the Harbor & Shellfish Advisory Board, commonly known as “SHAB.” But the measure will still require the endorsement of the state Division of Marine Fisheries to go into effect.
January 23, 2025 — Amid a backdrop of the Trump administration’s attacks on wind and solar power, federal regulators have once again put off a public meeting with Nantucket leaders focused on the Vineyard Wind 1 project, this time indefinitely.
Select Board Chairwoman Brooke Mohr in an email acknowledged that “it’s not hard to imagine” that the changeover from the Biden Administration to the Trump Administration could be at play but emphasized “that is purely speculation on my part.”
The postponed meeting comes at a time that President Trump has ordered a halt to new wind projects pending “immediate review of federal wind leasing and permitting practices.” The moratorium applies only to “any new or renewed wind energy leasing” on the Outer Continental Shelf, but the order also notes that the secretary of the interior, in consultation with the attorney general, will “conduct a comprehensive review of the ecological, economic, and environmental necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases, identifying any legal bases for such removal, and submit a report with recommendations to the president.”
January 9, 2025 — The Town of Nantucket and federal officials are set to hold a public information session to address questions about a wind turbine blade failure that happened last summer.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the Nantucket Select Board will host a Zoom webinar on Feb. 3, 2025, at 5 p.m. to discuss the July 13, 2024, Vineyard Wind turbine blade incident.
January 6, 2025 — The future of offshore wind is at a pivotal point this year, marked by a mix of determination and uncertainty.
On Dec. 20, the Biden-Harris administration granted final approval for SouthCoast Wind, the eleventh offshore wind project it has approved. With up to 141 turbines and the potential to generate 2.4 gigawatts of electricity, the SouthCoast Wind project, in a federal lease area south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, is a key part of the region’s clean energy goals steadfastly promoted by Gov. Maura Healey, and many legislators and environmental advocates.
But the incoming Trump-Vance administration could dramatically alter the regulatory and financial landscape for offshore wind. Their less favorable stance toward the industry raises concerns about the pace of future projects and the viability of less mature proposals. This is especially true for the Gulf of Maine lease areas, where the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has provisionally awarded four of eight lease areas to Avangrid Renewables and Invenergy NE Offshore Wind, including due east of Cape Cod.
Local concerns and political shifts
Those who have voiced concerns about offshore development, meanwhile, say a cooler federal stance on offshore wind would be welcome. Many critics, particularly on Cape Cod, say the offshore wind industry is advancing too quickly without adequate consultation with those who will be most affected — local residents, fishermen, and coastal communities.
Susanne Conley, a Barnstable resident who’s a leader of the Save Greater Dowses Beach citizens group, advocates for a reevaluation of offshore wind policy. While she supports the transition to renewable energy, she believes the Biden-Harris offshore wind program should be halted, particularly in light of what she perceives as insufficient baseline environmental data “to understand the effect of these massive projects on the fisheries, on all ocean life, and on coastal communities.”
November 4, 2024 — Fifty-year fishing veteran Doug Smith, better known as Captain Smitty on the waterfront, is worried about the state of commercial scalloping on Nantucket.
Catching them isn’t the problem, he said.
The fishery is a far cry from what it was in the 1980s, but he had no issues collecting his five-bushel limit on the opening day of commercial scalloping season Friday. He was offloading his haul at Straight Wharf by noontime.
“I’m scared, and I’m looking for new resources. Something new and exciting, rather than the three dominant buyers,” Smith said Friday.
Island fish markets would not confirm what they were paying fishermen for their scallops Friday, but several scallopers and dealers said that Sayle’s Seafood, Glidden’s Island Seafood and Nantucket Seafoods were offering between $12-14 a pound. Last year most buyers were paying $15 on opening day.
October 10, 2024 — Three months after a blade from an offshore wind turbine near Martha’s Vineyard fell, Nantucket is addressing the failure’s economic and environmental impact.
“While our community is committed to doing our part to address climate change, we have had to confront the very real and lasting adverse impacts of offshore wind development,” the Nantucket Select Board wrote in a letter to the Cape island’s residents on Wednesday.