The leader of the Martha’s Vineyard Native American tribe, and a tribal citizen who runs a popular charter fishing business, are supporting a lawsuit against a wind farm that is undergoing construction off Aquinnah’s coast.
The chair of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, filed a declaration in federal district court in Washington, D.C., stating that the tribe has suffered as the result of the government’s actions approving Revolution Wind, a development under construction 12 miles from the Vineyard.
William (“Buddy”) Vanderhoop has filed a similar declaration; both read like witness statements. Vanderhoop said that the fishing grounds that he brings customers to have not been as productive as in prior years, and he worries about his business as a result.
Describing themselves as a grassroots organization, the Rhode Island group Green Oceans is alleging in the lawsuit filed at the beginning of this year that the federal government has violated a number of laws — including the Endangered Species and Clean Water acts — by approving the construction of Revolution Wind. Some 35 other plaintiffs are part of the lawsuit, including the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance and Save Right Whales Coalition.
Revolution Wind is expected to consist of 65 Siemens Gamesa turbines — which feature blades more than 300 feet long — with the capacity to generate up to 400 megawatts for Rhode Island and 304 megawatts for Connecticut, enough to power more than 350,000 homes.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the wind farm in November last year.
But tribal members, including Andrews-Maltais, worry about the impact the offshore wind development is having on many significant cultural practices, the environment as well as wildlife in the area.
Andrews-Maltais cites the destruction of historical, cultural, and spiritual tribal resources in her filing.
“The unobstructed and majestic views from the south side of the island from Chappaquiddick to Aquinnah and the Aquinnah (Gay Head) Cliffs, which overlook the waters where the Revolution Wind Project is being constructed, are areas of unparalleled cultural significance to the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe,” reads Andrews-Maltais’ argument, filed last month in D.C. federal court. “The unobstructed eastern view is inextricably entwined with who we are as a people and our cosmology, essential to our spiritual beliefs and practices.”
Andrews-Maltais also notes that the Aquinnah Cliffs are sacred to the tribe, and that the turbines already under construction by Revolution Wind have “forever desecrated these views.”
Andrews-Maltais also notes that the construction of the turbines is impacting seabeds, and disturbing ancient pathways to other native tribes in the region, ruining a cultural experience of taking in the sunset, that the turbines further threaten the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, and they are impacting the night sky.
“The lights are visible from these turbines and from the construction vessels virtually every night, negatively impacting our ability to clearly see the night constellations,” the filing reads. “Once all 65 of these turbines are installed, the nighttime view of the stars, and significant cultural celestial events, will be completely gone.”
Andrews-Maltais also notes that they have made numerous complaints that federal officials did not consult with the tribe before completing some opinions, including the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s biological opinions.
The declaration was filed on Nov. 14.
Although yet to take legal action against offshore wind developments recently, Andrews-Maltais has been a vocal critic of the industry prior to the filing. This July, Andrews-Maltais called for a moratorium on the development of offshore wind, following the shattered blade at the Vineyard WInd site that sent debris into the ocean and eventually to the shores on Nantucket and, partially, the Vineyard.
But it’s not the first time the tribe has been involved in a lawsuit. In 2011, the Aquinnah tribe joined a suit against the Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to block the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound.
Vanderhoop, a charter fisherman, filed a similar declaration as Andrews-Maltais in November, noting that Revolution Wind has built its turbines where he likes to bring his customers. He argues that since construction started, he’s had a difficult time.
“When people want to catch big fish, they call Tomahawk Charters,” Vanderhoop said of his charter business. “This summer, when they started Revolution Wind’s construction, was by far the worst year for catching fish of any size that I’ve ever experienced. The only place I was able to get consistent bites was on the far eastern side of Nantucket, away from any offshore wind activity.
“Revolution Wind’s surveying activity, pile-driving, construction, and extra vessel traffic has driven the fish away. People pay me to find fish, and if I can’t find fish, I’m out of business,” Vanderhoop noted, adding that he doesn’t think his clients will return next summer.
Overall, officials with Green Oceans say, they are thankful for the Aquinnah Tribe for getting involved in the lawsuit.
“We’ve said for two years these projects make no sense because they threaten endangered whales and other marine life, raise electric bills, and will not help combat climate change,” said Lisa Quattrocki Knight, a co-founder of Green Oceans, in a press release issued on Tuesday, Dec. 10, announcing the tribe’s support of the lawsuit. “Now the Aquinnah are speaking out about the destruction these deeply flawed projects wreak on their sacred lands and waters.”
The Rhode Island–based organization describes itself as a group of nonpartisan community members “dedicated to combating climate change without sacrificing biodiversity or the health of the ocean.”
They were listed in a December 2023 study by Brown University’s Climate and Development Lab, a “student-faculty think tank,” as one of many organizations spreading misinformation about the offshore wind industry.
The study states that a number of local antiwind groups have funding and resources that trickle down from larger organizations with ties to the fossil fuel industry and “dark money.” According to the study, this forms an antiwind network on the East Coast.
But Green Oceans has pushed backed against the characterization.
“It’s disappointing but not surprising to see that Brown’s Climate and Development Lab is up to its old tricks — smearing nonpartisan grassroots groups like Green Oceans in its proselytizing for Big Wind,” a statement from a spokesperson reads. “We’ve never taken a dime from the fossil fuel industry, and we certainly don’t receive ‘information subsidies’ from any think tanks — all of our funding comes from ordinary people who support us, and we are quite capable of conducting our own research.”
Revolution Wind isn’t the only project that has been challenged recently in the courts. In a separate case, a federal judge in Boston upheld a lower court’s decision in favor of Vineyard Wind and several federal agencies, in a win for the offshore wind industry.
According to the ruling filed on Dec. 5, the lawsuit — brought on by multiple commercial fishing companies and the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance — alleged the federal government mishandled the approval of the offshore wind project.
“The plaintiffs had failed to identify a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the BOEM’s approval of the project under the OCSLA was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, unsupported by substantial evidence, or otherwise not in accordance with law,” the ruling states.
