A Nantucket-based group is continuing its fight against offshore wind, this time with the Environmental Protection Agency.
ACK for Whales, an anti-offshore wind group from Nantucket, filed a petition on Tuesday to the federal agency asking it to reassess and possibly revoke Vineyard Wind’s Clean Air Act permit, a requirement to ensure developers comply with federal and state air pollution regulations.
The group alleges the EPA did not take into account emissions from a broken turbine blade when approving the permit, highlighting a Vineyard Wind blade that fractured in July. ACK for Whales says the cleanup afterward led to more fossil fuel emissions than planned due to more vehicles being used to transport parts and emergency repairs. Sixty-six of the project’s blades were replaced under federal orders.
Additionally, the group asserts that federal regulators did not take into account emissions from pile driving. The group also alleges construction activities and the number of vessels cumulatively generated nitrogen dioxide levels exceeding National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
Vineyard Wind is a commercial-scale offshore wind project under construction 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and is a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. ACK for Whales has also filed similar challenges to the EPA earlier this month against New England Wind 1 and 2, projects also owned by Avangrid abutting the Vineyard Wind lease area. These two projects have not received federal approval.
So far, challenges from ACK for Whales against offshore wind — including a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court — have been unsuccessful. But there has been a precedent in targeting the EPA to disrupt offshore wind developments. Bloomberg reported on March 14 that a New Jersey offshore wind project called Atlantic Shores South had its air pollution permit nullified by the U.S. Environmental Appeals Board, months after the permit was awarded in October.
The EPA is reviewing the permit after the appeals board’s remand.
“Atlantic Shores is disappointed by the EPA’s decision to pull back its fully executed permit as regulatory certainty is critical to deploying major energy projects,” a statement from Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind reads.
The New Jersey project received federal approval under the Biden administration and was set to begin construction this year. The remand is the most direct act against offshore wind under the Trump administration since the January executive order that halted the approval of permits at new lease areas for offshore wind.
Craig Gilvarg, Vineyard Wind spokesperson, declined to comment on the recently filed petition.
ACK for Whales’ petition against Vineyard Wind is the latest in several challenges against the project by groups opposed to offshore wind. Earlier this month, The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a national coalition of fishing industry associations and companies, and the conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation filed separate petitions requesting the Supreme Court to review the decision of the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston to rule against their petitions last year aimed at shutting down Vineyard Wind.
If it’s shut down will the turbines and poles be removed? Lets hope so.
Spoiler Alert: It won’t be “shut down” 🙂
Much of this anti-wind farm action is financed by the fossil fuel industry. Meanwhile, under a picture of a flooded Five Corners, is an article lamenting the high cost of home insurance.
Interesting picture.
The one fishing boat carries more hydrocarbons on board than the buildout all of VineyardWind’s turbines.
Fishing boats sink.
Where do the hydrocarbons go?
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