The Island’s six towns may pursue new agreements with Vineyard Wind

Updated Dec. 17

After months of negotiations, the Town of Nantucket and the developer of Vineyard Wind 1, an offshore wind farm 15 miles off the coast of both Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, announced that they had come to an agreement on a series of commitments owed to the town by the company. The dialogue was started after Nantucket officials felt the offshore wind company failed to meet expectations set forth in a previous agreement, signed five years ago.

Here on Martha’s Vineyard, there is no such existing agreement between Vineyard Wind and the Vineyard’s six individual towns, like the one-town government of Nantucket was able to use in negotiations. Instead, the Vineyard has a community benefits agreement between an Island nonprofit, Vineyard Power, and the developer. But now, potentially for the first time, there seems to be a chance for the Vineyard’s six towns to establish a framework to air their concerns and possibly replicate the agreement that Nantucket has had for the last five years.

In a press release by the town last Thursday on “greater accountability for Vineyard Wind,” Brooke Mohr, member of the Nantucket Select Board, said, “Transparency and predictability are essential to protect our world-renowned coastline, fisheries, night skies, and heritage tourism economy.” 

After Nantucket announced the agreement, Vineyard Wind spokesperson Craig Gilvarg told The Times last Thursday that the developer had reached out to officials in all six Vineyard towns to “reaffirm [Vineyard Wind’s] commitment to the Island” and for the purpose of “maintaining positive relationships” across all communities.

One of the local officials contacted by a Vineyard Wind representative last week was James Hagerty, town administrator for Edgartown, who asked to do a sit-down meeting. “I think they’re amenable to a similar agreement as Nantucket,” Hagerty said. He said he was contacted on Dec. 11 and added that they’re likely to meet in the next two months.

“Edgartown, along with several other towns from the Vineyard, will meet with representatives from Vineyard Wind to discuss a potential agreement framework similar to that adopted by the town of Nantucket,” Hagerty said. 

“Discussion will allow town leadership to better understand the Nantucket agreement and consider whether comparable terms may be appropriate for Edgartown and other Island communities, and we’ll provide updates as the discussion continues,” he added.

Hagerty said each town would have a separate agreement.

Jennifer Rand, town administrator for West Tisbury, said the town also received a call on Dec. 11 from Vineyard Wind. “It remains to be seen if we will pursue a similar agreement,” she said in an email to The Times. Town administrator for Chilmark Tim Carroll also confirmed that the town was contacted, and said he expects to be “part of an Island meeting in January” with Vineyard Wind. Joe LaCivita, town administrator for Tisbury, said he hasn’t been contacted by the developer and can’t comment until he knows more, and the town administrator for Oak Bluffs, Deborah Potter, said the town was called earlier this week but there have been no direct communications yet.

Jeffrey Madison, town administrator for Aquinnah, said he spoke to Jack Arruda, Vineyard Wind 1’s technical development manager, several days ago and said that he’s “willing to meet with the other towns to hear about their concerns,” but added that he felt Vineyard Wind “has been very cooperative with the town.” He said that when the turbine blade broke, the developer provided helpful information to the town and responded to debris within hours of notification. Still, he said he’s happy to be party to any agreement the other towns want to pursue. “We’ll be cooperative to that,” he said.

Now, the agreement between the Town of Nantucket and Vineyard Wind comes months after town leaders held a press conference in late July to request 15 formal obligations that included communication protocols, an escrow fund for potential cleanup costs, and monetary compensation for failures to implement a system that decreases light pollution.

Though Nantucket’s agreement, documented as a memorandum of understanding, falls short of what was originally requested, especially in regards to financial compensation, there are terms laid out for increased and timely communication as well as town involvement in emergency efforts. 

The demands were brought on by Nantucket officials who felt that the offshore wind company didn’t meet expectations set forth in a community benefits agreement, also known as the Good Neighbor Agreement, signed in 2020, especially after a blade broke in the summer of 2024 and caused debris to wash ashore across the region. The investigation by federal officials on the broken blade remains to be resolved after over a year, though Nantucket received a $10.5 million settlement from turbine manufacturer GE Vernova in early July. 

Martha’s Vineyard also has a community benefits agreement with the offshore wind developer that generally arranges for the nonprofit Vineyard Power to support and advocate for the Vineyard Wind 1 project in the community in return for customized benefits, such as energy savings for low-income ratepayers and investments in solar and battery-storage projects. The Vineyard’s agreement was created five years prior to Nantucket’s agreement and differs in content and context; Nantucket’s Good Neighbor Agreement was meant to resolve adverse effects of the wind farm under the National Historic Preservation Act, while the Vineyard’s agreement is more of a partnership contract that exchanges benefits for support. The agreement, which was made public this summer a decade after the original document was created, wasn’t signed by any Island public officials, but in 2017, all the towns signed a separate letter of support for Vineyard Wind.

Though no town officials even saw the agreement prior to this summer, Vineyard Power executive director Richard Andre said the terms were verbally reiterated. Since publication of the agreement and news out of Nantucket of the settlement and negotiations for a new agreement, there’s been a desire from some Island town officials, especially in Edgartown and Chilmark, to follow in the sister island’s footsteps.

It unclear if Island town officials want new agreements or what they want to include, but there was some discussion over the summer about some desired protections, such as better communication from offshore wind officials and possibly even funds for emergency situations. 

The Chilmark Select Board decided to open up a dialogue to other Island towns in early September to gauge interest in collaboration on actions similar to those by Nantucket, but the town’s interests were beyond just Vineyard Wind 1 and included all other wind farms off the coast of the Island. There are currently nine projects — at different stages, from finished to under construction to not fully permitted, and some even wrapped up in legal turmoil from the federal government — off the coast of the Vineyard. Revolution Wind, which nears completion even after a stop-work order from the Trump administration, is visible off the coast from parts of Chilmark and Aquinnah, and doesn’t hold an agreement with any Island town or Nantucket.

Chilmark also expressed an intention to look at the current agreement and discuss whether there was room for changes. Vineyard Power, which is party to the Island’s agreement with Vineyard Wind, made clear that they support the towns if they want to make a new deal or increase communication, but said that that wouldn’t be done through the nonprofit.

Representatives from Chilmark, Aquinnah, West Tisbury, and Edgartown met in late September in a rare, inter-municipal closed-door session at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport. Though the outcome of the meeting wasn’t made public, Hagerty said the discussion was productive and that they planned to meet again. A second session hasn’t happened yet.

It remains to be seen what the potential January meeting between Vineyard officials and Vineyard Wind representatives in January may yield. But the new Nantucket agreement, documented in a memorandum of understanding and made official on Dec. 10, may forecast what the Vineyard towns’ own contracts could be, if successful and deemed necessary. 

Nantucket’s agreement includes 14 formal protocols for the two parties to adhere to carry out “responsibilities memorialized in the Good Neighborhood Agreement executed August 27, 2020,” the document said.

Some of the terms laid out in the agreement include monthly written updates from both parties, a project liaison from both parties as a primary point of contact, and a response time of seven calendar days to any written questions from either party. Nantucket also conceded to allow Vineyard Wind four business days to “identify or correct errors in the town’s intended public communications about the project.”

In terms of an incident that triggers an emergency response, which is defined in the document as an event that “results in the release of debris and/or material from project facilities offshore for which an organized response is necessary to minimize impacts to the environment, safety, and surrounding areas,” Vineyard Wind agreed to notify by “group text message” within three hours eight designated town officials. The developer also agreed to allow a Nantucket representative on an incident management team and communications coordination team, if these were established in the event of an emergency. Vineyard Wind also must “reimburse the town for resources reasonably expended to minimize potential impacts during a response” and share all final reports and critical findings submitted to regulatory agencies.

In return, the Town of Nantucket agreed to provide information about aid response activities and human resources and equipment (costs to be reimbursed) for response activities, as well as relay information from the developer about the emergency response to the community.

The press release from the Town of Nantucket also detailed other commitments for the developer, such as receiving public feedback on a summary of a new debris/infrastructure failure incident response plan, allowing a town representative to observe an annual emergency response scenario with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and to report periods of inoperability for the aircraft detection lighting system, or ADLS. And if the “lighting exceeds original projections provided to BOEM,” which is supposed to be fewer than four hours a year, the press release said, the developer must “identify the extent, cause, and potential solutions.”

The agreement was signed by CEO of Vineyard Wind 1 Klaus Møller and Dawn Hill, chair of the Nantucket Select Board.

“Vineyard Wind is pleased to reach this agreement with the Town of Nantucket, which is the product of respectful and cooperative discussions between the parties over recent months,” Gilvarg said.

The press release also stated that the town didn’t forfeit the right to sue if any of the terms are breached.

“This agreement is not symbolic — it is operational,” Greg Werkheiser, attorney at Cultural Heritage Partners and legal counsel to the Town of Nantucket on offshore wind issues, said in the press release. “These are real-world measures that will meaningfully improve the community’s ability to protect the Island.”

Editor’s note: Updated to include new information from Vineyard town officials.