Island town administrators and Vineyard Wind officials finally sat down this past week to take steps to possibly replicate an agreement that Nantucket established last December.
“I met with … Vineyard Wind and town administrators yesterday,” Tim Caroll, Chilmark town administrator, said at a select board meeting on Tuesday. “We’re working on a [memorandum of understanding] as a group, and we’ll report back when we have something to talk about.”
It remains unclear what could be included in an agreement, but previously, officials said they want better communication from offshore wind officials and possibly even funds for emergency situations, such as a blade failure.
The town of Chilmark first opened up a dialogue to other Island towns in September to collaborate on demands for increased communication and accountability from the offshore wind developer. Just months before, Nantucket received a $10.5 million settlement from GE Vernova, the manufacturer of the Haliade-X blade that broke the previous summer, and also publicized a list of 15 demands to Vineyard Wind after town officials said the developer didn’t meet expectations set forth in Nantucket’s community benefits agreement (CBA), also known as the Good Neighbor Agreement, signed in 2020.
Martha’s Vineyard also has a CBA 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. But unlike Nantucket’s CBA, which aims to resolve adverse impacts, 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 signed, doesn’t guarantee certain protections for the Island.
Nantucket secured a memorandum of understanding after months of negotiations in December. Town officials said that the new agreement provided “greater accountability for Vineyard Wind” and formalized 14 new agreements on top of their existing CBA.
After the announcement of Nantucket’s new agreement, Vineyard Wind spokesperson Craig Gilvarg told The Times that they’d reached out to officials on the Vineyard to “reaffirm [Vineyard Wind’s] commitment to the Island” and for the purpose of “maintaining positive relationships” across all communities. The Times confirmed that most of the towns were contacted by the developer and were interested in a sit-down discussion or a similar agreement to the one between Nantucket.
The meeting was originally supposed to happen in January but was pushed back several times. The Vineyard Wind project, which finished construction in March after a decade, has faced several setbacks in the past few years. Most recently, the company filed a lawsuit against the wind farm’s central contractor, GE Vernova, after the energy company threatened to walk away from the project. But a judge granted Vineyard Wind a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order in April, which means GE Vernova can’t terminate the contract.
At least they finally sat down.
But let’s not pretend this is some great accomplishment. Nantucket already secured a stronger agreement after the blade failure, while Martha’s Vineyard was left with a weaker “partnership” arrangement that apparently offered support without guaranteeing the protections this Island may actually need.
That should never have happened.
If Vineyard Wind wants to operate off our shores, then communication, emergency planning, cleanup costs, and financial accountability should not be optional favors negotiated after something goes wrong. They should have been locked in from the beginning.
We should not be stuck paying for the mistakes, delays, failures, or cleanup responsibilities of a massive private energy project. If a blade fails, debris washes up, emergency resources are needed, or public confidence is damaged, the cost should fall on the companies involved — not our towns and taxpayers.
We should not have needed Nantucket’s settlement, a broken blade, public embarrassment, and a lawsuit between project partners before deciding that accountability might be worth putting in writing.
So yes, it is good that the ball is finally rolling.
But “finally” is doing a lot of work here.
Well stated Murray!