Concern about endangered whales cited in suit over wind farm

BOSTON (AP) — A group of Nantucket residents filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday to block the construction of dozens of wind turbines off the coast of the famous Massachusetts island resort and nearby Martha’s Vineyard.

ACK Residents Against Turbines say Vineyard Wind’s proposed project 14 miles (22 kilometers) south of the island poses a risk to the endangered Northern Atlantic right whale.

Mary Chalke, an island resident and member of the group, said the lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and other federal agencies isn’t just about Vineyard Wind, but the consequences of greenlighting other turbine projects also in the pipeline.

“We all want renewable energy,” she said after the group filed the suit in Boston federal court. “This represents the transformation and industrialization of a pristine natural environment. ”

BOEM and other federal agencies have determined that the wind project will have minimal impact on the species.

But Vallorie Oliver, an island resident and member of the group, argues federal officials haven’t provided adequate research to back up their claims in more that two years of reviewing the project.

“We’re simply asking for real science-based answers to the impact on our natural environment,” she said, speaking with other group members in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse.

The group, whose name references the three-letter airport code for Nantucket Memorial Airport, argues the project is proposed for a major area for foraging and nursing for right whales.

“The construction of these turbines is set to take place in a nexus of activity of the North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered baleen whale with a population of fewer than 400 specimens remaining in the world,” the organization said in a statement on its Facebook page.

Spokespersons with BOEM and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday. A spokesperson for Vineyard Wind, which is a joint project of a Danish company and a U.S. subsidiary of the Spanish energy giant, Iberdrola, also didn’t immediately comment.

Approved in May, the 800-megawatt project would be the first utility-scale wind power development in federal waters. The nearly $3 billion project would create enough electricity to power 400,000 homes.

The project and Ocean Wind, a proposed 1,100-megawatt offshore wind project off New Jersey, are keystones in the Biden administration’s push to grow offshore wind as a way to fight climate change and create jobs.

The projects could be joined by as many as five other large scale projects along the Eastern Seaboard, totaling more than 2,000 turbines across 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometers) of ocean, according to ACK Residents Against Turbines.

Despite the enthusiasm, U.S. offshore wind development is still far behind progress made in Europe.

A small wind farm operates near Block Island in waters controlled by the state of Rhode Island, and another small wind farm operates off the coast of Virginia.

The Nantucket group is the latest opposition effort to crop up in response to the large scale wind projects.

Fishermen who ply the lucrative waters from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Montauk, New York, have also objected to the potential impacts to their livelihood.

Bob Vanasse, who heads the fishing advocacy group Saving Seafood, says wind farms proposed in what’s known in the industry as the New York bight could impact scalloping, a trade that makes New Bedford the highest valued port in the country.

“There are a number of groups in various fisheries who have raised concerns about the insufficiency of the planning and review effort,” he said. “This group is far from alone in that.”

Vineyard Wind also comes years after the infamous Cape Wind project, which failed after bitter litigation from another group consisting of Nantucket property owners as well as Native American tribes and environmental groups.

Supporters of Vineyard Wind have said the newer project is better sited than Cape Wind, which was proposed closer to shore.