Group plans lawsuit against wind farm | By Marie Szaniszlo | Boston Herald | August 24, 2021 | www.bostonherald.com
A group of “concerned citizens” say they plan to file a lawsuit on Wednesday aimed at stopping the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind project and others slated to follow.
Nantucket Residents Against Turbines is attempting to first stop Vineyard Wind, which plans to build at least 62 wind turbines 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.
“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 group said in a statement Tuesday.
The group said it’s concerned with the impacts the increased construction vessel traffic, pile driving and operational noise will have on the whales.
The plaintiffs will hold a press conference about the lawsuit at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday outside the State House. The press conference will be available on Facebook after the event.
Andrew Doba, a spokesman for Vineyard Wind, declined to comment.
The 62 Vineyard Wind wind turbines will generate enough electricity to power approximately 400,000 homes by the time the project is completed in 2023, CEO Lars Pedersen said in May. He also said it will create about 3,600 jobs – half of them permanent, the other half construction jobs.
But some fear the project and others like it that are still in the planning stage, such as Mayflower Wind, 20 miles south of Nantucket, also could irreparably harm Massachusetts fishing and lobstering industries where the turbines will be put.
The Biden administration nevertheless issued final permits for Vineyard Wind in May as part of an aggressive offshore wind and renewable energy agenda.
The lawsuit would be the second to attempt to stop the project. Last month, solar energy company Allco Renewable Energy Limited and its president, Thomas Melone, sued, alleging multiple economic harms and statutory violations.