Nantucket opposition group challenges 2 wind farms off Cape islands 

ACK For Whales has launched a new challenge against two wind farms proposed in open ocean 24 miles southwest of Nantucket.

The island-based offshore wind-energy opposition group is petitioning the federal Environmental Protection Agency to review Clean Air Act permits issued for New England Wind 1 and 2, the same permits that on Friday, March 21 were pulled from a planned offshore wind farm in New Jersey, leaving its future unclear.

The New England Wind lease area is shown in yellow, about 24 miles southwest of Nantucket. (Courtesy of BOEM)

ACK For Whales claims the original permits were issued to New England Wind 1 and 2 without any assessment of potential blade failure and repair emissions, which could lead to temporary increases in pollutants; that the EPA’s decision to group Vineyard Wind with New England Wind 1 and 2 could mask localized emission spikes; and that the cumulative effects of vessel emissions and pile driving were not adequately considered and modeled.

Looming in the background is the seismic shift in Washington, D.C. toward offshore wind energy. The outgoing Biden administration made offshore wind a core tenet of its energy plans, while the Trump administration has taken a swift adversarial stance toward offshore wind.

“We would have filed this no matter who was in charge,” ACK For Whales member Amy DiSibio said. “The prior administration has been, ‘get this done at all costs.’ We are hoping that with a more sincere look at this, (federal agencies) will stop permitting everything just because it had been decided we need to buy so much power from offshore wind.”

ACK For Whales’ petition is similar to that of an offshore wind opposition group in New Jersey that appears to have been successful.

Save Long Beach Island petitioned the federal government in October to review the Clean Air Act permit issued to Atlantic Shores, a planned wind farm off the coast of New Jersey.

On Friday, that permit was revoked by Judge Mary Kay Lynch in Environmental Appeals Court, and sent back to the EPA for further review.

In the New Jersey case, the EPA filed a motion in February for a voluntary remand, asking for the permit to be returned so it could reevaluate the project in light of President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects.”

Kate Sinding Daly, senior vice president for law and policy at the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental-advocacy organization based in New England, questioned the motivation behind ACK for Whales’ challenges now.

She said Clean Air Act permits are regulations permitting agencies are very familiar with, they have been studied and they know how to mitigate impacts associated with construction.

“By helping displace dirty and polluting forms of energy with clean renewable energy, there is no question in our minds that offshore wind represents a clear, resounding benefit in terms of air quality,” she said.

“I would really question the motivation and the timing of filing these challenges at this point. They seem much more likely to be geared toward appealing to an anti-wind federal administration than legitimate concerns about air-quality impacts.”

New England Wind has been approved for construction and its lease area is roughly 24 miles southwest of the island, directly southwest of the current Vineyard Wind project.

In July 2024, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the project, permitting the construction of up to 129 turbines.

As of the latest update, construction is expected to begin in late 2025 and run through 2029.