Vineyard Wind opponents file 1st Circuit appeal
Providence Business First|Mary Serreze|Sep 25, 2023
Nantucket Residents Against Turbines on Sunday asked the Boston-based appeals court to overturn a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, who in May dismissed the group's original complaint targeting Vineyard Wind, a project placing 62 turbines off the coast of Cape Cod. The group asserts that federal agencies improperly advanced the project and violated the Endangered Species Act in doing so. The appeal was penned by Thomas Stavola, a New Jersey lawyer who is also representing offshore wind opponents in that state.
Nantucket Residents Against Turbines on Sunday asked the Boston-based appeals court to overturn a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, who in May dismissed the group's original complaint targeting Vineyard Wind, a project placing 62 turbines off the coast of Cape Cod. The group asserts that federal agencies improperly advanced the project and violated the Endangered Species Act in doing so. The appeal was penned by Thomas Stavola, a New Jersey lawyer who is also representing offshore wind opponents in that state.
A Massachusetts group trying to stop the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project — even though it's already under construction — is hoping the First Circuit Court of Appeals will hear its case.
Nantucket Residents Against Turbines on Sunday asked the Boston-based appeals court to overturn a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, who in May dismissed the group's original complaint targeting Vineyard Wind, a project placing 62 turbines off the coast of Cape Cod,
The group asserts that federal agencies improperly advanced the project and violated the Endangered Species Act in doing so. The appeal was penned by Thomas Stavola, a New Jersey lawyer who is also representing offshore wind opponents in that state.
Specifically, the …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]A Massachusetts group trying to stop the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project — even though it's already under construction — is hoping the First Circuit Court of Appeals will hear its case.
Nantucket Residents Against Turbines on Sunday asked the Boston-based appeals court to overturn a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, who in May dismissed the group's original complaint targeting Vineyard Wind, a project placing 62 turbines off the coast of Cape Cod,
The group asserts that federal agencies improperly advanced the project and violated the Endangered Species Act in doing so. The appeal was penned by Thomas Stavola, a New Jersey lawyer who is also representing offshore wind opponents in that state.
Specifically, the Nantucket appellants claim the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Marine Fisheries Service, in permitting the project, failed to properly consider the impact on endangered North Atlantic Right Whales.
News of the appeal was first reported by the Nantucket Current.
It's one of several concurrent federal lawsuits targeting Vineyard Wind, a joint venture of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of Iberdrola, the Spanish energy giant.
Talwani earlier this year rejected two other lawsuits — a whale-centered complaint from a Massachusetts man, and a complaint from Seafreeze Shoreside, a Rhode Island company that claimed unresolved economic damages to the fishing industry from the project. Both parties have appealed Talwani's decisions.
The 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind — the nation's first commercial offshore wind farm — is currently being staged from the Port of New Bedford. Turbine installation has begun, and the project owners expect a 2024 in-service date.
A spokesperson for Vineyard Wind did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
The appeals come as offshore wind opponents claim that sonic surveys and other activities conducted by the industry have caused a spate of whale deaths.
The "unusual mortality event," involving 191 whale deaths along the East Coast, has been under investigation by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) since 2016. NOAA asserts that there is no evidence liking whale mortality to offshore wind, and says evidence instead points to vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglement.
Vineyard Wind in 2018 won a contract to deliver 800 megawatts of clean electricity to the Massachusetts grid. The project was dealt a blow in 2020 when the Trump administration put permitting on hold. In May of 2021 the Biden administration approved the project with a 100-page Record of Decision.
A ground-breaking was held that year at New Bedford, and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland attended the ceremony.