Federal government to reconsider SouthCoast wind plans

The federal government is poised to reconsider the approvals of another offshore wind energy farm south of Martha’s Vineyard. 

In recent court filings, members of the Trump administration say they intend to rollback the approval of construction plans for SouthCoast Wind, a wind farm that was greenlit in the waning days of the Biden administration. 

The 141-turbine project had already been entangled in a legal challenge with the town of Nantucket, which has for months claimed that projects were rushed through the federal permitting process. The intention to remand the SouthCoast Wind construction plans came to light when the Department of the Interior on Friday asked the judge in the Nantucket case to pause proceedings. 

“[T]he U.S. Department of the Interior intends to move for a voluntary remand of the agency action at issue in this litigation and to stay the case pending the remand.” Interior attorney Angela Ellis wrote to the court on Friday. 

The Department of the Interior reasoned that if the underlying approval in the case was withdrawn by the federal government, there was no need to continue the suit. 

“With that possibility, litigating the propriety of the current final agency action in the interim makes little sense,” Ms. Ellis wrote.

This could be the second offshore wind project put on hold by the Trump administration in recent weeks. Earlier in August, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management ordered Revolution Wind, another project south of the Vineyard, to pause construction despite being about 80 per cent complete. 

Offshore wind energy has been a target of President Donald Trump, and he signed an executive order on the first day of his presidency that stopped any further permitting of projects. 

SouthCoast Wind was approved by the federal government in December, just days before President Trump took office. The project is about 26 miles south of the Island and much bigger than Vineyard Wind and Revolution Wind, the two wind farms off the Vineyard that had already started construction. 

SouthCoast Wind was expected to produce 2.4 gigawatts, sending about twice as much power to Massachusetts and Rhode Island when compared to Vineyard Wind. 

The project has not yet started construction, faced with permitting issues and the lawsuit from Nantucket. 

Nantucket has argued that the federal government failed to consider the project’s harm on the environment and the character of the island’s tourism-driven economy. 

The town had reached out to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in March, asking for the agency that oversees offshore wind energy projects to address what the town saw as flaws in the permitting process. 

“Nantucket supports renewable energy and recognizes that proper permitting and policy making for wind energy development rests in the hands of the federal government,” select board member Brooke Mohr said in a statement Tuesday. “But the permitting for SouthCoast Wind failed to account for the significant harm the project will cause Nantucket, a federally designated National Historic Landmark. We welcome this opportunity for federal agencies to reevaluate their decision and correct course.”

The Department of the Interior did not state why it intended to claw back its approval in the court filing last week, and declined a request for comment on Tuesday. 

In recent weeks, the administration has raised both security and environmental concerns with other projects. This has caused alarm for state officials in Massachusetts and the neighboring New England states that were supposed to get power from these projects and expected them to be cornerstones of their climate goals. 

In a joint statement on the Monday Labor Day holiday, Gov. Maura Healey and the governors of Rhode Island and Connecticut highlighted the economic harm and effects on workers. 

“We are looking for the Trump Administration to uphold all offshore wind permits already granted and allow these projects to be constructed,” they wrote. “Efforts to walk back these commitments jeopardize hardworking families, wasting years of progress and ceding leadership to foreign competitors.”