That was the common sentiment expressed during a Nantucket select board meeting this week about the August 2020 community benefit agreement the town entered into with developers of the Vineyard Wind project, which is currently under construction. “These wind turbines are bigger, brighter, and much more impactful than we ever thought—and not to mention the environmental hazards from failures,” said Dawn Hill, the chairwoman of the select board, which serves as the town’s executive body.
The agreement represented Nantucket’s formal endorsement of the project and satisfied Vineyard Wind’s legal responsibility to consult with the town. Because Nantucket is a federally designated national historic district, regulators and developers must consult with the town on new projects that may threaten its protected status…
Hill, Werkheiser, and the other officials present accused Vineyard Wind of cutting off communications with the town, failing to reduce light pollution emitted by its turbines, slow-walking reports on environmental impacts of the project, failing to disclose construction delays, and failing to work with officials on a plan for emergency scenarios—all of which they said are violations of the 2020 agreement. The Nantucket officials then directed 15 public demands at Vineyard Wind.
Is Vineyard Wind a commercial enterprise? Probably all one needs to know.
As far as some easily offended person’s indignant reaction? Possible. Possible. Some years ago there was another windmill project off the coast of some town in Mass. I recall it was Martha’s Vineyard but I might be mistaken. Anyway, the people who owned a place there got all up in arms about it destroying the natural beauty of the area and how man-made structures were sort of an evil intrusion. Yadda yadda. I remember this incident because it was a list of rich people and other celebrities like Art Garfunkel and Walter Cronkheit. The only people who could afford to live there and the people who advocate such things for people who can’t do anything about them but don’t wish to have their own 10 million dollar view of the bay harshed
Opposition is more widespread than that, for example fishermen. Also towns such as Ocean City, MD that are tourist destinations.
Ocean City, Other Stakeholders Sue to Block Offshore Wind Farm https://www.thewellnews.com/litigation/ocean-city-other-stakeholders-sue-to-block-offshore-wind-farm/ The mayor and city council of this popular tourist destination are the lead plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit intended to roll back the approval of an 80,000-acre wind energy project to be located about 10.7 miles off the Maryland coast. The plaintiffs in the litigation include several neighboring towns and counties, as well as sportfishing groups, hotels, amusement parks and other providers of tourism amenities.
Their 92-page lawsuit claims the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management violated a number of federal statutes and related regulations in approving the construction and operations plan for the project, which is being developed by U.S. Wind.
The alleged wrongdoing includes violations of the Administrative Procedure Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act.
Oh definitely. I get that completely. There are other perfectly good reasons to be against, or at least “hold the horses” on these projects. But I think it was Leap who sort of indicated (maybe I read it wrong…?) a possible “High-Horse” type who wanted to scuttle an environmentally good project because of some personal or frivolous reason. Like Walter Cronkheit.
Don’t be sucked in a lot of that is made-up information. People do not see the windmills. They are offshore over the horizons.
We have a main street here that saw some new buildings going up on one stretch. The six houses behind the stretch of road created the “Land Preservation Society of Canton CT”…paraphrasing. The group was formed over 15 years ago.
It sounded like thousands of people in Canton were against the use of land for commercial purposes. It was six couples.
People throw a ton of bull at their causes. Free country to bull at the public. Don’t buy it.
Which is something they should have thought about before they voted for it. However, I think the game changer was the Incident of the Broken Blade.
The debris had fallen from a damaged turbine blade at the nearby Vineyard Wind project. The part, made and installed by GE Vernova, had broken three days earlier, and no one really knew why.
The project’s developer, also called Vineyard Wind, scrambled to clean up the mess and assure the public that the material all over their pristine beaches was “non-toxic.” But more and more photos of the bright green debris washed up on social media, many carrying captions like “It’s everywhere” and “STOP #Bigwind!”
Soon, a picture of the broken turbine itself surfaced. The 351-foot blade had snapped about 65 feet from the base and what remained of it hung slackly, dangling over the ocean. It was not a good look for an industry already struggling against economic headwinds and public concern about its impacts on the ocean environment…It didn’t help that GE Vernova couldn’t immediately explain why the blade had broken.
Around here (where there are periodic hurricanes), those are almost all put underground at this point. My neighborhood build in late 70s and early 80s has all underground utilities.
