Last summer, the town of Nantucket took a hardline stance against Vineyard Wind, the company that’s developing a 62-turbine offshore wind farm south of the island. The Nantucket Select Board signed a new agreement with the company last week, but most of the demands the town made last summer weren’t included or were only partially included in the memorandum of understanding. 

“It's a shame. I am baffled as to why they would sign something like this again,” Amy DiSibio, board member with Ack 4 Whales, a Nantucket-based nonprofit opposing offshore wind development, told Just the News.

The memorandum comes shortly after a federal judge overturned the Department of the Interior’s order temporarily suspending wind energy approvals on public lands, which includes all offshore wind projects.

Only one demand was fully met

The developers of the project initially met little opposition when the Biden-Harris administration approved Vineyard Wind in 2021. 

All that changed when a blade broke off one turbine, dropping a shattered 350-foot blade into the ocean and strewing debris across the island’s beaches during its economically vital tourism season. It took the developer three days after the incident to report the incident to the local government. 

The Nantucket Select Board held a press conference in August, saying enough is enough. 

“Since the immediate aftermath of the blade failure and since the last presidential election, Vineyard Wind’s leadership has essentially gone into hiding,” Brook Mohr, Nantucket Select Board member, said at the press conference. 

The board sent a letter to the developer listing 15 demands and requiring a response by August 12. If the company met the demands, members of the board explained at the press conference, Vineyard Wind would come into compliance with its obligations and public commitments. 

Out of the 15 demands the town listed in July, only one was fully met in the new agreement, the Nantucket Current reported. That demand was that the developer provide monthly detailed project updates to the board and town manager. Three were not met at all and nine were partially met. 

The memorandum requires the developer to stay in regular communication with the town, but it doesn’t provide Nantucket with any financial compensation. The agreement also doesn’t provide guarantees of mitigation should another blade break off one of the company’s turbines. 

Another demand was rendered moot when the company activated systems that shut off lights when aircraft are in the area.

"Nothingburger"

DiSibio called it the “second nothingburger” the town signed with Vineyard Wind. The first was the 2020 “Good Neighbor Agreement.” 

Federal law grants local communities little say in offshore wind developments, and the town had hoped that the agreement would give it a voice it wouldn’t have otherwise had, according to the town’s attorneys.

DiSibio said that Nantucket was identified as a consulting party during the federal permitting process only because the island is a National Historic Landmark. Federal law restricts impacting the surrounding view. The “Good Neighbor Agreement,” however, didn’t address those impacts. 

The board and the town’s attorneys argue these agreements give them a seat at the table that they wouldn’t otherwise have, but DiSibio argues the agreements don’t require anything meaningful out of Vineyard Wind. So, the town’s seat at the table has no value. 

“They keep telling us these agreements give us a seat at the table. We've heard a hundred times that it gives us leverage. They've signed away all their leverage. So it is beyond me why we're doing this again,” DiSibio said. 

The memorandum also requires Nantucket to give Vineyard Wind up to four business days to identify and correct errors in any communications about the project. If there’s any disagreement on the errors, the town is required to include the disagreement in any communications. 

Mohr, the board member, told the Current this would only apply to factual discrepancies and wouldn’t control what the town can say. 

The memorandum contains no enforcement component, and the board has previously stated Vineyard Wind didn’t honor the terms of the “Good Neighbor Agreement.” The memorandum includes a resolution process, but nothing in the process is binding. 

Offshore wind construction resumes

There are four other offshore wind projects under construction on the East Coast: Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island, Empire Wind off the coast of New York, Sunrise Wind located 30 miles east of Long Island’s Montauk Point, and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind off the coast of Virginia Beach. 

Altogether, the projects plan to put up 450 turbines, each more than 800-feet tall. When complete, there will be 1,400 blades spinning over the ocean, each weighing more than 30 tons. Blade failures happen frequently. 

Offshore wind opponents had hoped that the Trump administration would help protect the East Coast from the developments. Upon taking office, Trump signed an executive order enacting a moratorium on offshore wind leasing and ordering a review of permitting practices of approved projects. 

Last week, U.S. District Judge Patti Saris of the District of Massachusetts ruled that the Interior Department’s order that followed Trump’s executive order is “arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law.” 

Hopes in Trump support deflated

DiSibio called the ruling “disappointing” and said that opponents of offshore wind haven’t had a lot of luck in court. The Trump administration hasn’t been reliable either, she said. It had placed a stop work order on the project in April, only to lift it a month later. 

“The Trump administration has been a bit schizophrenic on this,” DiSibio said. 

For now, DiSibio said ACK 4 Whales will continue to pursue litigation and hope that a court will consider their complaints. Otherwise, she fears, it will take another blade failure before someone will listen. 

“We're going to stay positive, and we're going to keep rolling forward,” she said.