Nantucket Group, Island Fishermen Sue Federal Government To Vacate Vineyard Wind Approvals

Already suspended by the federal government over national security concerns, Vineyard Wind is now facing another challenge: a federal lawsuit filed by the Nantucket-based offshore wind opposition group ACK For Whales and two island fishermen seeking to vacate its permits.

The non-profit activist group has been joined by Martha's Vineyard fisherman and Wampanoag tribe member William Vanderhoop and Nantucket lobsterman Dan Pronk in the legal challenge. They claim the federal government violated the Offshore Continental Shelf Land Act (OCSLA) and the Administrative Procedures Act when it approved Vineyard Wind under the Biden administration.

The lawsuit, filed last Friday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks orders vacating Vineyard Wind's record of decision and its construction and operations plan, claiming the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Department of the Interior ignored "the disruptive effects the turbines have on civil aviation and national defenses, imperiling safety."

“They were in such a rush to achieve their political goals, they didn’t care what corners they cut, the threat to our national defense or personal flying safety, or how high our electric bills would go,” said Nantucket resident and ACK For Whales president Vallorie Oliver in a statement. “This was politics at its worst.”

The group's lawsuit also alleges that BOEM is violating the law by allowing Vineyard Wind to continue to operate.

"BOEM is engaging in ongoing violations of OCSLA because it continues to allow Vineyard Wind 1 project to operate under approvals that were issued using an interpretation of OCSLA...that the Office of the Solicitor has since withdrawn as erroneous," the lawsuit states.

According to a Dec. 22 letter from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to Vineyard Wind, the federal government is allowing the offshore wind farm to continue producing power while the suspension order is in effect.

"Even though all ongoing activities at this project are suspended, you may perform any activities that are necessary to respond to emergency situations and/or to prevent impacts to health, safety, and the environment over the next 90 days and during any subsequent extensions," wrote Matthew N. Giacona, BOEM's acting director, in the letter to Vineyard Wind. "In addition, given that this project is partially generating power, you may continue any activities from those wind turbines that are necessary for the current level of power generation."

The two fishermen involved in the lawsuit - one from Nantucket and one from Martha's Vineyard - stated the economic impacts of Vineyard Wind on their businesses were the impetus for them joining ACK For Whales in the legal challenge.

Vanderhoop, a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah, has run a whale-watching and charter-fishing business, Tomahawk Charters, for decades.

“The Biden Administration chose a big, foreign-owned wind company, Vineyard Wind, over local businessmen, hurt my business and jacked up our electric rates in the process,” he said in a statement. “All in the name of a big green lie.”

Pronk, who has been outspoken in his criticisms of Vineyard Wind in numerous forums, including after the 2024 blade failure, echoed those sentiments.

“Those turbine towers have pushed me out of waters where I caught fish and lobsters for decades,” said Pronk. “The turbines are killing my business.”

Vineyard Wind spokesman Craig Gilvarg did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit filed last Friday also seizes on one of the issues identified by the Trump administration when it announced a pause of five federal offshore wind leases, including Vineyard Wind, in December 2025: radar interference and national security.

"The Energy Department has known since at least 2011 that wind turbines interfere with radar systems and formed a working group to solve that problem," ACK For Whales stated. " It has not yet achieved a solution, and the threats to civil aviation and national defense radars persist, as acknowledged by a 2025 GAO report. A 2024 DOE report confirmed radar interference issues and noted that mitigations, such as increasing radar sensitivity, might cause missed targets. A 2022 National Academies Report confirmed significant electromagnetic reflectivity of turbines and their impact on radar."

When the suspension order was announced in December, Doug Burgum, Trump's Secretary of the Interior, said, “Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers."

A report released by the Department of Energy says that “the clutter created by wind turbines typically increases the false alarm detection rate of a radar…potentially impacting their ability to perform their mission” when placed directly in the radar’s line of sight, and that “to date, no mitigation technology has been able to fully restore the technical performance of impacted radars.”

The year-old report did not initially spark the Trump administration to halt offshore wind, and the issue of radar interference has been discussed for years, with some experts minimizing the issue and other reports suggesting it could have a major impact on the offshore wind industry.

Some national security experts have disputed the administration’s claims about the impact of offshore wind on national security.

National security expert and former Commander of the USS Cole Kirk Lippold told the Associated Press and the New York Times that “the record of decisions all show that the Department of Defense was consulted at every stage of the permitting process,” and argued that the projects would benefit national security because they would diversify the country’s energy supply.

A 2020 report released by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management found that Vineyard Wind would have a “moderate” impact on radar, primarily on SeaSonde radar used to measure coastal ocean currents. It did not project any impact on the Air Route Surveillance or NEXRAD Radars used by the Department of Defense, as it found no such radar within the project’s line of sight.

The only two wind farms off the east coast of the United States that are not affected by the Trump administration's pause are the fully operational Block Island Wind, off Rhode Island, and South Fork Wind, off New York. Neither is close to Nantucket.