State Reps Get An Earful From Nantucket Select Board On Vineyard Wind

Nantucket's state representatives had just provided their legislative update to the Select Board on Wednesday and were headed for the exits when the meeting took a sharp turn.

New State Representative Thomas Moakley and State Senator Julian Cyr were grilled by the Select Board about Vineyard Wind and the fallout from its blade failure last July. The back-and-forth was sparked by a question from Select Board member Malcolm MacNab, who called out Cyr and then-State Rep. Dylan Fernandes for what he perceived to be a lack of support following the incident (Moakley was still just a candidate for office last summer).

"We've had some issues with the wind farms off our shores, and some of us kind of felt we never had support from the state or the federal government or our representatives," MacNab stated. "Would you comment on that, your opinion of that, and would you help us in the future?"

MacNab was among those who had previously criticized Cyr and Fernandes' response to the blade failure and attention to Nantucket's concerns in the aftermath of the blade failure.

But he wasn't the only one who offered pointed comments to Moakley and Cyr on Wednesday regarding Vineyard Wind.

“We as a board, and the community at large even more vehemently, really feel misled by the representations we were given back in 2020," Select Board member Dawn Hill Holdgate said. “The visual simulations we were given were not accurate. The promises on the lighting, they have been fully lit for quite a long time now. That never should have happened. The safety and the environmental impacts on the sea life are just far greater than the information we were provided when we were offered a financial settlement based on just the visual impact on our historic landmark, which again is far more impactful than the simulations we were shown. Just so you understand a little more of where the community is coming from." 

Select Board member Matt Fee added to the chorus of comments directed at the island's state representatives regarding Vineyard Wind, specifically the economic impacts of the blade failure on Nantucket.

"We've looked into it and done some analysis: it was about a 6 percent decrease in business to the island, more for some businesses than others. There was some uncertainty starting in July when it happened through the rest of the season and there's some uncertainty on how it will impact us going forward. So I think those are serious issues for us as a community and serious issues for the state - if we're impacted the way we were impacted then, again, or worse. Those are the things we are grappling with. It's not something this board or our government - none of us know what this is, or what this would be, or how it would be. I think we kind of jumped the gun in a way. I would ask to be more careful and to understand what we're shooting at before we shoot."

Initially flustered by MacNab's question, Cyr called the blade failure "unacceptable" and defended his response to the situation but emphasized the state did not have authority over the project, which is being constructed in federal waters.

"I mean, I think you're talking about the blade failure this summer, which was unacceptable," Cyr said to MacNab. "I was here at this meeting in person, even though I was invited to participate remotely, I came in person and really said it was unacceptable. I'd been in routine, regular contact with the town administration, board members, especially the chair, particularly figuring out how do you bring in relevant authorities here. The state did not have relevant authority related to response, that was BSEE."

Cyr was indeed at the Select Board's meeting on Nantucket on Aug. 7th, 2024, approximately three weeks after the blade failure, and addressed the meeting in person ahead of federal agency representatives who were in attendance to answer questions about the offshore wind project. But Cyr left the meeting early to catch the ferry back to Provincetown, a move that was criticized during and after the meeting.

"In these jobs, you may not have all the answers, you may not have authority to decide a certain issue or not," Cyr said on Wednesday. "So what I've sought to do and Dylan (Fernandes) sought to do, is to be a resource and to be an advocate and, in this instance, to make sure the town had access to information, the responsiveness of both state and federal agencies, and responsiveness from the relevant parties involved. I hope you feel that you had that responsiveness.

"In a situation where we may not have all the answers or the authority, I aim to make sure we're at least trying to connect the dots and have good coordination," he added.

Hill Holdgate and Fee are the only Select Board members who were on the board back in 2020 when it signed the "Good Neighbor Agreement" with Vineyard Wind, along with the Maria Mitchell Association and the Nantucket Preservation Trust.

"There is a big outcry for us to exit the Good Neighbor Agreement," Hill Holdgate acknowledged on Wednesday. "We have not, at this point, been advised that that will actually help us. But we continue to discuss this in executive session what our options are."

The agreement bound the town and those organizations to commit their support to the Vineyard Wind project in exchange for $16 million to mitigate the potential historical, cultural, and economic impacts of the turbines on Nantucket. Vineyard Wind also agreed to several other concessions, including the removal of the row of turbines closest to the island, painting the turbines a “non-reflective off-white/light gray color to blend into the horizon” and installing an aircraft detection lighting system (ADLS) which will only turn on if there is an aircraft in proximity to the turbines, but remains inoperative.

The Good Neighbor Agreement has been roundly criticized by island residents opposed to the Vineyard Wind project, and following the blade failure on July 13 that sent debris onto Nantucket's beaches and beyond, those objections have only grown louder. A new non-profit group made up of island residents and businesses known as Keep Nantucket Wild started a petition to the Nantucket Select Board with more than 2,000 signatures urging the town to also withdraw from the agreement with Vineyard Wind. Last October, the Maria Mitchell Association withdrew from the agreement, stating, "it became increasingly clear to us that the impact on our night skies and our island community was not something we could support."

Despite the outcry, the Select Board's special counsel for offshore wind matters, Cultural Heritage Partners, has remained adamant that withdrawing from the agreement is not in the town's best interest. The law firm, which received compensation through a contingency fee tied to the signing of the Good Neighbor Agreement, has stated that pulling out would provide no benefits to the island other than making a statement on the dissatisfaction over the project and the blade failure.