Town Reaches "Preliminary Consensus" With Vineyard Wind On List Of Demands

The Town of Nantucket and Vineyard Wind reached a “preliminary consensus” on a series of 15 demands made by the town late last month at a closed-door meeting on Thursday, but the details of the agreement remain murky.

After the town accused Vineyard Wind of violating the so-called “Good Neighbor Agreement” signed by both the company and the Town of Nantucket at a press conference in July, the offshore wind developer agreed to a private conversation led by Select Board member Brooke Mohr and Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Møller to discuss the town’s demands.

Early last Friday evening, the town issued a statement saying that “the parties reached preliminary consensus in each of the three substantive areas addressed by the demands” and “are putting to paper the specific language of each protocol to achieve these outcomes.”

Those protocols are not yet finalized, and another meeting between the town and Vineyard Wind is set for September 12th.

The town’s demands fall into three broad categories: adequate communication, lighting, and emergency response planning. They include immediate communication of all emergencies to town officials, regular project updates, implementing a public emergency response planning process within two months, and establishing a $10 million escrow fund to cover any potential future cleanup costs. The town demanded that violations of the communication protocols come with a $250,000 payment.

At this point, it is unclear how many of those demands will be met, or what the alternatives might look like. But preliminary signals from the town suggest that Vineyard Wind is set to acquiesce to at least some of the demands.

“Vineyard Wind will improve how it communicates with the Town and public through a series of protocols that require regular, detailed reports, timely responses to questions, sharing of regulatory documents, and prompt emergency notifications, among other obligations,” the town’s statement reads in part. “The Town and Nantucket residents will play a direct role in shaping Vineyard Wind’s updated emergency response plans.”

If the town isn’t satisfied with what Vineyard Wind is willing to agree to, town representatives have been hinting at the possibility of legal action for months.

One of the difficulties of any agreement between the town and Vineyard Wind will be enforcing its provisions. In theory, Vineyard Wind was already bound to certain standards by the Good Neighbor Agreement, but the town alleges that the company didn’t honor those commitments.

To ensure things go differently this time, the town may turn to the state.

“Both parties agree that these commitments must be backed by enforcement mechanisms,” the statement reads. “However, no agreement has yet been reached on how to address noncompliance. The Town intends to work with Governor [Maura] Healey’s office, at her invitation, to identify potential enforcement tools and ensure Vineyard Wind commits adequate resources to emergency preparedness and response.”

During Gov. Healey’s recent visit to Nantucket, she told the Current she “stands with the town” in its dispute with Vineyard Wind, and had recently spoken with the offshore wind developer “to reiterate my request to them to work with the town to meet the town’s needs, especially around emergency response, communication, transparency, all of that.”

“I have been emphatic with Vineyard Wind about that and about my expectations, and I will continue to be and I will continue also to be available to meet with, to discuss this with, the town and with the Select Board and and residents as we move forward, because this is a long-term engagement and we need things to be done the right way,” Healey said.

Vineyard Wind has already made progress in one of the three areas addressed by the town’s demands.

Shortly after the town’s initial press conference, Vineyard Wind announced that the aircraft detection lighting system that allows the FAA-mandated blinking red lights atop the turbines to remain off when there are no nearby aircraft detected had been finally integrated on all fully installed turbines. The system was supposed to be fully operational when Vineyard Wind started producing power, but it was significantly delayed.

One of the town’s demands had been $25,000 per turbine for each day that the turbine lights are on without an aircraft detection lighting system active.

“We welcome Vineyard Wind’s renewed focus on accountability and look forward to finalizing standards,” the town’s statement concludes.

Discussions between the town and Vineyard Wind come in the wake of a $10.5 million settlement with GE Vernova that explicitly excluded Vineyard Wind, but did protect them from future lawsuits related specifically to the blade collapse that littered Nantucket’s beaches with debris last summer.