ACK For Whales Responds To Vineyard Wind Taking Down More Blades

To the editor: We are shocked and truly disturbed that despite the environmental disaster that their project caused this past summer, Vineyard Wind is stating that they’ll soon be allowed to re-start blade installation The permitting for this project has been recklessly approved from the very beginning, and the project has already exhibited an enormous failure that does not appear to have been thoroughly addressed. A blade explosion, from which we are still seeing the damage, was not even considered in Vineyard Wind’s Construction and Operations Plan. There was no provision for alerting the town, containing the pollution or cleaning up the mess, whatsoever. What’s worse is that when the accident occurred it took DAYS for Vineyard Wind to own-up to the damage they caused in the ocean and on our beaches. We have no idea, and we won’t for a long time, what the true impact from just this one partial blade explosion will be. What’s worse is that the Town’s own attorney, Greg Werkheiser from Cultural Heritage Partners, stated recently that, statistically, we should expect many more blade failures. Really? The Town’s attorney is encouraging us to stay in an agreement that will bring MORE damage to Nantucket? Is this acceptable to anyone?

According to Vineyard Wind, they are in the process of re-evaluating all of the blades and are currently sending blades back to France. How is it that no information is being communicated to the public with respect to their findings? How is it that these blades were not properly tested BEFORE ANY were installed? Cutting 50’ off 350’ blades to evaluate them is more than unsatisfactory, it is unsafe. Nantucket needs to demand answers. The public deserves accountability for this failure and we also deserve the right for our island to stand up for itself against future projects. It is high time for Nantucket to break the handcuffs, walk away from the “Good Neighbor” Agreement and fight back against Vineyard Wind and others. There is nothing good about a 1300 square mile power plant, featuring several thousand potentially fail-prone blades, being constructed off our coast. Now that we are learning that the unreliable and expensive power it may produce isn’t going to move the needle on climate change (as per the US Government’s own Environmental Impact Statements), these projects should be even less attractive to all.

GE Vernova may be the subcontractor who makes the turbines and blades, but it is Vineyard Wind who owns this current project and four more in the pipeline. It is Vineyard Wind with whom the Town of Nantucket signed the Good Neighbor Agreement, the agreement that is allowing these projects to proceed through the permitting process. ACK for Whales is encouraging the Town to walk away from the Agreement, to please join us as co-plaintiffs and stand up for our ocean, the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale and certainly for Nantucket.

Amy DiSibio, Val Oliver, and Veronica Bonnet
ACK For Whales