Advocacy For Nantucket Lacking From State And Governor Healey

To the editor: The question I should have asked at the August 20th Select Board Meeting is “who is looking out for Nantucket regarding offshore wind?" There is no clear answer.

Maura Healey came to Nantucket for the first time in recent history on August 19^th under the guise of two issues that are of critical importance to our community: housing and food security. During her visit, which included a fundraising event, Governor Healey made it clear that she is "all- in" on offshore wind for the long haul. This comes on the heels of another fundraising event for the Healey campaign that was hosted by the CEO of Vineyard Offshore, Alicia Barton.

The next industrial project planned just south of Nantucket is fully permitted and shovel ready. All that is needed to begin construction is a power purchase agreement from the State of Massachusetts. While Governor Healey may have tried to signal to our Select Board that she has Nantucket's back, her relationship with the foreign energy giants building south of our historic and majestic beaches tells a different story. It is clear Governor Healey is more interested in promoting her energy agenda than looking out for our island and its environment.

This next project is currently referred to as New England Wind. The approved plans call for over twice the number of turbines (129) than Vineyard Wind and 40 percent taller (1,171 ft) than what we currently see from the horizon. These will extend the visual obstruction beginning at the east side of the Vineyard Wind project and reach further along the horizon towards Sconset. With these larger turbines comes increased visibility, increased environmental harm and increased risk to our island. And an increased risk to the survival of North Atlantic Right Whales whose prey will be disbursed for 30 years of the project’s life. The Nantucket Select Board’s participation in the “Good Neighbor Agreement” requires the town to support the building of these additional turbines that further denigrate our historic landmark’s unobstructed view of the horizon and the health of our ocean at all levels of government.

Why does any of this matter and can we do anything about it anyway? The answer is simple, the conservation of wild places like Nantucket preserves our collective sense of place and respite. In Nantucket’s historic landmark preservation application, it is made clear, an unobstructed view of the horizon is a "balm to the soul". To look out at the vast ocean and contemplate what lives below rewards us with a sense of wellbeing that cannot be denied by anyone who has had the privilege to experience it. The conservation of this area has led to abundant wildlife flourishing in these waters, including endangered whales.

Atlantic Shores, Ocean Winds, Kitty Hawk Wind, US Wind and more. These are just some of the offshore wind projects that public opposition, in partnership with local government, has put a halt to. So while the New Jersey, Maryland, and North Carolina shores remain free of cabling, blinking lights, turbid waters and obstructed views, Nantucket, the jewel of conservation, has succumbed to the political pressure to allow massive industrialization to placate a climate agenda that can never be achieved.

It has been over 13 months since just one of VW’s 186 blades exploded onto our shores. It is eight months since the select board (on Christmas eve) gave the public one week to submit questions to the BSEE for which over 500 were submitted and zero answers received.

The negligence on the part of Vineyard Wind to not even have a pollution plan in place, to have zero funds set aside for environmental incidents and zero funds set aside for decommissioning is clear.

Our Select Board, on behalf of this community, opted to settle with Vineyard Wind’s supplier and release Vineyard Wind from any liability with regard to the blade incident, in spite of Vineyard Wind having not even begun the environmental study ordered by the BSEE last September. Where is the Healey administration on this? What letter has been sent, what efforts have been put forward to halt construction until important questions are answered?

We already know from Vineyard Wind that the risks to our historic unobstructed horizon cannot be mitigated. On top of this, the current funding from either the “Good Neighbor Agreement” or the “settlement” with Vineyard Wind over the blade failure will not even offset the increases to our electric bills. Offshore wind is expensive!

Is the Nantucket Select Board more interested in executing the Healey Administrations’ energy agenda than ensuring the conservation of Nantucket and its waters? You can either be for additional and larger turbines or against, there is no middle ground.

Many additional questions remain. One of the foremost on my mind is: does the town of Nantucket have the appropriate legal resources in place to navigate the complexity of the situation? The current lawyers have been paid millions but so many questions remain unanswered.

As the projects’ scope and scale increase, the Nantucket Select Board must ask itself, “at what point do we say the negatives are too great?” I say that ship sailed on July 13^th 2024.

Veronica Bonnet