Wind Fight Is Not Over

To the editor: In the space of a day, President Trump upended the offshore wind (OSW) gameboard with two executive orders that freeze plans for new offshore wind development, end the Green New Deal, pause funding under it, and order his new Attorney General and Secretary of the Interior to study federal wind and permitting practices.

Grassroots, nonpartisan, offshore wind opponents like Green Oceans are cautiously hopeful, while supporters despair. Lost in the tumult is one critical fact: The fight over offshore wind is not over.

There is almost as much uncertainty now as before. The “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing” order imposes a six-month pause on new OSW leases and construction; fully permitted projects that are already under construction, like Revolution, South Fork, and Vineyard Wind, can continue moving forward.

Will the new administration be inclined to defend the federal agencies that failed to follow the law during the rush to build these environmentally destructive monstrosities?

One expert, Tim Fox, of the consulting firm ClearView Energy, told S&P Global’s Platts energy newsletter, “We think the Trump administration is unlikely to vigorously defend the Biden administration’s offshore wind project approvals in court.” The new administration “could instead use those judicial proceedings to undo what was completed before Trump took office.”

In the meantime, will developers like Ørsted continue moving forward on money-losing projects in the face of implacable presidential hostility? After a recent $1.7 billion write-down in the U.S., Ørsted replaced its CEO, Mads Nipper, and is reeling from an 83 percent plummet in its share prices over the past four years.

Shell PLC has announced it is pulling out of the Atlantic Shores OSW project off New Jersey, after losing nearly $1 billion on the project. Others, faced with a president openly hostile to this bad idea, and dependent on federal money for profitability, may follow Shell’s lead.

Despite these changes, Green Oceans will continue to prosecute our two federal cases; the government failed to follow its own laws when evaluating the threats OSW represents in the Revolution Wind and South Fork Wind projects. Our suits highlight the critical mistakes in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) analyses of OSW’s threat to marine life and coastal communities.

Just one example: BOEM never considered the possibility of a blade failure in the environmental impact statements underlying Revolution Wind and South Fork Wind’s approvals. Last summer, residents from Nantucket to Montauk had beachfront seats to the havoc and environmental hazards resulting from jagged shards of fiberglass and foam washing up from the catastrophic Vineyard Wind blade failure. We learned that blades break with an alarming frequency, and watched with concern as the federal government ordered Vineyard Wind to remove 66 installed blades due to fears about their structural integrity.

Green Oceans will press forward with litigation, public advocacy, and collaboration with like-minded organizations to protect sensitive marine habitats and the species. We are strengthening our ties with other grassroots groups on the East and West Coasts.

Now is the time to stay engaged. Momentum is shifting in our favor, but it will require a dogged commitment to protecting the environment in the face of misinformation peddled by universities, OSW developers, and conflicted environmental groups.

Green Oceans won’t rest until our coastal waters are safe from environmentally destructive offshore wind development.

Sue Lemoie-Zarba and John Zarba
Co-Directors, Preserve MV

Sue Lemoie-Zarba and John Zarba are co-directors of Preserve MV, an affiliate of Green Oceans.