Massachusetts anti-wind group apes New Jersey in seeking to reopen EPA permit
Nantucket-based ACK for Whales emulates Save Long Beach Island's success in leveraging Trump project review order to stall sector
A Massachusetts anti-offshore wind group has taken a page from the playbook of its New Jersey peers by seeking to reopen permitting of Iberdrola-controlled Avangrid’s New England Wind array.
Nantucket Residents for Whales (ACK for Whales – previously ACK-Rats) is suing the federal government for approving the giga-scale array in the Massachusetts wind energy area.
The EPA granted SLBI’s petition and withdrew its final permit for Atlantic Shores until the Trump administration finishes its review.
In its petition to the EPA, ACK for Whales highlighted Vineyard Wind’s blade failure last summer as a potential source of uncounted emissions.
New England Wind analysis and fact sheets “do not appear to account for emissions related to and resulting from blade failures, which would warrant emergency repairs or replacement activities,” the group alleged in its petition.
“Essentially, there are emissions that have been ignored,” Amy DiSibio, Ack for Whales spokesperson, told local media. “So, we just need to make sure that the real facts get out there.”
New England Wind was approved by Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) last July with a total project envelope of 2.6GW.
Jason Ryan, spokesperson for sector advocate American Clean Power Association called the petition “yet another baseless and disruptive attempt aimed solely at delaying the development of approved and necessary energy projects.”
“Should EPA concur with these unfounded petitions it would send a chilling message to investors, undermining confidence in the US business environment across all sectors,” he added.
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