Nantucket sues US interior department over "sham consulting process" for offshore wind approval

The Town and County of Nantucket, Massachusetts has brought an appeal to the district court of Washington DC to set aside the federal government’s approvals to construct SouthCoast Wind, an industrial scale offshore wind farm rammed through in the last days of the Biden administration.

"With developers pursuing nine industrial scale wind projects, the iconic and pristine waters off Nantucket’s coast would, for at least the next 30 years, be occupied by as many as 743 turbines, each towering more than three times the height of the Statue of Liberty,” the appeal notes.

"This industrialization of the near ocean, including SouthCoast Wind’s 141 turbines, will inflict severe and long-lasting effects on the character, community, and heritage-tourism-driven economy of Nantucket."

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is the federal agency responsible for ensuring balance between benefits that may result from offshore development and harms to environmental and historic resources from construction and operation.

Nantucket county said that BOEM acknowledged the adverse impacts that SouthCoast Wind and neighboring farms would have on Nantucket, and violated the law by, "conducting a sham consulting process to achieve a predetermined conclusion, namely approval of SouthCoast Wind."

The appeal says that rather than complying with federal law, BOEM bypassed or shortchanged numerous required steps, shirked its responsibility to the public, and allowed corporate energy developers to dictate the terms of permitting.

"Given BOEM’s rapid pace in offshore wind permitting, these failures, if left uncorrected, will set a lasting and deeply harmful precedent, undermining the protections congress intended for environmental and cultural resources affected by all forms of development," added the appeal.

"BOEM proceeded to approve SouthCoast Wind’s permit based on a deeply flawed process and resulting analysis that precluded ways to avoid, minimize, or mitigate the harm that SouthCoast Wind is expected to cause."

Nantucket county is requesting that BOEM’s decision be vacated and remanded to BOEM for further consideration and for other relief.