July 31, 2024 — After the July 13 collapse of a Vineyard Wind turbine blade in the project area south of Martha’s Vineyard, 48 hours passed before Nantucket officials got word. For the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), the lag was even longer.
It’s a wait that U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Massachusetts, echoing the criticism of leaders on the islands, says was unacceptable.
In a letter last week to the head of the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Keating called foul on a process that failed to alert leaders on Nantucket about the football field-sized blade breaking off in the nearby lease area until two days later.
Keating is now calling on the agency to create protocols that would require local municipal and tribal leaders to be immediately notified of hazardous situations in the wind lease areas south of Martha’s Vineyard and southwest of Nantucket.