October 11, 2023 — Green Oceans, a Little Compton-based citizens group that fiercely opposes offshore wind farms, is in the midst of a civil lawsuit it has filed against the state Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), claiming the council violated the constitution, state regulations, and its own responsibilities when it approved the Revolution Wind farm in May.
The lawsuit, being heard in Newport Superior Court, asks the court to vacate the CRMC’s decision, which, in effect, declared that the wind farm conforms to the state’s Ocean Special Area Management Plan (SAMP), provided that the developer, Revolution Wind LLC, takes some agreed-upon mitigating actions.
Attorneys for the CRMC fired back, stating that private citizens have no legal standing to bring such a suit, that Green Oceans has not suffered injury because of the CRMC action, that the complaint was filed past deadline, and that Green Oceans was taking the action without an attorney, which is not allowed.
The next scheduled action in the case will be a hearing on a motion to dismiss on Nov. 17 in Newport Superior Court.
The May vote by the CRMC was a fairly minor but necessary state-based approval and part of a long approval process that Revolution Wind LLC began more than two years ago. Final approval comes from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The developer proposes to build 65 wind turbines, two offshore substations, and miles of undersea cable on the Continental Shelf about 13 miles from Rhode Island, bringing 704 megawatts of clean electricity onshore. The project is part of a strong push by the federal and state administrations to replace energy from dirty fossil fuels with renewable energy.
The federal government released in July a final Environmental Impact Statement for Revolution Wind. That is nearly the last action that happens before final approval, which is given by BOEM, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.