October 16, 2023 — A U.S. judge has rejected challenges to federal environmental permits and construction approvals for a $4 billion offshore wind farm near Massachusetts, which commercial fishing groups have claimed will harm whales and impair their businesses.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston on Thursday tossed the final two federal district court lawsuits directly challenging the Vineyard Wind project roughly 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, which would be the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the country.
Commercial fishing groups including Seafreeze Shoreside Inc and the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance had challenged federal environment and construction permits for the project in two lawsuits filed in 2021 and 2022. They had claimed construction on the 62-turbine farm would cut fishermen off from valuable fishing areas and destroy the habitat of the North Atlantic right whale.
But Talwani said the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act gives regulators at the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) discretion to balance the economic concerns of fishermen with the need for the development of offshore renewable energy projects, which are key to federal plans to decarbonize the U.S. electric grid. She found the fishing groups had not adequately shown their fishing business interests could be seriously harmed if whales are injured or harassed during construction, and so cannot sue over those concerns.