March 31, 2025 — An offshore wind development planned off the Vineyard’s coast has been hit with a legal challenge from the Town of Nantucket, where municipal officials are saying federal regulators failed to address the adverse impacts of the project to the town.
Targeting SouthCoast Wind, the town filed an appeal against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the federal agency that approves offshore wind projects, on Thursday to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The town argues that federal regulators broke federal laws by not considering the cumulative impact of multiple large offshore wind projects, including SouthCoast Wind, on Nantucket, which is designated as a national historic landmark. They also allege federal regulators and developers did not properly plan mitigation efforts, including “adequate visual simulations.”
“BOEM’s conduct sets a dangerous precedent by weakening the federal government’s review of all energy-related projects, including fossil fuel projects that contribute most to global warming,” William Cooke, an attorney from Cultural Heritage Partners representing Nantucket, said in a press release. “We need to defend federal laws that protect our cultural and environmental resources now more than ever.”