September 26, 2024 — Three years after the Nantucket-based group ACK For Whales first sued to stop the Vineyard Wind project, its legal challenge of the offshore wind project is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
After its arguments were rejected by lower courts, ACK For Whales on Monday formally petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.
The petition asserts that the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals wrongly allowed the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to ignore the Endangered Species Act’s (ESA) requirement to use “the best available scientific and commercial data available” when it ruled in April against ACK For Whales’ challenge of Vineyard Wind.
“I have hope,” said Val Oliver, the founding director of the non-profit ACK For Whales, formerly known as Nantucket Residents Against Turbines. “In light of the recent Chevron decision, we think we have a really good chance. That was about government overreach and that is what this (Vineyard Wind) has felt like since the beginning: go, go, go, and we’ll figure it out as we go. That’s just not responsible.”