July 19, 2019 — Vineyard Wind has given the federal agency in charge of permits for its offshore wind farm up to six weeks to issue a key environmental review document, after the agency announced last week it would not meet a summer deadline.
“Through all of our communications with government officials, it has been made clear to us that there was no intention to prevent the Vineyard Wind 1 project from moving forward,” the New Bedford-based company said in a statement Thursday.
The company has told the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, though, that for a variety of reasons “it would be very challenging” to move ahead with the 84-turbine project south of the Islands in its current configuration if the final environmental impact statement is not issued within approximately four to six weeks.
The final impact statement is a review of the $2 billion construction of the offshore wind farm and its operation. The statement is a key document but one of a half-dozen federal reviews underway for the project.
In its statement, Vineyard Wind said the federal agency indicated that it understood the reasons for the company’s constraints and that it intended to communicate that to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Vineyard Wind said it has communicated directly with Bernhardt as well about its concerns regarding the delay.
“Vineyard Wind notes that it is not unusual for there to be ongoing review of an environmental impact statement as it makes its way through the internal approval process, especially for a project of this significance,” the company said in the statement. “The National Environmental Policy Act requires an environmental impact statement to consider all best available information, which we believe BOEM has done. We are therefore confident that any remaining reviews can be concluded and an FEIS released soon after.”