Before the US president Donald Trump administration ordered a delay of the country’s first offshore wind farm late last week, it was the belief of at least some of its officials that making the changes requested by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) would be disastrous and NMFS approval was not needed to move ahead anyhow, Undercurrent News has learned.
Interior secretary David Bernhardt on Friday told Bloomberg that he has ordered an additional study by his department of the Vineyard Wind project, a plan to build more than 80 giant wind turbines on a 118-mile stretch of ocean some 15 miles from the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, before going ahead with a final environmental impact statement (EIS).
The decision puts in jeopardy the $2.8 billion project, which had promised to supply a combined 800 megawatts of power to at least 400,000 New England homes and businesses but had worried the commercial fishing industry. It was scheduled to begin construction this year and be operational by early 2022.
Bernhardt reportedly told the news service that it’s important the impact of the project be thoroughly studied. “For offshore wind to thrive on the outer continental shelf, the federal government has to dot their I’s and cross their T’s,” he said.
A Vineyard Wind spokesman called the Interior Department’s decision “a surprise and disappointment” and said his company urged the federal government to “complete the review as quickly as possible”.
As reported last week by Undercurrent News, the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has seemingly dragged its feet on Vineyard Wind’s final EIS since receiving at least two letters from Michael Pentony, the regional administrator for NMFS’ greater Atlantic office.
One 44-page letter, sent in March to James Bennett, head of BOEM’s Office of Renewable Programs, provided a detailed critique of a half dozen alternative approaches for the wind farm under consideration. Another short three-page letter sent by Pentony on April 16, restated some of the same concerns, including NMFS’ request for more space between the turbines and an overall different directional orientation.
“We reviewed your preferred alternative and associated rationale provided in your letter dated April 3, 2019, and are writing to inform you that [NMFS] does not concur with your choice of a preferred alternative,” the second letter states.
A copy of the second letter was earlier obtained by Reuters and has since also been secured by Undercurrent.
Many of NMFS’ concerns echo those expressed earlier by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), a group of 160 commercial harvesters and processors with vessels spread across nine states and operating in about 30 different fisheries. RODA fears the disruption caused by the large towers and their transmission cables will interfere with the harvesting of cod, squid, oysters, lobsters and other species as well as a major transit route for scallop and other fishermen.
RODA executive director Annie Hawkins could not be reached for comment for this article.
Delays could prevent tax credits
If BOEM was prepared to hold up the final EIS for the Vineyard Wind project, that wasn’t clear from a 12-page letter sent on April 26 to Samuel Rauch, NMFS’ deputy assistant administrator for regulatory programs, and signed by William Brown, BOEM’s chief environmental officer. It advised that the agency has “concerns with the April 16 NMFS response”.
“If NMFS does not concur, however, we are prepared to note its non-concurrence in the final EIS and the [record of decision], and we are also prepared to note which if any of the alternatives in the EIS NMFS does prefer,” Brown’s letter stated.
Brown expressed a sense of urgency.
Vineyard Wind, a New Bedford, Massachusetts-based joint venture between Avangrid, a division of the Spanish wind giant Iberdrola, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a Denmark-based investment firm, had hoped to begin construction in 2019, putting the first turbine in the seabed in 2021 and having all of its turbines operational by 2022.
The project has environmentalists as well as several prominent Massachusetts political leaders on its side, as it’s expected to provide several hundred jobs while reducing carbon emissions by over 1.6 million metric tons per year.
However, accepting the changes NMFS and the commercial fishing industry seeks, including surveys of multiple species in the affected areas, would “make it impossible for Vineyard Wind to commence commercial operations in time to meet the requirements of its power purchase agreement (PPA),” Brown said, referencing the deal the wind farm has with the local utility.
The delays would further prevent Vineyard “from qualifying for a federal investment tax credit, which in turn would likely prevent the company from delivering power at the price agreed to in the PPA”, he advised.
If BOEM were to go along with NMFS’ suggested changes, he said, it “would be approving a project with very little likelihood of eventual construction”.
No explanation for the delay
Despite the strong statements in Wood’s letter, BOEM began to telegraph that it might not move forward with its final EIS. In early July when it notified project officials that the government was “not yet prepared” to issue the document, as expected.
No explanation was offered for the delay. One source speculated to Undercurrent that it may be due to president Trump’s administration being unwilling to have its “One Federal Decision” policy tested under less than perfect circumstances.
The policy, issued two years ago by executive order, accelerates the permitting process by making one federal agency the “lead action agency” and establishing that separate permits are no longer required from the other agencies.
BOEM is the lead action agency for the Vineyard Wind project.
BOEM may be able to move forward with a final EIS after having it reviewed by the other federal agencies with roles in the permitting process for major infrastructure projects, including the US Army Corps of Engineers and NMFS. However, it is not clear that it is required, and the Vineyard Wind project decision is likely to get tested in court, the source said.
Letter shows BOEM was ready to move ahead on US wind farm without NMFS blessing