Today, I took a short walk on a beach inside Buzzards Bay. Of course there were many reasons for taking the walk that ranged from checking the water conditions to seeing if there was any bait around, but the thing I wanted to look for most was debris left by the recent blade failure from one of offshore wind turbines in the Vineyard Wind lease. An article in Offshore Magazine stated that the failed wind turbine was situated 12 miles south of Nantucket, which would make it at least 60 miles from the place where I was walking. It only took me about five minutes to find my first chunk and by the end of my half-mile stroll, I had found a total of seven pieces.
I’ve made it clear that I’m no fan of offshore wind, but I want to make it infinitely clear that my mistrust of offshore wind and what we’ve been told it will do for us is not politically charged. Through my own research I have determined that this concept is a huge mistake with consequences that will last more than a generation. I wanted to specify the point, that offshore wind is a mistake, because I feel like “we” – the people of the United States – have been made to believe that our chosen party is incapable of making a mistake and that the other side makes nothing but mistakes. Impossible! This is a huge problem that may take decades to undo. But I’m trying to see everything from the middle and it’s a scary vantage point.
I know there are many who oppose offshore wind that believe this blade failure is the smoking gun they need to put an end to offshore wind. As soon as the failure occurred an army of dissenters began rifling through the materials list trying to find some reason why these things are deadly or environmentally hazardous, an act of desperation; Boston news outlet WBUR wrote that these blades are made from fiberglass, semi-rigid foam and polystyrene resins. Which are, as the article quotes, “inert, non-soluble, stable and non-toxic.” But I find it to be equally troubling that supporters are blindly willing to look past the failure as ‘the cost of doing business.’ Why shouldn’t we try to learn something from this? Why shouldn’t the operation be halted, and whatever turbines have been erected used as test subjects before continuing? Common sense has become quite rare when discussing any politically-charged issue, but it seems like it would be impossible not to see why this is the most sensible course of action!
I’ve seen the supporters trying to cut down the opponents, saying things like “If one building collapsed, they wouldn’t stop making buildings!” But the thing is, there were only 12 turbines operating at the time, if one of every 12 buildings collapsed… I think we know where that would lead. Another poster quipped, “Better than an oil spill!” I mean, apples to apples, yes a bunch of non-toxic pieces of foam washing up is better than an oil spill. But in my 22 years living along the New England coast we’ve had one significant oil spill, and in less than a year of operation, we’ve had one turbine blade explode into a million pieces littering shorelines from Nantucket to Misquamicut. I don’t like being dependent on fossil fuels either, but just because these chunks of foam and fiberglass aren’t sticky crude, doesn’t mean they have zero impact on marine life and the environment.
But even after all this, and as much as I wish offshore wind would just go away forever, I don’t think this one failure stands up as a ‘gotcha’ moment, and believe me I wish it did. But I will be watching closely during the next major storm, because if 200 feet of one blade can make the kind of mess we’re seeing now, just imagine if five or 10 blades suffered the same fate at the same time. Or what if a hurricane barrels up the coast and they all fail? We’d be looking at a cleanup effort on a scale we can’t even fathom.
I’m usually an optimist, and I think a huge number of wind opponents are looking at this as the magic bullet that could topple offshore wind. I just don’t see it. You have to look at this with an eye for common sense, and the supporters are not wrong… one failure isn’t reason enough to reverse the curse. But with Vineyard Wind operations halted and environmental groups, along with the Wampanoag Tribe calling for a moratorium on offshore wind development, maybe this eye-opening moment will be enough to start to swing the pendulum back in the right direction, limiting the damage to what’s already been done. The visual proof and immense scope of these hunks of foam washing ashore may be our best hope for change… so, in this case, maybe hope really does float.
