Nantucket, Massachusetts’ second-largest island, is ramping up its battle against BOEM and the Federal Government with a suit that aims to end the development of offshore wind that threatens the island’s iconic views and tourism economy. Town officials filed an appeal in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that challenges the Bureau of Environmental Management (BOEM) for approving the South Coast Wind Project, even after acknowledging the damage the wind farms would do the island’s views and tourism.
Nantucket has been an attraction for people seeking unfettered ocean views for millennia, the wildness of Nantucket and it’s smaller sister islands, Tuckernuck and Madaket, have given modern tourists, island residents, nature seekers and anglers a rare glimpse of what the shores and seas of New England looked like hundreds, or even thousands of years ago. But just a few short years ago, SouthCoast Wind, a company partly owned by Portugal and France, has been greenlit to install up to 743 turbines in the waters south of Nantucket, each one of them standing nearly 1000 feet tall and standing there, fencing off the ocean, for at least three decades.
“Nantucket is a premier international destination because we’ve fiercely protected our heritage,” said Town Select Board Chair Brooke Mohr. “We tried to work with BOEM and the developer to strike a balance, but they ignored us. So now, we’re holding them accountable.”
Nantucket officials argue BOEM’s approval violates the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), these laws require agencies to limit harm to historic sites before approving projects. The Vineyard Wind failure of 2024—when a massive turbine blade disintegrated, littering Nantucket’s shores, along with beaches from Cape Cod to as far away as Montauk Point in New York with chunks of foam, shards of fiberglass and various plastics, presenting risks that ran the gamut from polluting pristine beaches, to injecting micro plastics into the ecosystem to splinters of fiberglass potentially piercing beachgoers feet…and all this during peak tourist season. And that was just one blade of which each turbine carries three.
“This is NOT about protecting rich people’s views,” said Matt Fee, Vice Chair of the Select Board. “Our economy depends on heritage tourism. If people stop coming, that hurts small businesses and workers.” The town has enlisted Cultural Heritage Partners as legal counsel. Attorney William Cook warns that BOEM’s actions set a dangerous precedent for all energy projects.
The fight for Nantucket’s future has been turned up to 11.
