Thomas Catenacci writes for the Washington Free Beacon about the latest setback for offshore wind power advocates.
The federal government suspended the operations of a wind farm located off the coast of Massachusetts after a massive turbine fell apart, sending debris into the ocean and forcing local officials to temporarily close nearby beaches.
Earlier this week, Vineyard Wind’s developer reported a “blade failure incident” at the facility and said it had dispatched crews to collect debris in the surrounding waters and on beaches in Nantucket, Massachusetts. According to Vineyard Wind, the turbine blade was undergoing testing when it unexpectedly broke about 20 meters from its root.
The incident is the latest black eye to both the oddshore wind energy industry, which has faced a number of economic setbacks in recent months, and the Biden administration’s green energy plans. Vineyard Wind was the first large-scale, offshore wind project approved in the U.S. The Department of the Interior signed off on the project in May 2021, less than four months after President Biden took office. And it appears to at least partially vindicate critics of efforts to rapidly expand offshore wind development over concerns about their impacts on the fishing industry, national security, marine wildlife, and historic resources along the nation’s coasts. The Biden administration has rubber-stamped a total of nine commercial-scale offshore wind projects in an effort to meet the president’s goal of delivering 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030.
“Unfortunately, we fully expect this will happen again,” said New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association CEO Jerry Leeman, who has opposed accelerated offshore wind development. “We do not yet know the cause of Saturday’s incident. But we do know that no human structure can forever withstand the corrosive power of the ocean.”
“The Vineyard Wind windmills are taller than the Eiffel Tower. Their blades are longer than a football field,” he continued. “When they fall, they endanger vessels and degrade the environment. We must stop the industrialization of our oceans to protect mariners and marine life.”
