On Wednesday, a group of citizens who claimed to be concerned about the safety of an endangered whale filed a lawsuit against the Vineyard Wind Project, a offshore wind farm that is expected to become the first large-scale marine project in the United States.
He dress, filed by a group called Nantucket Residents Against Turbines (which have the objectively funny acronym ACK RATS) before a federal court against the Office of Ocean Energy Management and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, accusing the agencies of not do enough work to analyze how the project would affect wildlife, specifically the endangered North Atlantic right whale. In a statement posted on Facebook, ACK RATS called itself a group of “environmentally conscious citizens” and said saving the whale from “offshore industrial development” is its main engine for filing the lawsuit. (The government has been investigate tactics to protect French whales during the offshore wind installation since at least 2012.)
“Threats are perceived for North Atlantic right whales and there are real threats to North Atlantic right whales,” said Kelly Kryc, senior member of the Energy and Environment Center for American Progress and former director of the ocean policy program of the New Aquarium of England. “These real threats are entanglements of fishing gear, climate change and boat attacks from recreational and commercial vessels. These are the things that are really killing whales. “
Kryc said companies like Vineyard Wind should have mitigation agreements in place during construction that eliminate threats to right whales, including requirements on when to drive batteries to make sure whales are not at risk. area and reduce the speed of ships to decrease the chance of accidents. These specific steps have been examined in peer-reviewed studies as ways to keep whales safe. And frankly, offshore wind power is part of a long-term survival plan for the species.
“Climate change is really affecting the ability of whales to find food,” said Kryc, who noted that whales follow their food to different areas where people are not prepared for their presence, which increases the number of whales. chances of accidents and deaths. “The best way to combat climate change is to remove fossil fuels from the energy matrix, and to do that we need to expand renewable energy.”
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The ACK RATS suit is backed by David Stevenson, a former member of the Trump Environmental Protection Agency’s transition team. Stevenson was at the press conference announcing the legal challenge held in Boston on Wednesday, where he congratulated the founders of ACK RATS for “trying to save the whales, save Nantucket.” Stevenson is currently director of the Caesar Rodney Institute’s libertarian think tank, which is starting a new coalition called American Coalition for the Protection of the Ocean, specifically to combat offshore wind projects.
The Caesar Rodney Institute website claims its supporters “cover the entire political spectrum,” but the group is a member of the State Policy Network, a network of conservative think tanks spread across the United States that works closely with the American Legislative Exchange Council to implement policies. right at the state level. Members of the state policy network in 2015, for example, worked block implementation of the net energy plan in several states. The former president of the Heritage Foundation is on the board of the institute too.
The fight against Vineyard Wind is likely to be the first of many fights the new coalition will enter. President Joe Biden has it set a goal to install 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030 as part of the administration to decarbonize the electricity system by 2035. Ocean heat waves have increase in frequency, and science is very clear that reducing carbon pollution is a necessary step to prevent further damage to the ecosystems on which the North Atlantic right whale and other species depend.
“The current administration’s misconception that ocean wind turbines will have a significant effect on climate change leads to reckless policies and procedures,” says the site of the American Coalition for Ocean Protection, which notes that the donations to the organization will be used to create “create a permanent offshore wind exclusion zone.” Shots of right whales and other wildlife decorate the top banner.
“Reading [the lawsuit], my question is: if the main concern is the North Atlantic right whales, these groups are defending the rest of the things that need to happen to protect them, such as banning fishing practices, and defending speed mandatory use of ships and, in this case, the shift towards a zero-emission future? ”Said Kryc. “Those [actions] they are immediate and can be done. If the North Atlantic right whale is the main concern, the steps that need to be taken, scientifically validated and prepared to apply them with sufficient political will are known. “
This isn’t the first lawsuit filed against Vineyard Wind: last month, a solar company owned by Thomas Malone, a wealthy (and litigious) New York developer with a home in Martha’s Vineyard, fired the first legal shot at the project, which was just approved in May. Malone’s company suit lists environmental concerns about the project, including its impact on whales, that relate to mentions of its ownership in Nantucket Sound and the “aesthetic benefits” it gets from the area. Similarly, the ACK RATS lawsuit notes that members of the group “will be able to see the proposed wind farm from Nantucket’s public and private perspectives” and alleges that the federal government made an “inadequate assessment of the project’s impacts. on the views from Nantucket Island “.
Both lawsuits against Vineyard Wind echo the strange bedfellows who condemned the Cape Wind project, the last major offshore wind project proposed off the coast of Nantucket, in 2017. The arguments it follows similar contours with environmental complaints at the forefront, while the main issue was that it would be they affect the opinions of the owners in front of the sea. During the years the project was on the table, several people and groups across the political spectrum repeatedly challenged it in the courts, including one of the Koch brothers. i the late Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, both with homes in Nantucket. (Malone also filed a lawsuit against the Cape Wind project).
“So far there’s no Koch money, it’s not that we wouldn’t take it,” Stevenson said. he said E&E News of the effort to stop Vineyard Wind.
Given the resemblance to this fight that Koch helped win against Cape Wind, it wouldn’t be surprising if we started to see how more right-wing and oil money was introduced. And it looks like using the costume to protect the ocean will become even more popular as the fight heats up.