US fishing group Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) has filed a suit challenging the Interior Department’s approval of the 800MW Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind project off Massachusetts.
The suit, filed in US district court for the District of Columbia, which names the US Interior Department and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, among others, has alleged that government agencies violated numerous environmental protection statutes in authorising the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind energy project.
RODA executive director Annie Hawkins stated: “In its haste to implement a massive new programme to generate electrical energy by constructing thousands of turbine towers offshore the eastern seaboard on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf and laying hundreds of miles of high-tension electrical cables undersea, the United States has shortcut the statutory and regulatory requirements that were enacted to protect our nation’s environmental and natural resources, its industries, and its people.”
She added: “The fishing industry supports strong action on climate change, but not at the expense of the ocean, its inhabitants, and sustainable domestic seafood.”
On 19 October 2021, RODA issued the government agencies a 60-day Notice of its Intent to Sue if they did not comply with the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and other federal environmental statutes.
“The Alliance received no reply, and the environmental violations were not remedied,” Hawkins said.
“The decisions on this project didn’t balance ocean resource conservation and management, and must not set a precedent for the enormous ‘pipeline of projects’ the government plans to facilitate in the near term.
“So we had no alternative to filing suit.”