A coalition of environmental organisations, fishing associations, and a Native American tribe has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the approval of Avangrid’s proposed New England Wind 1 and 2 offshore wind projects, claiming violations of multiple U.S. environmental and administrative laws.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on May 22, alleges that the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Commerce, along with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), acted unlawfully in approving the projects’ Record of Decision (RoD).
Plaintiffs include ACK for Whales, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), environmental group Green Oceans, several charter fishing associations, and seven individuals.
“In offshore wind project after offshore wind project… the government was so desperate to rush these projects that it cut corners and violated the law,” said Vallorie Oliver, president of ACK for Whales.
The legal complaint cites alleged breaches of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. It seeks a declaratory judgment and an injunction to halt further development of the two wind farms.
New England Wind 1, with a planned capacity of 791 megawatts (MW), is expected to begin construction later this year and deliver electricity to Massachusetts by 2029. New England Wind 2, a 1-gigawatt (GW) project, has yet to secure a state off-take agreement.
“These giant wind farms [are] making an industrial park out of our waters,” said Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, Chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah). “Unlike the other plaintiffs, the harms go back as far as time immemorial and as deep as to who we are as Aquinnah Wampanoag People; our culture, traditions and spirituality, connecting us to the lands, waters, sky and all living things.”
The lawsuit comes amid growing legal and political scrutiny of the offshore wind industry in the United States, as developers race to meet state and federal clean energy targets. The two projects are among 11 that received federal permitting prior to 2017.
Legal counsel for ACK for Whales, Thomas Stavola, said the case highlights systemic regulatory failures. “The analytic and legal deficiencies of New England Wind are a microcosm of what we have seen in other offshore wind projects – the agencies simply fail to account for critical data which has ramifications for marine mammals on numerous fronts,” he said.
Avangrid has been contacted for comment but had not responded at the time of publication.
In March, ACK for Whales also petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to revoke the projects’ permits, citing concerns over air pollution during construction and operation.
