Industry group knocks feds' move on Vineyard Wind project
As it kicked off what it hoped would be a week to celebrate "U.S. leadership in wind energy production," a national wind energy industry group is instead making the case against the federal government's new delay of the Vineyard Wind project.
The U.S. Department of the Interior and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Friday put a freeze on a crucial permit for Vineyard Wind -- the $2.8 billion, 84-turbine wind project planned south of Martha's Vineyard -- so they can study the wider impacts of the growing offshore wind industry.
The American Wind Energy Association said the federal government's "regrettable" choice "undermines the Trump Administration's American energy dominance agenda and a major U.S. economic growth opportunity."
The industry group, which on Sunday kicked off its "American Wind Week 2019," said the decision from Interior and BOEM is not in keeping with "broad bipartisan support for offshore wind from federal and state officials, including from Republicans such as Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Congressman Rob Bishop (R-UT), Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA), and former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke."
That bipartisan support, paired with "what had been a predictable federal regulatory process," was responsible for "record-breaking bids from proven energy developers for the right to develop U.S. offshore wind projects," totaling $472 million in revenue to the U.S. Treasury, AWEA said.
The same growth that has driven what BOEM in December called an offshore wind "bidding bonanza" may also be driving the federal concerns now holding up Vineyard Wind. In an interview with Bloomberg News, U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said it is important for the feds to "dot their I's and cross their T's" if the industry is to be successful and lasting.
"If it's going to be developed, it needs to be developed in a way that everyone gets to say, at least, that we didn't shave the ball," Bernhardt told Bloomberg
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