As 1st U.S. offshore wind farm rises near Martha's Vineyard, Ocean City, N.J., may lead the way to blocking others

Rising "monopile" foundations of three planned Vineyard Wind offshore turbines are visible in the distance from the company's newly built substation off Martha's Vineyard. (Vineyard Gazette photo by Ray Ewing)

Wind-farm plans on the East Coast (Marzulla Law maps, adapted; click to enlarge)

As the nation's first offshore wind farm rises off Cape Cod, a battle on the Jersey Shore could "create a template for derailing some 31 offshore wind projects in various stages of development and construction off the East Coast, a key part of President Biden’s plan to reduce greenhouse emissions that are driving global climate change," reports Kate Selig of The Washington Post.

Ocean City, N.J., "has become the epicenter of opposition to wind energy projects off New Jersey and the East Coast," Selig writes. "Residents of Ocean City and surrounding Cape May County, helped by an outside group opposed to renewable energy, are mobilizing to stop Ocean Wind 1, a proposal to build up to 98 wind turbines the size of skyscrapers off the New Jersey coast, which could power half a million homes." Orsted, a Danish firm got a federal permit for Ocean Wind 1 in July, but needs other permits to start construction.

Protect Our Coast NJ has filed a lawsuit to block tax break for the wind farm and says it has gathered more than 500,000 signatures on a petition against such facilities. “The objective is to hold them up and make the cost so overwhelming that they’ll go home,” treasurer Frank Coyne told the Post. The group is backed by most local officials and partly funded by "a think tank that opposes many offshore wind projects and has ties to fossil fuel interests," Selig reports.

Off Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, the under-construction farm "still faces a series of ongoing lawsuits that are trying to overturn its environmental permits, but Vineyard Wind has escaped the cost increases that have plagued other projects," reports Benjamin Storrow of E&E News. "When foundation installations began this summer, thick fog halted construction several times because it impeded mandated lookouts for endangered whales and raised safety issues for construction workers."

Vineyard Wind officials took journalists, environmentalists, legislators and staff on a tour of the $4 billion project last week and said they could be producing electricity this fall, report Eunki Seonwoo of the Martha's Vineyard Times and Ethan Genter of the Vineyard Gazette. "Most of Vineyard Wind’s turbines won’t be visible along the Vineyard horizon, though those with good eyesight may be able to barely make them out along the skyline," Genter reports. "The introduction of plane-navigation lights on the turbines will be noticeable in the night sky from beaches and coastal bluffs."