Up is down

Last May, Massachusetts announced that Vineyard Wind—a project to build 800 megawatts worth of wind turbines off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, had won a bid to begin production. The project promises to be the largest “offshore wind complex,” in the United States. The Massachusetts project was announced along side Rhode Island’s decision to allow Deepwater Wind to begin production on a 400 megawatt offshore facility. This is great news and in line with Bay State’s 2016 decision to build “1.6 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2027.”

Now, Inside Climate News reports that the Trump administration, best known for expediting fossil fuel production in tandem with deregulating the industry, is slowing down the start of production—set for this year—on the Massachusetts’ project. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), under Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13807, wants to really dig down deep on their new expanded review of the Vineyard Wind project.

Inside Climate News explains that this delay impacts a big tax credit, set to end this year, which was a motivator for the beginning of construction; and while “developers say they are still committed to the project, the potential loss of the tax credit could lead them to rethink their plans.”

The idea that the government should be thorough in their review of infrastructure projects is not a partisan issue. Of course, the Trump administration has been the opposite of thorough in its reviews of offshore drilling and fossil fuel infrastructure when it impacts marginalized groups of people. The Trump administration has also went out of their way to try and excise “cumulative impact assessments,” of fossil fuel projects that directly affect greenhouse gas emissions.

"The Department of Interior has practically tripped over itself in speeding up the approval of fossil fuel projects and now they are slow-walking this renewable project," said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. "That could fundamentally damage the economics of the project."

In a statement, affirming their commitment “to deliver offshore wind farm but with revised schedule,” Lars Pedersen, CEO of Vineyard Wind lamented the new delay in the project. The Chief Development Officer, Erich Stephens directed his comments to the labor unions and environmental groups that had worked with the project, that “We want to assure each of them that we remain committed to moving this project forward as quickly as circumstances allow, and realizing the many benefits that were so close at hand before federal regulators announced their decision.”

Elections matter.