|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Vineyard Wind has yet to break its silence following the Trump administration’s suspension of its project along with four others Monday, but according to the state, the project may continue generating power at its current capacity.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in its Dec. 22 suspension order wrote, “given that this project is partially generating power, you may continue any activities from those wind turbines that are necessary for the current level of power generation.”
A spokesperson with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office said the BOEM order allows Vineyard Wind to “continue operating at current capacity.”
The order states that in November, the Defense Department completed an assessment for the Interior Department on national security concerns regarding offshore wind development.
The information, which BOEM states is new and classified, regards “the rapid evolution of relevant adversary technologies and the resulting direct impacts to national security from offshore wind projects.”
The order also raises the possibility of project cancellation.
“Based on BOEM’s initial review of this classified information, the particularized harm posed by this project can only be feasibly averted by suspension of on-lease activities,” reads the order, signed by BOEM Acting Director Matthew Giacona. “Given the construction status of this project, BOEM will consider all feasible mitigation measures before making a decision as to whether the project must be cancelled.”
BOEM declined to clarify the order’s language on power generation, with a spokesperson referring The Light back to the order.
Gov. Maura Healey’s office this week said the project is currently capable of generating up to 572 megawatts of the nameplate 800-megawatt capacity. In October, the project reached 50% power production. As of this week, it has only one turbine tower left to install, along with several blade sets.
Data from the grid operator, ISO New England, showed a significant drop off in wind generation Tuesday morning relative to the previous few days. Two sources told The Light that their contacts offshore did not see turbines spinning on Tuesday.
One source provided a video to The Light, taken Tuesday afternoon, on the condition it not be shared. The bright overcast skies obfuscated some of the white blades, but the visible turbines were at a standstill.
Tony Alvernaz, a New Bedford fisherman who works with Vineyard Wind, has a fishing vessel at the lease doing security work. He’s not offshore, but he contacted his crew, who said of the few turbines they could see amid the fog, none were spinning.
On Wednesday, however, at least 10 turbines were spinning, according to Alvernaz’s crew. It reflected in ISO-NE’s snapshot data, which showed wind energy accounted for more than 40% of renewables pumping energy into the New England grid in the late morning.
Alvernaz isn’t sure what the pause means for his work on the project, but he said his boat has not been instructed to come in early (it’s due in on Christmas). He supports the Trump administration, and while highly critical of the Biden administration’s approach to offshore wind, he said he was “shocked” by Monday’s action.
“I wish this country could meet in the middle somewhere,” he said. “It’s one extreme… the previous administration didn’t give a rat’s ass about the commercial fishermen… and now you have the total opposite.”
Vineyard Wind representatives have largely fallen silent since the blade break incident in the summer of 2024. All other developers have issued statements on their project suspensions, with the exception of Vineyard Wind and its parent company, Avangrid Renewables.
As of Tuesday evening, a Vineyard Wind spokesperson did not respond to questions about power generation.
This story was updated on Dec. 24, 2025, to add new details about Vineyard Wind’s activity.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
How stupid does the Trump administration think we are? They’re just making stuff up as they go. National Security? Interferes with defense radar? More like interferes with oil company profits.
Hundreds of 900′ tall spinning towers along our coast blocking line-of-sight analysis of aircraft, missiles, and (now) drones by early warning radar detection. Underwater reverberations of operating turbines and massive offshore substations impairing sonar detection of submarines. Gee whiz, no problem with national security there. If the Trump Administration presumes some of “we” are “stupid,” perhaps they are not incorrect.
Supporting our commercial fisherman 100%, shut Wind down completely, and get that junk out of our waters. Joe Biden was the worst President in the history of our Country and Maura Healey is the worst Governor in our State’s history. The agenda of far left liberals is a cancer to the future of our country.
Offshore wind is bad energy policy, bad environmental policy, and bad economic policy. It kills whales, destroys local ground fisheries, and decimates shoreline communities. The turbines—some of them twice the height of the Washington Monument—pose navigational hazards, and disrupt marine and aviation radar, endangering American lives and national security. They produce energy that is three times the cost of the average price per kilowatt-hour.
Offshore wind developers and their political and e-NGO enablers have been pooh-poohing the national security aspects of having hundreds of 900’ tall spinning towers along our coast for a long while now, even as these issues have been pointed out for years. In fact, a 2007 report by the Missile Defense Agency of the Department of Defense, “Wind Turbine Analysis for the Cape Cod Air Force Station Early Warning Radar and Beale Air Force Base Upgraded Early Warning Radar,” was dismissed by the Obama Administration in its determination to clear the way for the Vineyard Wind project. The LOS (line-of-sight) analysis showed that wind turbines in the majority of the Vineyard Wind/Avangrid lease area would be within the sight line of the Cape Cod system and “could have a significant impact on this early warning radar.” Another such report studying obscured sight lines by the Revolution Wind project was submitted to the Biden Administration in 2021. It, too, was ignored. There have been studies showing impairment of sonar detection. The national security risks are very real and deadly serious.
Here’s an excellent resource explaining some of the national security risks of gigantic wind turbines planted right off our coast. Please check it out! https://www.green-oceans.org/education/national-security
So I see you’re not allowing comments other than by the one person this morning who agreed with the NBL’s pro-wind stance?
I never considered the national security aspect but it makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is the dope AG saying they can continue to operate. Then let’s all hope any unfortunate strikes first at those making such stupid ignorant statements. Nothing new for MA electeds.