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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied petitions from the fishing industry and a conservative think tank challenging the Vineyard Wind project, rejecting their March requests that the country’s highest court hear their cases.
A fishing industry lobbying group, Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), sued the lead government regulator of offshore wind in early 2022, alleging that by approving Vineyard Wind, the agency had violated several acts, including those protecting existing ocean users and endangered species. The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), which represents fishermen and a fishing company in Rhode Island in another lawsuit, had also petitioned the Supreme Court.
RODA had already lost its case in two other courts: first, in 2023 in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, where a judge sided with the project and regulators; and second, in 2024 in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, where the judge upheld the lower court’s decision. TPPF also had its case dismissed by the lower courts.
“We are disappointed that the Supreme Court denied our petition,” said Lane Johnston, executive director of RODA, in an email Monday. “This issue is of such importance to members of the commercial fishing industry. RODA will continue our efforts to combat the destructive industrialization of the nation’s marine resources.”
TPPF signaled it wasn’t giving up in its efforts to stop the Vineyard Wind project.
“We will continue to pursue our goal of shutting down the Vineyard Wind project by filing an administrative petition with the Secretary of the Interior,” said TPPF Senior Attorney Ted Hadzi-Antich in a statement on Monday, “seeking reevaluation of the legal and factual missteps of the Biden Administration in approving a project that is so harmful to safety, the environment, and national defense.”
The Supreme Court receives 7,000 to 8,000 petitions per year, and only hears and issues opinions on fewer than 100, or less than 1.5%.
The denials came the same day 18 Democrat-led states, including Massachusetts, sued the federal government over Trump’s presidential memorandum barring further permitting and development of offshore wind projects.
Vineyard Wind 1, a 62-turbine wind-power project, is under construction about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. It’s expected to generate power for up to 400,000 homes in Massachusetts.
As of mid-April, Vineyard Wind 1 has installed 32 turbine towers, some without blades. Because of the blade failure in summer 2024, the developer is removing blades from 22 turbines and replacing them with new ones. The project briefly delivered power for a few months in 2024, and resumed sending power in January 2025 with only one turbine. In New Bedford, Vineyard Wind has employed nearly 2,900 people at various lengths of time as of last fall, including union workers.
The project has so far withstood several challenges from offshore wind opponents.
Nantucket-based activist group ACK for Whales filed a petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in March, requesting the agency rescind the Clean Air Act permit it granted to Vineyard Wind to construct and operate its wind farm.
In April, the same group filed a petition with the Interior Department and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, asking the agencies to revoke the revised construction and operations permit they issued in January to allow the project to resume installation after the blade failure. The permit is required for Vineyard Wind to install and operate its project.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
Why would the SC hear these petitions when Federal agencies are threatening to shut down wind projects anyway? And for good reason. The Spanish blackout was not an accident. Blackouts are a design feature of unreliable wind/solar energy.
Wind power is a much less impactful to the ecosystem than the oil it replaces, Yet many many people fear it. I recommend anyone who has a problem with wind power to get beyond the fact free emotional propaganda the oil company produces and actually look at the facts. Turbine construction is a once in 50 year disruption to a tiny portion of ocean. Once constructed, they will eliminate years worth of constant disruption by eliminating the need for thousands of tankers that constantly disrupt the ocean on a much larger scale. This is not remotely close. This before you consider the positive impact of eliminating the air pollution. Please do some research and don’t fall for the propaganda. It is slickly produced and quite compelling emotionally, but actually wrong. We need to follow the money. The oil industry has a lot to lose and they know it.
Oil rigs are not installed by the thousands, spaced 3/4 of a mile apart. They also do not need hundreds of miles of high-voltage cables run in sea floor trenches to the shoreline. The scale of destruction from OSW is exponential compared to oil production platforms.
The rigs either require pipelines to shore or tanker transport for the product. There are environmental and safety concerns for both. The rigs are also running massive generators 24/7 for power. The turbines are making power from the wind and sending to shore. Any way you want to add it up, offshore wind is less impactful long term.
You seriously believe that a wind turbine will last 50 years in a harsh, salty environment 😂😂😂. There’s already been sea and land failures even before 20 years are up. Windmills will never pay for themselves and the costly maintenance and infrastructure. Picture all of the copper wiring on the seafloor needed to deliver this energy back to shore. Government subsidies are the only thing that makes them profitable to install. They are a maintenance nightmare.
Renewable energy has become cheaper than fossil fuels now, Fossil fuels are on their way out because the “DOLLAR SAYS SO !!!”
I’m concerned about our marine life, impact on the fishing industry and overall contamination by damage parts falling into the ocean.
When these turbines no longer functional how will they be dismantled and where will they be disposed?
Note, many turbines in Europe are no longer in use and they litter the landscape
There are wind turbines everywhere, all around the world! They have been working for decades! They don’t pollute! You have nothing to fear! The current administration wishes to defund education! That is something you should fear!
I find it ironic that a person from Cambridge feels as he does and feels he is so entitled he does to opine from his distant home in toney Cambridge. Firstly, I would rather have an American company opine on American issues than an offshore company lobby and tell American citizens how we will receive our energy. Claim of powering 400000 NE homes? What does that mean? One lightbulb or all of the energy. So misleading. We all know that offshore wind is destroying the natural order of the maritime environment just as the bike lanes on Mass Ave are destroying the mom and pop businesses along their way. Oh,and by the way…it is huge offshore corporations who are destroying the fishing industry with their greed and not the small boat operators from our coastal towns.
This is the irony. I hope nobody trips over his power cord to his EV parked on Thorndike St.
In 7 years of fighting the industrialization of some of the most biodiverse and productive real estate state on the planet from the West Coast’s California Current Large Marine Ecosystem I have never seen or heard anything from Big Oil against Offshore Wind. To the contrary they have tried to set up their own Offshore Wind farms and gave it up. We need clean energy. We don’t need heavily subsidized Offshore Wind energy for a host of reasons.
Keep Our sustainable fisheries. You will be importing more foreign seafood from non- sustainable sources if you don’t, not to mention the loss of hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs and an economic contribution of billions of dollars. as reported by the National Marine Fisheries Service.