Feds Cautious On Ocean Wind After Falmouth Fiasco

Federal Regulators Cautious On Ocean Wind After Falmouth Fiasco

Massachusetts congressional delegation pushed failed land-based wind agenda that endangered health and property rights.

The Department of Interior halted the ocean wind turbine review at the eleventh hour last August 2019, to embark on a more systemic review of all the wind turbine farms planned for the ocean up and down the East Coast and their spacing.

Federal regulators say they’re just doing their job, you could guess in light of concerns raised over the land-based wind turbine fiasco in Falmouth and twenty-one other communities.

In 2009, Governor Patrick announced a land-based wind energy goal of 2,000 megawatts (MW) by 2020. The goal became a massive health and financial fiasco over the poor placement and spacing of megawatt wind turbines.

Falmouth is ground zero for poorly placed and spaced wind turbines in the United States.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection failed to protect the citizens of Massachusetts from wind turbine noise and shadow flicker. The setbacks to residential homes were far too close.

The MassDEP actually brokered a loan on the second Falmouth town-owned wind turbine using five million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds despite safety and health warnings prior to construction. The remainder of the loan 3.5 million plus 2 percent interest has not been paid back to the state revolving fund.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and multiple other state agencies are stuck in regulatory capture helping the wind turbine industry and ignoring the health and safety of the public. They are repeating the same mistakes with the fishing industry.

The ocean wind project that has been eyed by Governor Charlie Baker and the state legislature as the first utility-scale offshore wind development in the country was dealt a blow from the federal government more than likely over the Massachusetts land-based wind turbine fiasco.

The fishing industry has complained they need a nautical mile between the turbines and a common grid pattern to the ocean wind turbines.

Politicians no longer expect that its 800-megawatt project, chosen to deliver Massachusetts clean, renewable power, will become operational by 2022.

The Falmouth town-owned wind turbines were shut down by the courts in June of 2017 and remain standing in violation of local bylaws.

State and Falmouth local officials continue to break local by-laws and regulations in favor of commercial wind turbines ignoring health and safety issues.

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