BRIGANTINE, N.J.-- Opponents of offshore wind around the U.S.are pelting projects with lawsuits seeking to cancel them or tie them up for years in costly litigation.They add another pressure point for an industry already struggling with escalating prices, shaky supply chains, and a handful of highly publicized turbine failures that opponents are seizing on as proof that the structures are unreliable and unsafe, something the industry denies.There are 13 cases pending in federal courts targeting offshore wind projects, according to the American Clean Power Association, an offshore wind trade group.
An undetermined number of additional lawsuits are active in state courts, they said.Robin Shaffer is president of Protect Our Coast NJ, a citizens group that has filed numerous lawsuits in New Jersey against two offshore projects currently or previously proposed.Shaffer said his group was at least partly responsible for scuttling two New Jersey wind farms proposed by Orsted that the Danish wind giant scrapped last October, saying they were no longer financially workable.Opponents cite altered views of the horizon from wind turbines and concerns about what the structures might do to marine life.They also cite rising projected prices for electricity generated from the wind farms, and point to recent turbine collapses off Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts and at Doggers Bank off the English coast as proof the technology is risky.“On the heels of one of the hottest summers on record, it is disappointing to see another frivolous lawsuit filed by those with opposing views," she said of the most recent lawsuit.Offshore wind foes in other states are also turning to the courts.In March, The National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative watchdog group in Virginia, sued Dominion Energy and the federal government hoping to block a wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach.
Dominion called the suit meritless and said it employs multiple layers of protection for the marine environment.Last year, a Rhode Island nonprofit known for its seaside mansions sued the federal government challenging the permitting process for offshore wind energy projects off Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.The Preservation Society of Newport County said the presence of hundreds of wind turbines off the New England coast would ruin ocean views from several of its historic properties.On the West Coast, the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians in Oregon, whose culture reveres the ocean, sued the federal government Tuesday over plans to hold an offshore wind energy auction next month.And in March, fishermen sued California over plans for three floating wind farms.___
