Massachusetts Court Rejects Endangered Species Act Challenge To Offshore Wind Project

On May 17, 2023, the federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted summary judgment in favor of the United States Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and Vineyard Wind and denied summary judgment to the plaintiffs in the case of Nantucket Residents Against Turbines v. U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, 21-cv-11390 (Talwani, J.). This is the first federal court decision upholding, on the merits, the federal government's approval of a commercial-scale offshore wind project. There are three other cases pending that also seek to block the construction of the Vineyard Wind project offshore of Massachusetts.

Vineyard Wind's proposed offshore wind project has been the subject of numerous environmental reviews and approvals pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and other statutes that were not the subject of this lawsuit. The final NEPA environmental impact statement (EIS), which reviewed the