Green Oceans Urges the EPA to Revoke Revolution Wind Project Permit

LITTLE COMPTON, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Green Oceans, the nonprofit, nonpartisan grassroots group leading the fight against the industrialization of the oceans in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, said Tuesday it has formally requested the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reopen and revoke the permit approvals for the Revolution Wind project after the original approvals were tainted by material omissions in the air pollution analysis.

In a letter to the EPA Region I Office in Boston, Green Oceans outlined multiple failures by the developers and regulators to account for multiple sources of harmful emissions caused by the construction, operation, and maintenance of Revolution Wind’s turbines.

The letter says the review failed to consider “emissions related to and resulting from blade failures” that typically require “specialized heavy-lift vessels and additional transport vessels, which could significantly increase volatile organic compounds and particulate matter.”

The letter also reminds the EPA that “blade failures and repairs frequently warrant the transport of new equipment via ship from overseas (France, and other countries, etc.), which also induces greenhouse gas emissions.”

Green Oceans also said the EPA gave “insufficient consideration” to the air pollution caused by ships, tugs and barges building, maintaining and engaging other trips for the Revolution Wind offshore wind turbines” and didn’t properly account for emissions caused by pile driving.

“Revolution Wind was marketed as a climate solution,” said Dr. Lisa Quattrocki Knight, cofounder and President of Green Oceans, “but when the emissions from vessel operations, blade repair logistics, and unaddressed contingencies are taken into account, the project may actually worsen the very problem it purports to solve.”

Cofounder Bill Thompson said, “The cure proves to be as bad or worse than the disease. More troubling, this is further evidence that wind companies and government once again refused to look at the data they should have, and put protecting us and the environment second to protecting their political and financial investments in these projects.”

Green Oceans said the EPA failed to properly assess emissions stemming from pile driving and routine maintenance trips involving ships, tugs, and barges. These activities, the group asserts, were given only cursory attention during the permitting process, leading to a gross underestimation of the project’s total emissions.

Last July, a blade snapped on a Vineyard Wind turbine off Nantucket, scattering 50 tons of jagged and potentially toxic shards from Cape Cod to Montauk Point in New York. Seven months later, the same turbine was struck by lightning and further damaged.

“These are not rare events–thousands of wind turbine blades fail each year, and we’ve already seen it happen close to home,” Bill Thompson said. “That the EPA and Revolution Wind never dealt with this contingency in their analysis, or the need to maintain these blades due to customary wear and tear, was a gross failure of the review process. In either case, the EPA should go back to Square One, take a full and honest look at this, and after doing that, revoke these permits.”

Green Oceans told the EPA that without a new review and revocation, the deterioration of air quality, marine ecosystems, and public trust will continue.

About Green Oceans
Green Oceans is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, community organization, founded by Rhode Islanders, dedicated to combating climate change without jeopardizing the health of the ocean or the life it sustains.