Green Oceans Urges the Supreme Court to Hear Case Against Vineyard Wind

Files amicus brief arguing government violated Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act in granting offshore wind construction permits

Asks Court to grant Writ of Certiorari by Responsible Offshore Development Alliance and Seafreeze Shoreside, Inc.

LITTLE COMPTON, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Green Oceans, the nonpartisan, nonprofit, grassroots organization dedicated to protecting our oceans against industrialization, said today it filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief asking the Supreme Court to hear cases that seek to overturn federal approval of the Vineyard Wind project.

The brief, filed today in support of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) and Seafreeze Shoreside appeals, argues the Department of the Interior (DOI) and its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) ignored their statutory duties under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) when they approved the Vineyard Wind project. In their zeal to promote the reckless installation of huge wind projects along the Outer Continental Shelf, they arrogated to themselves powers they do not have, the brief argues.

The Green Oceans amicus brief, authored by Lawrence S. Ebner of Capital Appellate Advocacy PLLC in Washington, D.C., urges the Court to hear the case because BOEM ignored explicit language in OCSLA requiring them to protect the environment, national security, safety, and our fisheries. Instead, BOEM chose to “balance” these priorities instead of safeguarding them. Because the agency’s actions have national implications that will affect millions of citizens, Green Oceans urges the Supreme Court to hear this pivotal case.

“BOEM was so eager to move the offshore wind (OSW) construction forward quickly, even in the face of mounting evidence of OSW’s harm, that it second-guessed Congress and exercised power it did not have,” said Dr. Lisa Quattrocki Knight, president and co-founder of Green Oceans.

“Ironically,” Dr. Knight said, “BOEM rushed these projects through the permitting process presumably to save the planet from climate change, but the Environmental Impact Statement for Vineyard Wind admits that it won’t abate climate change and concedes that even if you added all of the projects together, even collectively, they would make no difference.”

OCSLA requires DOI, through BOEM, to “ensure” that projects do not interfere with “safety,” “national security,” “fishing” and “reasonable uses” of the ocean, but, Green Oceans argues, the agencies treated the statutory requirements as a mere suggestion when approving Vineyard Wind 1—something to just “consider” as they rubberstamped the project.

“The agency took the law into its own hands and accomplished what? Unreliable electricity at ridiculously high prices whose production significantly harms the environment, destroys fisheries, and undermines our national security. Congress writes laws with explicit language for a reason,” Dr Knight said.

In doing so, DOI and BOEM violated OCSLA by ignoring the damage offshore wind turbine construction will inflict, unlawfully departing from the law’s requirements without the necessary authorization of Congress, the brief says.

Whether, and under what conditions, thousands of massive offshore wind turbines should be allowed on the Outer Continental Shelf are major policy decisions reserved to Congress. The brief also argues that BOEM unlawfully seized that power to benefit one politically favored industry at the expense of the environment and the public good when it greenlit the project.

ABOUT GREEN OCEANS

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