Federal Judge Allows Green Oceans' Suit Opposing Revolution Wind Offshore Wind Project to Advance

District Court Judge denies Revolution Wind’s attempt to dismiss the Green Oceans’ lawsuit

Grassroots group argues federal government ignored the law in permitting Revolution Wind to build giant, environmentally destructive wind turbines off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts

LITTLE COMPTON, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth has authorized the lawsuit seeking to stop the construction of giant, environmentally destructive wind turbines off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts to move forward, the non-partisan, independent grassroots group Green Oceans said today.

Revolution Wind, the project’s owner and an intervenor/defendant in the case, attempted to have the Court dismiss the suit, arguing the citizen plaintiffs didn’t have standing, or the right to challenge the project.

The Court rejected the Company’s efforts to have the case dismissed for lack of standing, holding that plaintiffs had standing to pursue six of the nine claims in Green Oceans’ challenge.

“In sum,” Lamberth ruled, “Plaintiffs may proceed to the next phase of litigation.”

“This is a great day for those of us who oppose the industrialization of the oceans and who believe in the rule of law,” said Dr. Lisa Quattrocki Knight, president and co-founder of Green Oceans and one of the plaintiffs.

“We will now have the chance to demonstrate how the government failed to protect the environment when it approved Revolution Wind’s permits by ignoring the relevant federal statutory obligations under the Administrative Procedure Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and Clean Water Act,” Dr. Quattrocki Knight added.

Revolution Wind is building 65 massive turbines, two offshore substations, associated inter-array cabling between the turbines, and an export cable approximately 15 miles east of Block Island and only 16 miles from Newport, Rhode Island, covering the ecologically sensitive area known as Coxes Ledge.

Revolution Wind filed to dismiss Green Oceans’ suit on July 19, 2024, arguing, without substantiation, that none of the named plaintiffs had standing to sue or were entitled to offer evidence to support their claims.

The Green Oceans plaintiffs, who filed suit in January 2024, alleged they have suffered injuries-in fact, as required under the law. Judge Lamberth found some plaintiffs could not make that showing, but he allowed nearly 40 plaintiffs, including a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), to proceed with their suit.

The judge dismissed three of the claims: the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and Coastal Zone Management Act, but allowed the majority to proceed.

Judge Lamberth sits in the District Court for the District of Columbia. The case number is No:1:24-cv-141RCL.

Green Oceans was represented by the Washington, D.C. firm, Marzulla Law.

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.