NANTUCKET, MASSACHUSETTS – On July 13, a wind turbine blade broke off into Nantucket Sound. The popular tourist region has been dramatically impacted by the wreck.
Some are attributing the media’s muted response to the politics surrounding green energy and a general unwillingness to cover the true environmental implications of these new “climate-smart” energy technologies.
There was no storm or serious weather event that caused the so-called “blade failure incident” which led to “large floating debris and sharp fiberglass shards” across Nantucket’s idyllic beaches, according to reporting from the Boston Herald. As of Tuesday, all south shore beaches on the island were closed to swimming.
“You can walk on the beaches, however we strongly recommend you wear footwear due to sharp, fiberglass shards and debris on the beaches,” the Nantucket Harbormaster wrote in a post on X.
Vineyard Wind, the $4 billion Nantucket wind farm responsible for the wreck, is the first large-scale, offshore wind project in the nation. It was approved in May 2021 by the Biden’s Department of Interior. Many locals protested the project, saying the unsightly turbines–which reach 837 feet into the air–would damage the island’s famous tourist industry, costing as much as $800 million in lost revenue over the next 30 years.
During a public hearing with the Nantucket Select Board, locals did not hold back their feelings on how the unpopular wind farm was already realizing their worst fears about the project a mere three years after it was greenlit by officials.
“This is the time of the year where every day is like a week to me for earning,” a local surf shop owner said, in reporting by the New York Post. “Nobody has any answers. Everyone has said it’s pretty clear they have no idea how long this is going to take.”
Wind turbine blades are each 300 feet long–the length of a football field. So far, workers have gathered six truckloads full of debris. The sight of clean-up crews in hazmat suits across closed beaches during the height of tourism season on the island has caused significant uproar, only exacerbated by the sight of an official clean-up crew Jeep employed by the wind farm getting stuck in the sand, which locals considered a perfect encapsulation of corporate clumsiness.
The Biden-Harris administration has signed a pledge to generate 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. Vineyard Wind generates just 0.8 gigawatts. 37 times this massive wind farms will be necessary to fulfill the Biden-Harris goal, indicating the public has a vested interest in knowing about the fallout from one lone damaged blade.
Vice President Kamala Harris is set to take over for President Joe Biden as her party’s 2024 presidential nominee. She is known for her aggressive and pronounced activism on climate issues, an early supporter of the Green New Deal who has vowed at various points in her political career to ban fracking, outlaw plastic straws, change American dietary policy to reduce red meat consumption, and more.
