There once was a windmill from Nantucket…
Wait a second — I’d better not go down that road. Let me reapproach this.
Remember the story of Don Quixote? He was a crazy man who decided he was a gallant knight of old. In one part of the novel, Don Quixote attacks windmills because he sees them as threats — it’s where we get the idiom “tilting at windmills.”
Nowadays, the windmills are tilting back at the people who think that they’re a great option for energy. And residents of areas near these windmills are fighting mad.
“The federal government has ordered an offshore wind developer off Nantucket Island, a popular summer tourist destination in Massachusetts, to suspend operations after parts of a damaged turbine blade washed up on the beaches,” the Associated Press reported last week.
Vineyard Wind, the company responsible for the turbines offshore, has cleaned up six truckloads of debris. GE Vernova, which manufactures the turbines, is also assisting in the efforts. Local officials are considering options for dealing with the situation, including legal action.
“In response to the ongoing crisis on the island, the Nantucket Select Board will meet in executive session on Tuesday to discuss “potential litigation in connection with Vineyard Wind” regarding recovery costs associated with the blade failure, according to an online meeting notice,” reports Boston.com. Further meetings are taking place.
“Representatives from GE and Vineyard Wind will give an update at Wednesday’s regularly scheduled Select Board meeting,” continues the Boston.com report. “The engineering firm Aracadis is also expected to complete an environmental assessment soon, which they will present at the Wednesday meeting.”
An environmental assessment of the turbine pieces washing ashore determined that the most immediate danger to the public was the risk of injury from touching sharp shards of fiberglass. One can only assume that the same risk applies to marine life that may come in contact with the pieces.
“The blade materials and debris in their final product state are considered inert, non-soluble, stable, and non-toxic, akin to materials that can be found in textiles, boat construction, and the aviation industry,” the report points out. “This applies to debris that has been observed on shore and which remains submerged at this time.”
Local officials are expanding the study to determine if there are longer-term environmental effects. In the meantime, Vineyard Wind is already working on a process for financial claims.
All of this is taking place within a project that’s still under construction. “The project is still under construction. That’s just kind of ironic. It’s not even built yet. And it’s already breaking,” said commercial fishing industry activist Meghan Lapp on my friend Gabriella Hoffman’s podcast “District of Conservation.”
CFACT’s Craig Rucker points out that Nantucket isn’t the only place that has recently seen windmills break. He writes, “A GE Vernova turbine blade failed at the U.K.’s massive Dogger Bank wind installation this spring, and another broke several blades in Germany this fall.”
What’s particularly astonishing about all this is that the residents of Nantucket are mostly rich, mostly white liberals — after all, they put up with the Bidens and Obamas interloping on their island — which means that they’re advocates of this kind of “green energy.” I wonder how they feel about it now that they’re seeing the ugly side of windmills.
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