The Poor Babies - Massachusetts communities that bet big on wind face uncertainty
By Jennette Barnes,
Ben Berke / The Public's Radio, Miriam Wasser / WBUR
Published April 18, 2025 at 2:51 PM EDT
Vineyard Power President Richard Andre in Vineyard Haven. (Liz Lerner/CAI)Since taking office in January, President Trump has worked to fulfill a campaign promise to shut down the young offshore wind industry in the U.S. He stopped all federal permitting, and this week, his administration issued a stop-work order to a project under construction off the coast of New York.
These actions have sent a chill through the industry, and several wind developers have delayed or paused their work indefinitely.
In New England, which has some of the best conditions in the world for offshore wind, two large projects are under construction. A project completed last year off Long Island continues to generate electricity for the grid. The president’s policies are sowing uncertainty about their future.
Halting these projects would deal an especially hard blow to Massachusetts, which has made significant investments in offshore wind to create jobs, reduce climate pollution and generate power to fuel the future economy.
New England News Collaborative reporters visited three communities to find out what impact the offshore wind industry has had so far, and how they’re thinking about its future in this uncertain era.
Martha’s Vineyard
Cold rain is coming down in the island’s main port, Vineyard Haven, population 4,800.
Armed with an umbrella, local nonprofit leader Richard Andre looks out at a new pier. It was built for work boats heading out to Vineyard Wind, the first offshore wind farm to send power to Massachusetts.
Andre is president of Vineyard Power, a nonprofit that helped win local support for the wind farm.
The project has promised 90 jobs on the island. Andre says so far, about a dozen jobs have gone to island residents — a number expected to increase as wind technicians from other states “train the locals that then replace them,” Andre said.
Vineyard Wind began installing turbines 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard in 2023, and construction is ongoing. The company plans to build a total of 62 turbines, generating enough power for more than 400,000 homes.
Andre says in addition to the new jobs, Vineyard residents also benefit from the project by providing services — like the catering company that prepares meals for offshore workers. The wind farm has also brought industry to the waterfront, he says.
From the pier, it’s a short walk to the Vineyard Wind operations building, which houses a control center for the wind farm, locker rooms and warehouse space for parts.
Special zoning to protect maritime uses has kept touristy retail out of this stretch of waterfront for decades, but Andre says new maritime industry didn’t follow — until now.
“Nobody invested in the working waterfront because real estate prices are so high here,” he said. “And that's why people are pretty much excited about offshore wind, because offshore wind is now effectively the first real industry that can actually invest in here, into a working waterfront.”
Because Vineyard Wind is already under construction, Trump’s ban on permitting hasn’t so far stopped the work.
nd yet, the president’s opposition does seem to have some people keeping their heads down.
Vineyard Wind hasn’t issued a single press release since the election and declined to speak or confirm any information for this story.
The local company doing the catering didn’t want to talk, either.
Offshore wind opponents may be encouraged by the Trump administration, but here on Martha’s Vineyard, people are just carrying on — through a rainy day.
New Bedford
When the New Bedford Harbor Hotel opened six years ago, the owners were taking a risk. They launched a 70-room boutique hotel in a neighborhood with a lot of vacant stores and empty buildings.
But General Manager Kim O’Keefe says they were optimistic about offshore wind.
“We knew it was coming. We were starting to get excited, but it had been pushed off multiple times, so it was sort of like, ‘hold your breath and wait,’” O’Keefe remembers.
State officials had been talking for a long time about New Bedford becoming a hub for offshore wind construction. That finally came true in the spring of 2023, when turbines taller than skyscrapers started arriving in pieces in New Bedford. O’Keefe says the number of hotel reservations nearly doubled that season.
And the hotel gained a new clientele.
“We refer to them as the wind guys,” she said. “Sometimes I'll have a group of 30 guys kind of sitting around the lobby area because they're waiting on a helicopter to go out to sea … It's just a really fun dynamic. They are a great group.”
The wind industry has brought a new professional class to downtown New Bedford. European engineers and executives visit the hotel, as do federal employees who regulate them. Construction workers building Vineyard Wind have also taken up residence.
But O’Keefe says this flurry of visitors has slowed as Vineyard Wind gets closer to completion, and President Trump holds up permits for new offshore wind farms.
It’s unclear if New Bedford will see a second wind project any time soon.
“We're a little nervous with the current situation, so we're hoping to see it continue to grow in the right direction. It was a huge impact on New Bedford, and we want to see that continue,” O’Keefe said.
Closer to the waterfront, other businesses have gotten a boost too. Shipyards are doing more repairs, and fuel businesses are selling more fuel. But in a few months, that could all dry up, as if the offshore wind bump never happened.
Salem
Salem may be best known as the Halloween hub of Massachusetts, but many in this community north of Boston are hoping to add another superlative to the city’s reputation: home to the first pier in the state capable of staging floating wind turbines.
If all goes as planned, the Salem Offshore Wind Terminal will be built on a 42-acre plot of land adjacent to Salem Harbor, sandwiched between a large natural gas power plant and a ferry station.
Continue reading at https://www.mainepublic.org/2025-04-18/massachusetts-offshore-wind-...
************************************
Fair Use Notice: This website may reproduce or have links to copyrighted material the use of which has not been expressly authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available, without profit, as part of our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, economic, scientific, and related issues. It is our understanding that this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided by law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Views: 23
Comment
-
Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain on Sunday
-
Peter Thiel Calls for Prosecution of Corrupt NGOs
https://rumble.com/v6sbowr-peter-thiel-calls-for-prosecution-of-cor...
-
Comment by Willem Post on Saturday
-
This misinformed, selfish, person is shilling for even more, very expensive, highly subsidized, 800-ft-tall, environmentally damaging, offshore windmills, $/MW installed, that produce weather-dependent, variable/intermittent, grid-disturbing electricity, at wholesale prices of 15 c/kWh, about 2.5 times the wholesale price of gas.
Such high-cost electricity will increasingly reduce the real economic growth of all of New England for many future decades
CO2 IS AN ABSOLUTELY VITAL GAS/INGREDIENT FOR GROWING FLORA AND FAUNA; NET ZERO IS A SUICIDE PACT
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/co2-is-an-absolutely-v...
By Willem Post
.
The IPCC, etc., has dubbed CO2 as having magical global warming power, based on its own “science”
The IPCC, etc., claims, CO2 acts as Climate Control Knob, that eventually will cause runaway Climate Change, if we continue using fossil fuels.
Governments proclaimed, Go Wind and Solar, Go ENERGIEWENDE, go Net zero by 2050, etc., and provided oodles of subsidies, and rules and regulations, and mandates, and prohibitions to make it happen.
.
MAGA and burn, baby, burn, may lead to a slightly greater CO2 ppm in atmosphere, which is an absolutely essential gas/ingredient for creating: 1) increased green flora to support abundant fauna all over the world, and 2) increased crop yields to feed 8 billion people. What is not to like?
.
The slogan Net-zero by 2050 to-reduce CO2 is a super-expensive suicide pact, to increase command/control by governments, and enable the moneyed elites to get richer, at the expense of all others, by using the foghorn of the government-subsidized/controlled Corporate Media to spread scare-mongering slogans and brainwash people.
.
But, at about 30% annual W/S on the grid, various costs increase exponentially.
The weather-dependent, variable/intermittent W/S output, often too-little and often too-much output, creates operational difficulties that become increasingly more challenging and increasingly more costly/kWh to counteract, as proven by the UK and California for the past 5 years, and Germany for the past 10 years.
.
All three have “achieved” near-zero, real- growth GDPs, the highest electricity prices/kWh, and stagnant real wages for almost all people, while further enriching the elites who live in the poshest places.
.
Their angry, over-taxed, over-regulated native populations are further burdened by the elites bringing in tens of millions of uninvited, unvetted, poor, uneducated, inexperienced folks from all over; a chaotic, culture-clashing burden the native populations never voted for.
.
All that W/S money uglified the countryside, killed fisheries, tourism, viewsheds, etc.
But the climate is not any different than 30 years ago, even though, atmosphere CO2 increased from 280 ppm in 1850 to 420 ppm in 2025, 50% in 175 years.
During that time, world surface temps increased by about 1.5 C, only about 0.5 C can be attributed to CO2, with the rest from:
1) Long-term cycles, such as coming out of the Little Ice Age,
2) Earth surface changes, due to increased agriculture, deforestation, especially in the Tropics, etc.
3) Urban heat islands, such as about 700 miles from north of Portland, Maine, to south of Norfolk, Virginia, forested in 1850, now covered with heat-absorbing human detritus. Japan, China, India, Europe, etc., have similar heat islands
.
HIGH COST/kWh OF W/S SYSTEMS FOISTED ONTO A BRAINWASHED PUBLIC
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/high-cost-kwh-of-w-s-s...
By Willem Post
.
What is generally not known, the more weather-dependent W/S systems, the less efficient the other, traditional generators, as they inefficiently counteract the increasingly larger ups and downs of W/S output. See URL
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/fuel-and-co2-reduction...
.
W/S systems add great cost to the overall delivery of electricity to users; the more W/S systems, the higher the cost/kWh, as proven by the UK and Germany, with the highest electricity rates in Europe, and near-zero, real-growth GDPs
At about 30% W/S, the entire system hits an increasingly thicker concrete wall, operationally and cost wise.The UK and Germany are hitting the wall, more and more hours each day.
The cost of electricity delivered to users increased with each additional W/S/B system.
Base-load nuclear, gas and coal plants are the only rational way forward, plus the additional CO2 is very beneficial for additional flora and fauna growth and increased crop yields to feed hungry people.
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/we-are-in-a-co2-famine
.
Subsidies shift costs from project Owners to ratepayers, taxpayers, government debt:
1) Federal and state tax credits, up to 50% (Community tax credit of 10 percent – Federal tax credit of 30 percent - State tax credit and other incentives of up to 10%);
2) 5-y Accelerated Depreciation write off of the entire project;
3) Loan interest deduction
.
Utilities pay 15 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from fixedoffshore wind systems
Utilities pay 18 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from floating offshore wind
Utilities pay 12 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from larger solar systems
.
Excluded costs, at a future 30% W/S annual penetration on the grid, based on UK and German experience:
- Onshore grid expansion/reinforcement to connect distributed W/S systems, about 2 c/kWh
- A fleet of traditional power plants to quickly counteract W/S variable output, on a less than minute-by-minute basis, 24/7/365, which leads to more Btu/kWh, more CO2/kWh, more cost of about 2 c/kWh
- A fleet of traditional power plants to provide electricity during 1) low-wind periods, 2) high-wind periods, when rotors are locked in place, and 3) low solar periods during mornings, evenings, at night, snow/ice on panels, which leads to more Btu/kWh, more CO2/kWh, more cost of about 2 c/kWh
- Pay W/S system Owners for electricity they could have produced, if not curtailed, about 1 c/kWh
- Importing electricity at high prices, when W/S output is low, 1 c/kWh
- Exporting electricity at low prices, when W/S output is high, 1 c/kWh
- Disassembly on land and at sea, reprocessing and storing at hazardous waste sites, about 2 c/kWh
Some of these values exponentially increase as more W/S systems are added to the grid
.
The economic/financial insanity and environmental damage of it all is off the charts.
No wonder Europe’s near-zero, real-growth economy is in de-growth mode.That economy has been tied into knots by inane people.
YOUR tax dollars are building these projects so YOU will have much higher electric bills.
Remove YOUR tax dollars using your vote, and none of these projects would be built, and YOUR electric bills would be lower.
..
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
Not yet a member?
Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?
We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
"It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up."
Vince Lombardi
Task Force membership is free. Please sign up today!
Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
© 2025 Created by Webmaster.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine to add comments!
Join Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine